How Self-Awareness Starts

"The neurobiological and psychological triggers for self-awareness have not yet been clarified. What we do know is that its development occurs at around 1-3 years of age. The child begins to know her own name and refer to herself by name. The child will begin to look in the mirror and realize she is looking at herself. She will also make clearer her own likes and dislikes, needs, and wishes."

"As the well-known infant researcher Daniel Stern notes, at about 18 months, children begin to show evidence of self-awareness. The evidence includes infants' behavior in front of a mirror, their use of verbal labels for self, and empathic acts (See The Interpersonal World of the Infant, 1985). There are a variety of ways in which children give evidence of increased self-awareness. They begin to use personal pronouns- I, me, mine -to refer to themselves. They may begin to use proper names, including their own."

Self-awareness typically appears between one and three years, often near eighteen months, and develops alongside mobility and language skills. Children begin to recognize themselves by name, use personal pronouns, and display mirror self-recognition. Early self-awareness brings clearer expressions of likes, dislikes, needs, and wishes and enables empathic acts that reflect an understanding of being perceived by others. The precise neurobiological and psychological triggers remain unclear, but observable behaviors such as naming, pronoun use, mirror responses, and empathy serve as reliable indicators of emerging self-concept during the toddler transition. These changes reshape social interactions and self-other understanding.

Read at Psychology Today