Mum not the only word in baby universe

Mum not the only word in baby universe
Agence France Presse

MAR 30: Babies are capable of sophisticated communication among themselves when left to their own devices, according to a ground-breaking Australian study.

And they may not necessarily focus solely upon their mothers as the centre of the universe, researchers at Charles Sturt University have found.

Toe-pulling, touching and even "talking" demonstrate an ability to empathise and even conspire to have fun while mum's back is turned.

A study headed by Professor Benjamin Bradley and clinical psychologist Dr Jane Selby involved leaving 35 groups of three unacquainted babies together in specially-designed strollers that allowed each trio to touch and interact.

Adults, including mothers, would then quietly leave them to their own devices for 15 minute periods.

"It's not right simply to concentrate on the mother and baby. Babies are eminently well adjusted for being with other babies," Bradley said.

Bradley said observers noted that when one baby saw her mother leave the room, she reached for her toe as a coping mechanism.

After a while, another baby grabbed her own toe.

"We think it was playful, as if she were saying 'we can hold toes together'," Bradley said.

Fellow researcher Selby told AFP that not only could babies conspire during these opportunities to have fun, but they demonstrated sophisticated abilities to socialise within a group much earlier than previously thought.

The babies observed by the Charles Sturt Research team were mainly aged between six and eight months, Selby said.

"Nobody has ever done anything like this before," she said. "We found that a baby can relate to more than one person at a time."

Previous developmental psychology theories and studies have focused on the primacy of the mother in a baby's world view, and children's ability to communicate and function in a group as separate fields of study, Selby said.

The team's findings suggested there was significantly more to a child's early stage development as a social being in the first year of life than the traditional belief in the pre-eminence of "Madonna-child" influences.

And while babies tend to focus the bulk of their attention on their mother when it came to meeting needs, "it's not the whole story," Selby said.

For instance, researchers noted that one little girl would often be `talking' or communicating with another very active, sociable boy, but would simultaneously demonstrate awareness and possibly concern for, the third, quieter member of the trio by trying to touch him.

Such behaviour would often last throughout the 15 minute observation periods, with the babies interacting and amusing each other without crying.

Bradley said the example of one child grabbing a toe out of empathy for another demonstrated a social awareness "quite as sophisticated and as meaningful as an adult one".

The study was completed a week ago, and Bradley presented its initial findings at a conference in Brisbane.