In the medical literature, one focus has been on crying as a potential tool in diagnosing newborn diseases and disorders. Likewise a few studies have now examined the biological substrates of caregiving, not in the form of innate responses to crying but via functional MRI to assess responses in brain areas related to adult emotion and attention. A few studies have examined how early crying and fussing might share similarities with later cooing and babbling, thus linking early crying to at least one aspect of later development, namely language. There remains, however, a dearth of studies addressing the development of crying over time it is likely that theoretical advances have been limited by a general failure to address the structural and functional characteristics of crying as infants develop new capabilities.
Agreement is now general that crying is not a fixed, innate signal that communicates specific needs rather, it is a graded signal that varies with the infant’s level of distress. Clinical professionals now recommend that parents respond promptly to cries in the first few weeks without fear of reinforcing later crying.
In the psychological literature, much of the work focuses on parents’ responses to crying and appears to have been driven by the paradox that crying, while aversive to adults, also brings parents near and engenders empathy.
This behavior has attracted significant attention in the literatures of psychology and medicine. Crying is a universal and salient behavior of human infants, present from birth, potentially diagnostic, and an important means of communication throughout the first year and beyond.
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