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Your Baby Becoming a Social Butterfly
At this age, your baby is a much more active participant, and even initiator, of interpersonal relationships with those around him. He can recognize and distinguish between the people who care for him, and begins to react specifically to each one, through laughter and other forms of communication.
Family and Friends versus Strangers
By about five months of age, your baby may stop smiling at unfamiliar faces. He may gaze at someone new quite seriously for a second, as if studying his or her features, and then burst out crying. The smile is now reserved for those he knows. These are the first signs of stranger anxiety. He is also now aware of how his actions cause reactions and, for example, expects you to smile back at him.
Exploring and Gaining Control
Baby begins to touch your face, exploring facial features, pulling hair, or sticking his fingers in your mouth – or his own. Through these actions he learns to distinguish between different sensations. Now that he can control his head movement he can regulate the degree of stimulation that he accepts. For instance, he will turn his head away when he becomes bored or if the stimulation is too intense.
- Smiles with enjoyment at social interactions and familiar people.
- Becomes suspicious of strangers (at approximately 5 months).
- Basic feelings begin to manifest themselves such as happiness, anger, dislike, sadness and surprise.
- Starts to regulate feelings, moving her head away or towards stimuli.
- When you try to calm your baby you are also teaching her ways to calm herself.
- Let your baby lead the way. When she initiates communication, repeat the sounds she makes, and show interest in the toy she is playing with. This will help develop the baby’s self-awareness and confidence.
- Answering your baby’s unique needs is not spoiling. It is the cornerstone of her emotional development.
- Encourage your baby to experiment with new things. This communicates confidence in her abilities. Be verbal, even though the baby does not yet understand words. Express the feelings that she may be experiencing, by saying out loud, “You are frustrated because you wanted to get to that toy and it was hard,” or “You are so happy now playing with Mommy.” The baby is attentive to your tone, which reflects her feelings as she gradually gets to know herself better
