Strong Emotional and Social Growth, Can Cooing Do It?

You lock eyes with your infant and coo until you get a smile. You are rewarded with a wide grin that makes you laugh. Your child smiles even wider and coos even louder. This interplay goes on for quite some time. You are just having a moment with your baby, doing what mommas do, and creating a bond.

But did you know that you are laying a foundation for building your child’s future mental wellness? This everyday kind of interaction communicates importance and nurtures their ability to make connections with others.  

In the field of psychology, we don’t really talk about “mental health” in a very young child. Instead, we like to focus on social and emotional development. The significant relationships in this child’s early life will form and strengthen their emotional and social development.  

The researchers at zerotothree.org express it this way,

“Starting from birth, babies learn who they are by how they are treated. Loving relationships provide young children with a sense of comfort, safety, and confidence. They teach young children how to form friendships, communicate emotions and deal with challenges.”

What does social and emotional health look like in a young child?

Let’s take a peek.

When your young child shows that they can develop strong relationships with parents and other caregivers, their social development is in a progressing state. As children are more and more assured of the solidity of the relationships with parents and other significant caregivers, they have the confidence to reach out and explore the world around them. As your child grows and matures, these positive behaviors look like:

  • responding to and initiating interactions between caregivers, siblings, other adults, and peers

  • participating in cooperative and social activities

  • managing behavior and resolving conflict

  • knowing about self and others

  • showing empathy

  • developing a positive self-image and self-worth.

Your child’s emotional development flows out of their social development and receives input from it. Researchers say that the child's emotional development shows the feelings she has about herself, others, and the situations around her. Mastering toilet skills, keeping her attention on one thing at a time, and actively participating in tending to the relationships with caregivers also are indicators of a child's emotional development. (Mackrain, Golani & Kairone, 2008). 

As your child grows, they will have the opportunity to experiment with a variety of emotions and will learn how to handle them. As they manage their feelings, this process will feedback to their social development. Therefore, the relationships with caregivers, family members, and other significant people in their lives are key. 

This video shows an example of how to do this.

Why and How do You Nurture Social and Emotional Growth?

It’s “never too early to begin supporting children's social and emotional development,” say scientists at Georgetown University. The implications are far-reaching and the roots run deep.  

Your child is “hard-wired” to connect with caregivers. The changing architecture of your child’s brain depends on it. Infants can identify the voices of their caregivers and can match the tone of voice to the corresponding facial expressions. This architecture becomes more complex as the child does the “work” of cooing, interacting, and building bonds with the people in its environment. As caregivers respond to the child’s needs as the child communicates with them, the brain lays down tracks for future physical, cognitive and emotional learning. So in your back-and-forth play and communicating, you are both contributing to the child’s eventual mental wellness and growth.

Healthy physical touch and words of endearment are two easy ways to help build emotional development.

Tickles, hugs, kisses, and snuggles will reassure your child of your physical presence and love for them. Children need appropriate physical contact throughout their early development and beyond. Creating personal sweet names for your child like, “Punkin” or “Big Buddy” help your child to feel special and cultivate emotional closeness.  

As your child gets older, you can use storytime as an opportunity to talk about the array of emotions that we can have. See if your child can mimic the facial expressions and body posture of the emotions of the characters in the story. You might also paint or draw the facial expressions we have as we show different emotions.  

Though contact with other children might be limited these days, playing with other children is a wonderful way for your child to grow socially. It is better if parents allow the interactions to happen naturally between children instead of intervening as children play. Perhaps a socially-distanced outing at your local park might be an option.  

Within the home, parents can foster relational development between siblings and between all caregivers. Parents can be available as children play to monitor interactions while allowing children to work out most disagreements on their own. You will be helping to stem any sibling rivalry and help your children to build strong bonds with one another.

Let the fun continue!

So, linger. Laugh a while. Do the cooing cha cha. Your child’s brain is lighting up. You are laying a solid foundation for their future healthy handling of emotions. 


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Postpartum Depression: What is it and how to move forward?