Social-Emotional Development Newborn babies look about with a glassy gaze at a brand new world. Early on babies show a preference for looking at human faces. The baby is learning to recognize familiar faces and is eager to greet them. A baby knows when parents leave the room, and now the baby will more actively seek them when they are not present. Becoming wary of unfamiliar people, or of friends and relatives who are not often seen, typically begins around 8 to 10 months of age.
Babies become excited by the disappearance and reassuring reappearance of a familiar face.
As parents and other important caregivers come and go throughout the day, it becomes particularly important to let your baby know when you are going out and that you will come back soon. You can hide a small toy under a cloth and watch your baby gleefully snatch back the cloth to discover the hidden treasure. At around 1 year of age, a baby will enjoy games that are reciprocal, such as rolling a ball back and forth with a partner. Babies enjoy pointing to objects of interest and focusing their parents' attention on an item of interest to them. Language Speech and language development in the first year of life typically follows an orderly progression from grunting and sucking sounds in the newborn to the emergence of a first word at 1 year of age.