What goes on in an infant’s brain? Thirty years ago, psychologists would unanimously have said newborns are egocentric, illogical and irrational. Today we know that they are miniature scientists. Research shows that at a subconscious level they perform statistical analyses to form hypotheses about how the world works. Increasing or diminishing the probabilities related to...
We learn quite a few things before being born. The fetus learns the sound of its mother’s voice and, once born, prefers that voice over any other. Give a newborn two dummies and then make it listen to its mother’s voice through headphones while sucking the first dummy and to a female stranger’s voice while...
Your four-year old runs into the kitchen with his hands over his eyes to ‘steal’ a biscuit. He believes his parents can’t see him since he doesn’t see them. Give a child of four a box of sweets that once open is actually full of crayons. Now ask the child what his/her mother, who is...
In advanced countries the incidence of allergy is twice that of less developed countries. Various studies suggest that in the attempt to make the places where we live clean, we interfere with the optimal development of the immune system. Exposure to certain germs in our first years of life would actually be useful for the...
A study has shown that children who watch TV together with their parents understand what they see much more than when their parents are in another room.
Sweating for ten minutes a day is good for children’s health. An international study on over 11 thousand children aged 4-18 years with increased risk of developing heart and metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes says that 10 minutes intense physical activity every day significantly reduces the risk of developing these diseases and that...
Researchers in Finland have established that a diet rich in vegetables, fruit, cereal fish and unsaturated fats between six and eight years of age, increases comprehension and interpretation of texts on standardized tests respect to a diet rich in sugar and red meat. The improvement is not affected by reading ability at starting age (six...
Living with cats and/or dogs could diminish the risk of becoming allergic or obese. A study has shown that newborns and infants who live with these animals in early life have an increased amount of two germs called Ruminococcus and Oscillospira in their gut. Previous studies showed that the former reduces the risk of developing...
