Question of moms and dads: "When will the child smile?"

The smile of a small child is always a small celebration for his mom, dad, grandfathers and grandmothers. And what can we say about the first smile - it's like a gift from heaven, a reward for sleepless nights and hard parental labor. When will the child smile? Why does not he do it, while the neighbor babe of the same age gives everyone a smile? Many young parents are asking these questions. We will try to answer them in our article.

The smile of a child is not only a pleasant event in the life of the family, but also an indicator of normal mental, physical and mental development, the beginning of the child's socialization. Therefore, the moment when the child starts to smile consciously, a kind of next step in the long road of his development.

"My child started to smile back in the hospital!" Many mothers say. Do not take their words to heart. What they call a smile is just a grimace, an unconscious contraction of certain muscles that looks like a smile.

Responding to worried parents about the appearance of the first conscious smile in a baby, the pediatrician will name them an age of 1.5-2 months. This smile is addressed, as a rule, to the mother (or to the person who replaces it). Here a lot depends on the environment of the crumbs: if from the very first days near the baby the caring parents who keep in touch with him often take up their hands, support visual and voice contact, he will start smiling as early as 6 weeks. If the child receives less attention, it will only happen to two months or a little later. So do not be discouraged if your child does not smile in a month, there's nothing wrong with that. You just need to wait.

When the child begins to smile, you can talk about the formation of his so-called complex of animation. This is the emotional-motor reaction of the baby in response to the emergence or appeal to him of an adult. This complex begins its formation at the age of three weeks from birth: the child freezes and looks with concentration when an adult's conversation is addressed to him. Later, by two months, this reaction develops into a smile, walking and motor activity when communicating with an adult. The peak of the revival complex is four months old. Later, laughter appears, but the smile gets less and less often to strangers, even if they are affectionately talking to the baby, often he will even cry in such cases.

By the way, how many months the child smiles, you can to some extent judge the atmosphere in the family, the attitude of his mother to her, her emotional state. Even if you think that the child does not understand anything, talk to him, so you accelerate his speech and psycho-emotional development: he will start to walk, smile.

Experts argue that boys are less likely to look into their eyes and later start to smile than their girls of the same age. Therefore, if your son is growing, give more time to communicate with him.

The period when the child starts to smile can become decisive in the development of his relationship with his father. The baby begins to send signals, and if the father responds to him with facial expressions and a voice, a special emotional connection will be established between them, even if previously there was none.

The day your child begins to smile will be the beginning of a long, but interesting process in his life - socialization.