ABSTRACT
The capacity to understand other people's feelings and be empathic with them develops throughout this period. Babies convey to other people that they are trying to understand what that person is thinking and feeling. Babies quickly build up expectations about how adults act, and they recognize patterns in what other people do. Babies need to know they are in their parents mind. For their minds to grow to the fullest potential, they need their parents to relate to them with understanding and pleasure. The language of the eyes can be seen in babies from the earliest weeks, and the mother's gaze seems to hold a baby together more than feeling the nipple in the mouth. Identification is a developmental process that helps build up the sense of self. Perhaps because babies of about 6 months of age have more awareness of their sense of self, they can differentiate at this age the gender of another baby.
