Social Smiles of Visually Impaired Infants

Abstract

Social smiles of 10 visually impaired infants, ages 4 to 12 months, were examined longitudinally in play interactions with their mothers. Characteristics examined included the cognitive skills of the infants when the social smile was first seen, the parental behaviors that elicited and followed social smiles, and the frequency of social smiles in play interactions across the first year of life.

All infants demonstrated both the presence of social smiles and the second Piagetian stage of cognitive development at the start of the study. Social smiling appeared to increase in frequency from 6 to 12 months except for a drop at 8 months. Smiles occurred in response to social and environmental events and were consistently followed by another parental social behavior.