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Mirror magic

Why mirrors are great for baby's development.

Holly Bennett,

Originally published in Today's Parent November 2006

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Five-month-old Benjamin could hardly be having more fun. He’s in his Jolly Jumper, which he loves, and his parents have put a full-length mirror in front of him. “He just squeals with delight and talks to this other baby!” says his mom, Tami Gee.

Cindy Brandon, an early childhood education professor at Toronto’s Centennial College, isn’t surprised. She’s a big fan of mirrors herself.

“I used to work as a child life specialist in community hospitals. I didn’t have much of a budget, but I made sure that all the cribs had Plexiglas mirrors attached to them.” In daycare settings too, she says, “we try to have Plexiglas mirrors down at the children’s height so they can crawl over.”

Why are mirrors so great for babies?

“They are inexpensive and fun,” says Brandon. “Babies are very attracted to faces.” For an inanimate object, mirrors are also remarkably interactive, she points out: “The baby moves, and the baby in the mirror moves too. It’s like there is somebody there that they can pat and smile at, and they’re smiling back.”

That interactive aspect is one of the reasons why Brandon feels that mirrors both encourage and provide an interesting window into babies’ development.

“I think mirrors enhance social and emotional development. They appeal to that sense of curiosity in children, to look and touch. And then, as they get older, that sense of self-discovery, the self-recognition: Hey, that’s me!”

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