The sensitive period immediately after birth is particularly important for bridging a connection between parent and child. This connection is due to filial imprinting, a type of developmental learning in animals (including humans) that establishes a bond between the newborn and figures consistently nearby, which are usually their parents. This learning is essential for parent-child relationships and influences the child’s behavior in the future, both emotionally and socially.

Interestingly, as filial imprinting occurs with a newborn and the first suitable individual it encounters its very early development, the individuals that get “imprinted” on aren’t always actually the newborn’s biological parent. Sometimes, the newborn imprints on a member of a different species!

In one episode of Modern Family, Phil Dunphy takes care of duck eggs, hoping that they will imprint on him upon hatching. However, when they do hatch, it’s his wife Claire who happens to be there and thus, the ducklings all imprint themselves on her instead, much to Phil’s dismay.

Yes, this example is from a TV show, but it happens in real life too! Konrad Lorenz was an Austrian ethologist who popularized imprinting theory, using geese to study how animals behave in the absence of their biological parent by the replacement of a different parental figure. His work ultimately got him a Nobel Prize and a gaggle of geese following him around constantly.

By Andrea Horn