Life in affective reality: Identification and classification of smiling in early childhood

Abstract

The present study investigated the development of naturally occurring smiles in infancy and early childhood. Twelve to 35-month-old Japanese children (N = 22) were videotaped during free play time in nurseries. Participants expressed 417 smiles in over 10.5-hours of recording. A 11 category taxonomy was developed to classify the obtained smiles. The skills of language use were measured using utterance data produced by the target children while they were videotaped. One-year-olds showed more "transferring smiles" than two-year-olds. Whereas more "synchronous smiles" and "unsuccessful smiles" were observed in two-year-olds. "Unsuccessful smiles" were made by children who obtain higher language skills. This study established that the situations of smiles changed from solitary to social by children's age and language skills. Two-year-olds smile not only in pleasant conditions, but also in unpleasant ones. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.