Nurturing Pre-school Children Linked To Better Learning, Memory And Response In The Long Run

Toddlers who were nurtured by mothers in the early, rather than later preschool years, are found to be more responsive to learning, with better memory power and stress-coping strategies.

Studies by the Washington University School of Medicine finds that children whose mothers nurture them in their early pre-school years have hippocampi that are larger than other toddlers whose mothers have been less nurturing.

This portion of the brain's temporal lobe helps in learning, memory and emotions. This part of the hippocampus was seen to expand in the transitional phase from school-going age to adolescence.

Those adolescents whose mothers were observed to be less supportive in their preschool years seemed to show a smaller hippocampus.

"The parent-child relationship during the preschool period is vital, even more, important than when the child gets older," said author Joan Luby, M.D., a WU child psychiatrist at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

"We think that's due to greater plasticity in the brain when kids are younger, meaning that the brain is affected more by experiences very early in life. That suggests it's vital that kids receive support and nurturing during those early years." Luby added.

For the study, mothers and children were placed in moderately stressful situations. The mother was told to finish a task while the child had to complete an interesting task testing the limits of their patience.

The mother's reactions and management of the situation was videotaped, observed and scored, based on a nurturing scale.

Hence, mothers who could handle and finish the task, even while they gave attention to their children got good scores, while others who succumbed to stress and did not treat their children with nurturing emotions did not rate highly on the scale.

Such a situation simulated the day-to-day experiences in most households.

MRI brain scans were also examined to check out children's growth before school, during their adolescence and also in between.

Children whose mothers showed better-nurturing qualities showed larger hippocampal regions compared to others whose mothers were not so nurturing.

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.