Why do babies
keep handing
things to Mom?

The full narration of the video.

Your baby pushes a half-eaten biscuit into your hand. You've barely taken it when a block arrives, then a sock. What is this little one up to? Fifty years ago, an American psychologist nearly seventy years old got hooked on the very same puzzle. Her name was Harriet Rheingold. Back then, many people thought children this small only cared about themselves and couldn't share. She wanted to see for herself.

She set out some toys in her lab, invited children in with their parents, and took notes from the side. The kids never stopped: they picked up a toy and held it up to Mom's eyes, grabbed another and put it in Dad's hand. Swap in a stranger they'd never met — they still handed things over. Swap in brand-new toys — still handing.

In 1976, she and her colleagues finished watching 111 children aged eighteen months and under, and wrote it down: at this age, sharing is what children do. But when a baby hands you something, what does he want you to do? Later researchers pointed their cameras at even younger babies. Researchers in Britain visited babies once a month. Around seven months, a rough version of handing things over appears. After nine months, it looks more and more like the real thing.

In another study, parents kept diaries — and some babies tried to push food into the grown-ups' mouths. Look closely: there are two moves. One is showing: held up to your eyes, but not let go. The other is giving: put right into your hand. Researchers think both moves say the same thing: Look at this! I saw it, and I want you to see it too.

At the University of Manchester, researchers filmed twenty-four ten-month-olds playing with adults. The babies who often handed and held up things pointed with a finger more often by their first birthday. A study in the US followed forty-seven babies. Those who handed and showed more at ten months talked better at eighteen months. The two just go together — handing more doesn't make a baby smarter. So when your baby pushes things at you, he isn't asking you to hold them. He can't talk yet, so he talks to you with what's in his hand.

How do you answer? Take it and name it: Oh, a red spoon! Then hand it back. Studies find that chatting about what a baby is interested in helps him learn to talk. What did you use to think it meant when a baby pushed something into your hand? Tell us in the comments.