Looking into mom’s eyes and face teaches facial recognition and expressions of emotions and is primarily how the child learns in the first few months of life. Additionally, infants tend to show a preference to viewing faces with open eyes rather than closed eyes, thus stressing the importance of the mother or caregiver’s gaze.
Some health benefits to gazing into the mother’s eyes is a lower incidence of autism, or spectrum disorders, better social skills, higher learning capacity, and emotional groundedness.
The beauty of a mother’s gaze is that the child can feel the emotions of love, security, safety, and overall well being by connecting with her through eye to eye contact. This sets the stage for the future development of social skills, visual recognition of people, and their readiness for social interaction in the world.
A big thank you to science and mothers for proving what we already know, that the values in life can be taught to a child “through a mothers eyes” setting the course of proper interaction for life skills and relationships.
References:
1. Kate Yandell, Proceedings of the Royal Society B ,04/10/2013.
2. Maxson J.McDowell, Biological Theory, MIT Press, 05/04/2011.
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