The Importance Of Your Face For Your Child’s Emotional Development
Your face matters more than you realize—yes, yours. Your child learns an incredible amount just by looking at your face and the faces around them. We aren’t born with the innate ability to empathize, communicate, or understand social cues. Instead, we develop these skills through experience, and mirror neurons play a crucial role in this process.
Located in specific regions of the brain, mirror neurons help us interpret the actions of others and imitate what we see, strengthening social connections and deepening our ability to empathize. These pathways activate not only when we perform an action but also when we observe or even imagine doing it. That’s why watching someone laugh can spark joy in us—our brain responds as if we were laughing too, thanks to these remarkable neurons.
To maximize social development and get these mirror neurons firing more everyday in your kids give these a try:
Encourage face-to-face play and interactions-put down those screens
Be engaged and don’t be afraid to show your emotions
Help them practice emotional reflection (see All Those Emotions post)
Teach empathy through story telling-discuss different emotions of characters and how something might make them feel
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Disclaimer: This blog isn’t connected to my role as a physician, and nothing here should be considered medical advice.