Why do researchers study whether infants recognize themselves in a mirror?

: Mirrors are a creative way to use imitation to teach things like vocabulary, gestures, and other emotional expressions. 

Why Babies Love Mirrors

One of the reasons babies love mirrors is because they love faces. That’s why your infant gazes at you and enjoys books like this one, featuring (you guessed it) faces.

Your baby enjoys interacting with the “other baby” she sees in the mirror. She has no idea that the baby looking back at her is actually a reflection of herself. She may carry on babbling, talking, and laughing with this mystery child. Then, when she’s about 20 months old, it begins to dawn on her on that the reflection in the mirror belongs to her.

Mirrors are also fun because the light, shadows, and movement reflected are captivating when you’re infinitely curious about the world.

How Mirrors Support Development

Mirrors spark curiosity and motivate little ones to learn and practice skills. Let’s take a look at several areas of development where mirrors can play a supporting role:

Tummy Time

During tummy time, a mirror can motivate your baby to lift her head, keep it up, and look around. For babies who cry in protest every time they’re placed belly-down, propping a safe mirror in front of her (more on mirror safety below) may catch and hold her interest for tear-free tummy time.

Vision

Mirrors support visual tracking as your baby watches the reflections of moving things. It could be her own body movements, the family pet walking through the room, or you sitting beside her playing mirror games.

Fine Motor Skills

Mirrors inspire babies to reach, pat, and point. When they’re able to grasp objects, playing with a hand-held mirror supports hand and finger fine-motor skills as they hold and move the mirror to capture different views of their surroundings.

Hand-Eye Coordination

All that reaching, patting, and pointing also strengthens your baby’s hand-eye coordination.

Gross Motor Movement 

Mirrors can encourage babies to roll, sit up, crawl, stand, etc. simply because they want to get closer to the reflection.

Attention Span

Mirrors tend to catch and hold your baby’s gaze. The longer she focuses on something, the more her attention span grows.

Sense of Self

As we mentioned, around age 20 months it will dawn on your little one that the child looking back at her in the mirror is actually herself. To test this out, try the trick researchers use: Dab something on her face (like child-safe paint) and see how she reacts. If she touches the mirror, she thinks her reflection is another baby; if she touches her own face she realizes the reflection is her own.

Language & Emotional Skills

Mirrors are a creative way to use imitation to teach vocabulary, gestures, and emotional concepts.

How to Choose Safe Mirrors for Your Child

For solo play, choose plastic mirrors with fabric-covered edges. For younger infants, you can prop these up in front of them during tummy time, and older babies can pick them up and move them around.

Large mirrors at floor level (or next to the changing table) are great; just be sure they’re securely attached to the wall.

When purchasing mirrors for the crib or car, be sure they’re designed for the purpose and can be securely attached.

Lastly, to play supervised mirror games with your child, use any mirror that fits both reflections and prop it anywhere that’s convenient, and store it out of reach when not in use.

It sure seems like a baby’s love affair with their reflection starts right away, doesn’t it? From early in the first year, most babies smile, babble, and laugh at their chubby little faces reflected back at them. In fact, it’s one of their favorite activities – so much so that the car seat mirror has become a must-have.

But in fact, it’s not until about 18 months that most babies really recognize that it is their own bodies they see in the mirror. Until then, drooling, dancing, and pressing their heads into the glass is more like a social activity – they enjoy the company of that other little person looking back at them, but haven’t connected it to themselves. Before the toddler years, the mirror probably gets such a good laugh because babies love faces, and one of their favorite pastimes is staring at our features.

A baby begins to develop self-awareness

Sometime between 15 and 24 months, children take a large step in self-awareness. In an experiment known as the “rouge test,” mothers wiped a bit of rouge on the noses of their children and placed them in front of a mirror.

Why do researchers study whether infants recognize themselves in a mirror?
CREDIT: SHOT BY IRELAND / UNSPLASH

Before 15 months, children look at the reflection and see a red spot on the nose in the mirror, but they don’t realize that the red spot is on their own nose. When children are between 15 and 24 months, they begin to realize that the reflection they see is their own, and they either point to the red nose or try to wipe away the rouge.

In other words, they understand that the reflection in the mirror is more than a familiar face–it is their own face. At this time, children are learning that they are different from other people and becoming more aware that others may have beliefs, desires, and feelings that differ from their own. Research has shown that once young children reach this level of self-awareness, new emotions like embarrassment, envy, and empathy emerge.

It surprises most parents to learn that mirror recognition takes so long to develop, but it actually involves a very advanced set of cognitive skills. Becoming self-aware goes hand-in-hand with consciousness (one of our most sophisticated and, arguably, uniquely human qualities). In order to really wrap their heads around the concept, babies need to know that they are separate physical beings, with their own thoughts and feelings.

Do you think your toddler has figured out that she is seeing her own reflection? Go ahead, try it at home! Don’t forget to follow A Matter Of Style on Instagram for more great decorating ideas for kids and babies and take a look at our new selection of kids and baby mirrors to help your baby’s development.

Why is mirror play important for infants?

Learning and Growing Through Mirror Play It helps develop their visual senses, most obviously. You can also use a mirror during tummy time to keep your baby entertained and give them more time to develop their muscles and physical abilities. And playing with a mirror can help them develop language skills.

What are infants learning when they observe themselves in the mirror?

By gazing at themselves and their loved ones in a mirror, your infant can learn to identify familiar faces, track movements and even develop her tiny muscles as she reaches and rolls toward her reflection.

How does a researcher use the mirror test to indicate children have self

The development of self-recognition has been studied mainly by examining infants' responses to their reflections in mirrors. The definitive test is whether or not the infant is capable of using the reflection to notice and respond to a mark on the face or head by touching the mark.

Are infants are able to recognize themselves in a mirror from birth?

Recognizing their own reflection isn't something that babies can do until around 18 months of age.