Before they can speak, babies make friends: study

SYDNEY: Babies still too small to speak know how to make jokes and form friendships, say researchers at an Australian university who have spent two years filming the behaviour of young children.

Academics at Charles Sturt University are studying how children interact with other infants while in childcare using footage obtained from tiny cameras strapped to their heads.

The study affords a "baby's eye view" of the world in which even simple objects such as spoons appear oversized, said Jennifer Sumsion, foundation professor of early childhood at the university.

But it also shows that children aged from six months to 18 months use sophisticated but subtle non-verbal means to make friends and make each other laugh.

Sumsion said babies interacted with each other by making eye contact and with hand gestures and humour.

They used "little social games that you wouldn't necessarily see unless you were looking very closely", she said. (AFP)