A look that reveals!

One of my interests in photography is  to capture children's face when they are not conscious of being photographed. It is one way, I have been trying to understand the 'look' of children. The look conveys a lot, about the emotional, social and intellectual dimensions of a child.

In the photo of this child, the eyes are alert and gazing at something. The lips are tightly closed and the head is tilted to one side.There is an intense processing of what she  is watching. She is gauging the sight and planning her response. Such a volitional engagement is a sign of an emotionally active child.

It is from an emotional gauging a child conveys a social response. It is difficult to anticipate her considered social response from her look, although it is apparent that she appears comfortable and composed. Most toddlers, who have stable social environment, can sense intimidation, threat or harm. They are equally perceptive of warmth, friendship and cordiality.

Both the emotional and social responses emerge form the intellectual competence of the toddler. When a child can stay focussed on any particular event in the environment for a few seconds, is often advanced in higher order skills of comprehension, processing and association. Such children have an advantage of storing previous informations in their memory and depend on them to interpret new situations later. The visual and auditory perception contribute significantly to the intellectual interpretation. Often past experiences influence this processing.

It is for the above reason, communication with infants and toddlers require a pattern. Parents are under obligation to describe what they would anticipate when they take the child for shopping or a visitor drops into the house. A child needs briefing of situations as much as possible.He or she copes better, when he or she is pre-informed. I know of parents showing the photos of visitors expected for the evening meal or the mall they are to visit in the evening. There is a need for debriefing after the events are over to complement the child for every good behaviour and instruction about behaviours which would need change.  Most children are amenable to gentle correction and reinforcement of  what was desirable.

A toddler looks at his or her environment based on the information provided by parents. Parents can educate children for their emotional, social and intellectual integration.

M.C.Mathew(photo and text)