Nursery World - Face values (1)

It's not just adults who are interested in appearances - but they may mean something quite different for a very young child. Penny Tassoni takes a look Picture the scene - a crowded public place, and suddenly a young voice pipes up, 'Why is that man wearing a dress?' Such moments are common and while they provide a source of amusing anecdotes, they also reveal the way in which children are beginning to think about appearance.

Picture the scene - a crowded public place, and suddenly a young voice pipes up, 'Why is that man wearing a dress?' Such moments are common and while they provide a source of amusing anecdotes, they also reveal the way in which children are beginning to think about appearance.

To understand this type of innocent question involves looking at the journey on which children are learning about appearances. This begins very early on in life and starts with the human face.

Babies quickly learn to recognise faces. Research suggests that babies of only one or two days old can already distinguish between their mother's face and that of a similar-looking stranger. This ability to recognise and differentiate between faces is thought to be instinctive, and recent developments in neuroscience have shown doctors which part of the brain is responsible for face recognition.

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