The Rouge Test is a self-recognition test that identifies a child’s ability to recognize a reflection in a mirror as his or her own. Beginning at about 18 months, a child who sees rouge on the nose in his or her reflection in a mirror will wipe his or her own nose to remove the smudge, thinking, as infants do, that “That is me in the mirror, I’d better do something about that unsightly blotch of red.”
We have discovered a new self-recognition stage in our house: The Quotability Factor Recognition Stage. Beginning at the age of 10, a boy might say something funny, then immediately ask, as children do, “Are you going to put that in the next Christmas letter?”
4 Mothers 