Self-awareness begins in infancy and develops in stages. The development of self-awareness in the early years reveals layers of processes. These processes expand from body perception in action to the evaluative sense of self as perceived by others.

A critical component of self-awareness is a child’s ability to distinguish that the physical body is a separate entity from others. This body awareness begins soon after an infant is born. Researchers Filippetti and her team tested 40 newborns who were between 12 hours and four days old by showing babies videos of a baby’s face being stroked by a paintbrush. They found that upon birth, babies had body awareness or

and could determine whether something was being done to their bodies externally or by themselves.

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2. Filippetti, M. L., Johnson, M. H., Lloyd-Fox, S., Dragovic, D., & Farroni, T. (2013). Body perception in newborns. Current biology : CB, 23(23), 2413–2416. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.10.017.