Child’s brain development linked to mom’s nurture
A new study has found that the nurturing mothers can help their preschool aged children.
Researcher Joan L. Luby, a child psychiatry professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in Missouri said, “Parental support, particularly in early childhood, is a very, very powerful force in a child’s life. It’s a very positive, powerful force.”
WebMD reports that the researchers examined children from the ages of 4 to 7 during an experiment called “the waiting task.”
The children and their mothers were placed in a room while the researchers watched. The children were given a brightly wrapped gift but were not allowed to open it for eight minutes. Their mothers filled out a series of forms while the children had to wait.
“It really simulates a real-life parenting situation that people often face. You’re cooking dinner and your child is throwing a tantrum, and how do you juggle that?” Luby explains.
The researchers analyzed how the mothers dealt with the situation. The mothers who reassured and supported their children through the stressful ordeal were rated as being nurturing. Mothers were not considered nurturing if they ignored their child or scolded them.
“The maternal support had to do with how much positive parenting the parent showed: how much they reassured the child, how much they helped regulate the child when the child made bids that they needed that gift,” Luby says.
When the children were ages 7 to 13 they had MRI brain scans done.
HealthDay News reports that researchers found the size of the hippocampus was 10 percent larger in the children who had nurturing mothers.
“This gives us very concrete, physical evidence by showing this key region of the brain is healthier and more well-developed in children who receive this rich nurturance,” Luby said.
