Mirror emotion practice
0–6 monthsEmotional WellbeingMaterials: Mirror
Hold your child in front of a mirror during a calm moment. Make gentle facial expressions and wait for them to respond. Try a smile, then a surprised face, then back to calm. This helps them see emotions change and return to baseline. Name the emotions simply like happy or surprised. This early emotion recognition supports their developing ability to understand and regulate feelings.
Part of the Imprint developmental journey — personalized to your child.
How to Do This Activity
Hold your child in front of a mirror during a calm moment. Make gentle facial expressions and wait for them to respond. Try a smile, then a surprised face, then back to calm. This helps them see emotions change and return to baseline. Name the emotions simply like happy or surprised. This early emotion recognition supports their developing ability to understand and regulate feelings.
Why It Works
Recognizing and experiencing different emotions in a safe context builds emotional regulation skills. When children see emotions change and resolve, they begin to understand that feelings are temporary and manageable. This supports the development of resilience through emotional awareness and regulation. Research demonstrates that children with higher emotional resilience show significantly better outcomes, with early emotional regulation predicting later adaptive functioning (Liew et al., 2008). The responsive interaction and emotion modeling during this activity create neural pathways for understanding and managing emotional states.
Tips for Parents
Keep expressions gentle and changes slow. Big dramatic faces may startle young infants.
Watch their reaction. If they seem uncertain, return to smiling right away.
Do this when they are content, not when they are upset or tired.
Materials Needed
Mirror
Learning Methods
Responsive InteractionMovement-Based Learning
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