Mum Mum's Blog Report: 3 Month Old Infants are Sensitive to Emotional Cues Referring to Objects in the World; US News and World Report Finds 8 Smart Ways to Afford a Baby; Humor Shown to Be Fundamental to Our Success as a Species

3 Month Old Infants are Sensitive to Emotional Cues Referring to Objects in the World

Babies may smile back at you when you giving them a loving smile, but there may be a lot more going on inside their heads than previously thought.  The post explains a new study found that babies use social cues to discover the world around them at a much earlier age.

Social referencing, the ability to use social cues to guide one’s own behavior, was previously thought to only occur in infants at about 12 months of age.  Three month old babies viewed images of adults viewing objects with either a neutral or fearful look on their face.   Upon measurement of the babies’ brain activity, when the adults showed fear the baby’s attention to the object was heightened.

US News and World Report Finds 8 Smart Ways to Afford a Baby
Having a baby takes a lot of preparation; with financial prep being one of the foremost reasons couples postpone parenthood.   More and more couples are waiting until an ideal of financial stability is reached before even thinking of having a baby.  Mum Mum’s highlights a recent article touting 8 ways to afford a baby.

A recent article from US News and World Report attempts to dispel financial excuses given by most couples.  The economy is sinking yet the cost of having a baby is on the rise, leaving couples in a tough situation.  In fact, the Department of Agriculture estimates the cost of having a child is about $11,000 per child per year.  Earlier decades viewed having a baby as a means of entering adulthood, yet women now want to feel grown up before giving birth.  Some of the clever ways to financially plan for baby are to spend wisely, make tradeoffs, practice budgeting, and just take the plunge.

Humor Shown to Be Fundamental to Our Success as a Species
There is nothing like laughter to lighten any mood, especially the giggle of your baby.  Mum Mum’s explains that a new theory may provide a scientific explanation for a sense of humor and how it relates to baby development.

Recently published by Alastair Clarke, the Pattern Recognition Theory of Humor explains why we find things funny, how humor is common in all human societies, and how laughter has been crucial to human evolution by being a key component of babies’ cognitive development. Clarke suggests humor is simply a pattern, much like language, that surprises our brains eliciting laughter.  Since what one finds funny varies greatly from person to person, Clarke explains that humor is a series of patterns providing insight into an infant’s language development.