Your Baby’s First Game!
Why the smiley face?
If you have a baby younger than 4 months old, we suggest that you print the smiley face and use it to stimulate your baby’s brain development, particularly when he is between 6 and 14 weeks of age.
All you need to do is to hold the image about 25 cm away from his eyes and let him focus on it. He will most likely be absolutely mesmerized by the face.
The truth of the matter is that a child of this age is biologically ‘programmemed’ to pay extra special attention to faces and researchers have found that a face with these particular features is most popular.
Move the image from side to side to see how your baby follows the movement with his eyes. You’ll notice that he acts as if he has no choice in the matter. You can also position the smiley face on its side in your child’s crib so that he can stare at it while lying on his side. Observe how he smiles at the picture. Some babies even vocalize and ‘talk’ to the face. It’s quite cute to see!
The reason why your child responds to the smiley face with such enthusiasm is because this face is literally ‘the right thing at the right time’ for a baby of this age.