5 Ways Play Boosts Trust and Empathy

"Play first stirs in the mutual, musical back-and-forth cooing of mother and infant. This proto-play practices attunement. Before we learn to talk, we learn to chortle and gurgle and babble and hum along. Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson noted that this pleasurable and surprising dialog "negotiates the first interpersonal encounters, the light of the eyes, the features of the face, and the sound of the name [as they each] become essential ingredients of a first recognition by the primal other.""

"Just before toddlerhood, we reach a second milestone of understanding and empathy after having begun to differentiate ourselves from those others who inhabit a realm outside our own sensations and perceptions. As if our young selves were budding logicians, developmental psychologists colorfully call our routine and remarkable breakthrough a " theory of mind." Playing a simple game reveals this profound new discovery."

"Somewhere before we turn 2 years old, we begin to discover that we can sing. As it happens, we may be recapitulating our species' history, individually. Tonally rich and rhythmically complex sounds persist in the ancient, tuneful, tribal "click languages" that so vex English speakers. These vocalizations may be a distant relic. Over its long, evolutionary childhood, humankind may well have learned to sing and whistle and imitate sharp nature sounds even before we could talk."

Play begins with mutual, musical back-and-forth cooing between caregiver and infant, practicing attunement and early social connection. Infants learn to chortle, gurgle, babble, and hum, developing a pleasurable dialog that negotiates interpersonal recognition through eye contact, facial features, and names. Near toddlerhood, children differentiate themselves and other minds, achieving a basic theory of mind revealed through simple games and reciprocal gestures. Before age two, children discover singing, echoing ancient human vocal traditions with tonal and rhythmic complexity. Early songs and calls shape social bonding, communication skills, and the evolutionary roots of vocal expression.

Read at Psychology Today