This is about automatic mirroring via mirror neurons and mimicking.

Child development

Mirroring or Imitation.

How do children learn empathy?

Justin H G Williams

'''Newborn infants may not be very interactive but they are capable of a form of simple facial mimicry. Try sticking out your tongue in front of a newborn baby and he or she may copy you. Within a few months, babies progress to reciprocal smiles....."

Babies cry when hearing other babies cry.

Researchers Trace Empathy's Roots to Infancy

By DANIEL GOLEMAN

''Virtually from the day they are born, there is something particularly disturbing to infants about the sound of another infant's cry,'' said Martin Hoffman, a psychologist at New York University. ''The innate predisposition to cry to that sound seems to be the earliest precursor of empathy.''