Between six and twelve months baby will start to enjoy making new and different sounds and will display their feelings in crying/laughing/squealing.
Between the ages of 0-3 months children react to certain sounds with startle (moro reflex). Children begin to react to sounds which are close by, by the age of 2-4 months children will begin to develop distance hearing. Children are then awakened by loud noises, sounds and voices. Towards the end of the third month a baby is able to recognise there mother's voice and will stop crying in order to listen to to voices and there own sounds. Babies are unable to control there motor movements, therefore most of there actions are reflexes. One of the most important reflexes for there speech development is the rhythmic suck-swallow pattern. Babies of this age are now able to move in response to voices and are able to express there feelings by cooing and gurgling.
The most frequent activity an infant does is cry and babble. Crying is almost an automatic thing when it comes to infants, you really have to be able to understand the reason in which they are crying for and act on it.
On average, babies cry a total of two to three hours a day, according to mayoclinic.org.
Within their first month babies development changes dramatically. They have usually developed into a pattern with most of their time sleeping but starting to spend more time awake. They will cry to communicate their needs with their parents starting to understand the different types of cry indicating the different needs. A baby will starting to recognise the parents or carers voices and may calm when they hear this and will be noticeably trying to focus on the face of the person who is holding them and are able to focus at a range of 20 – 25cm.
The most frequent activity an infant does is cry and babble. Crying is almost an automatic thing when it comes to infants, you really have to be able to understand the reason in which they are crying for and act on it.
Colic babies will has intense stretches of crying. It is more common for this to occur in the late afternoon or evening. Babies with colic usually look as though they are in a great deal of distress and pain, signs such as red faces, clenched fists and arched back while crying can all be symptoms. It is important to watch that they are still eating normally and gaining weight. Colic babies will often look otherwise healthy.
From babbling and cooing for a few weeks the baby will start to sound like they are saying words which sound close to real words. They will start to experiment on different sounds such as expressing emotions e.g. squeals of excitement. They will also start using sounds such as ‘ma-ma-ma’ even though they don’t understand but they just want their mother.
Crying is the main way babies communicate at 0-3 months. They will cry to express how they feel for example this could be when they are feeling hungry or when they want attention.
Whether or not babies communicate these sounds as a reflex to what they are feeling or for their needs is not known, but the studies have shown that when an adult reacts and fulfils the babies
I like how you pointed out that a baby's smile is "one of the few cues" that he or she has to communicate. That's true! In addition to smiling, they can also cry.
As an infant develops, nonverbal expressions begin to characterize their true emotional experiences. Keeping in mind that
Often times we look at movement to represent a sign of life and intelligence. Movement and independence of speech however are not the only signs that someone is responding or learning. Subconsciously we know this as we naturally and drastically change our tone of voice and movements become more dramatic when we are working with a child. This is a way for us to both teach and communicate with our deepest instincts. Instincts in many cases that we have learned from listening in the womb and reacting based on our mother reactions at the time. Thus infants may be frightened by loud noises if their mother was or they may not be bothered at all by it. Through this infants learn tone and voice as it relates to emotions. A higher tone or laugher being related to joy and likewise a deeper and or loud tone as it relates to anger.
Babies have little precious moments that are emotionally touching to me compared to toddlers or kids, like being able to grab just one of my fingers with their whole hand, giggling, laughing, and talking back to me.Witnessing a baby’s first everything--solid food, words, steps; it’s amazing to see their growth into their start of childhood.
This is the most common reason for a baby to cry. Although your baby has a very small tummy but as they poop often, it gets empty and your baby feels hungry again. So try offering your baby some milk when he/she cries; it might be due to an empty stomach.