Baby Smile

Try to get a baby to smile? It can seem close to impossible - and then suddenly there it is that elusive, [seemingly:teasingly] joyous grin. Well, it turns out those smiles aren't spontaneous - they're strategic. Researchers have found that when babies smile, it's for a reason. They want whoever they're interacting with - typically a parent - to smile back. And they time it just so, a smile here and a smile there. The researchers call it [sophisticated:shaded] timing. The study is in the journal PLoS ONE. The researchers enlisted real mothers and infants and quantified their interactions, which fell into four categories. One: babies wanted to maximize the amount of time smiling at their mothers. Two: they wanted to [maximize:magnify] the time the mothers smiled at them. Three: they wanted to [experience:extend] simultaneous [smiling:laughing] , and four: no smiling at all.