Savvy Auntie Staff Writer

Don’t you just love tickling a little baby niece or nephew? They smile. They giggle. They kick their little feet for more.

And there’s Auntie, all aglow, believing she’s made her little niece or nephew smile and giggle and kick out her or his tiny little feet for more. Alas, if only babies knew to give you the credit for that.

According to new findings from researchers at the University of London, babies have no idea that someone is tickling them, they just feel tickled. They are not yet able to make a connection between their senses and what’s going on outside of themselves creating the sense of touch or tickle. "Our argument,” says researcher Andrew Bremner, “is that for young babies, touches are just perceived as touches on the body; they're not perceived as being related to what they are seeing or hearing, or perhaps even smelling.

That’s not to say you should stop tickling a baby niece or nephew. Babies need human touch as part of their development. You just will have to wait until they are at least six months old to know that when they’re smiling when you tickle them, they are smiling at you.

Photo: Christin Lola
Published: November 4, 2015