ABSTRACT
Humans are social beings. Even as newborns, they have the neurological system to selectively attend to the social responses of people around them and to engage in behaviours that illicit social responses from others (McEvoy and Odom, 1996). Initially, the behaviours in infants that generate social responses are not consciously purposeful-i.e. infants do not engage in such behaviours as crying and fussing for the purpose of getting a social response. They cry or fuss because they are uncomfortable, hungry or feeling distressed. Such behaviours, however, do tend to elicit social responses from others, usually in the form of positive attention, food and/or other sources of comfort.
