Emotional Development

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The first year of life is an amazing time of growth and change, both physically and mentally. Babies experiment with and learn from the environment around them. Beyond physical, thinking, and language tasks, babies are learning about their social and emotional worlds. This section addresses how babies learn not only to express their emotions, but also how to understand other people’s feelings. Early research led experts to believe that emotions are learned through human interaction, but newer research suggests that some emotions are naturally occurring and instinctual from birth.