Have you invested in pricey educational toys, videos and activities all in the hopes of boosting your child’s brain development?
Guess what?
It turns out that what The Beatles have been singing all along has some truth in relation to brain development: “All you need is love.” Here’s why.
A recent study found that children who were nurtured had a bigger hippocampus compared to those who received less nurturing. Of course, many have long suspected that a loving and supportive environment helps a child develop better, but now there’s proof.
What’s a hippocampus anyway?
According to About.com and EurekAlert.com it is the area of the brain responsible for:
- emotions such as fear and anger,
- memory and
- releasing stress hormones (which helps us manage stress better)
The study
Child neuroscientists and psychiatrists from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, worked with kids aged 3-6 in a study that began 10 years ago. Some had suffered from depression and psychiatric disorders while others were mentally healthy.
One of the exercises involved in the study was:
Researchers placed both child and adult (mostly the mother) in a room and produced stressful situations for the kid. Outsiders who had no background on the children and their mental health were asked to rate how nurturing the adults were towards the kids.
Other Findings
- Fast forward to several years, brain scans showed that the kids who were mentally healthy and had nurturing moms had a bigger hippocampus – almost 10% more than their less nurtured counterparts.
- It didn’t matter who the adult nurturing the children was. Fathers, caregivers, teachers, grandparents or any other person aside from the mother still helped improve brain development.
The Takeaway
This might be pretty obvious so instead of a conclusion, this question is more fitting as a parting note:
About Anne Mercado
This article is a challenge to every parents. It could be a wake up call to others. Please allow me to share this on my FB Page Super Social W-A-H-M.
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Hi Anne!
This is so true. My siblings and I grew up in a very nurturing environment. For example, instead of getting private tutors, our parents and our grandparents were the ones who taught us and helped us with schoolwork. And modesty aside, we all excelled academically.
Which is why I’m doing the same for my son. He’s starting school in June, by the way.
An OFW Family’s Key to Survival.
Twitter: RebelSweetHrt
Hello! You know, it’s very nice to hear that you reap the rewards of having been nurtured. I’m equally glad to hear that you provide the same nurturing environment for your son. It really does help, doesn’t it?
Hugs are huge in our house. My kids are still young. but I hope I can offer loads of nurturing in the years to come!
Twitter: mammanatty
I’m sure you will be able to. Thanks for dropping by!
i somehow agreed with this. that’s why i’m loving my son so much. hehe. seriously speaking, nurturing and pampering our children is really best for them. it helps not only in mental but in their emotional development also. i also read about eldest children being the one with a brighter mind and another article about eldest children most likely to be successful in life than their younger siblings.
thanks for sharing Anne. i’m trying to get back to the circulation
Hi Maye! Yes it’s all true and what’s amazing about the study is the evidence found in the brain scans. It absolutely amazes me how a mother and child’s interaction allows the latter to develop. Glad you are getting your rhythm back.
Hmmm… does that mean I have a shrunken hippocampus?
. Not to diss my mom here, but I feel I could’ve gotten a bit more nurturing from her…
Enough about me… I guess that’s why I am more than nurturing to my daughter- I want her to grow up feeling secure and loved.
Twitter: PepperTan
We need to get your brain scanned first, Pepper! Haha. But I get you. Parenting styles were different before, they were more rigid. Parents also tried to teach independence by emotionally distancing themselves – which isn’t exactly nurturing. (Not saying this is what happened to be, I’m just basing it from observations)
You have 1 more hour of work before going home time right? Work, work, work.. Or you can comment more here
This is so important. Claudia Quigg from way back in my teaching days wrote that the first 10 weeks of the child’s life needed to be bonding with the parent or whoever would be the child care giver.
Of course with mom’s working full time the studies were not we liked.
She is the reason I am became a SAHM/WAHM
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That is an interesting study, Pam. Thank you for mentioning that useful bit, some moms out there might want to check her out. She’s an early child development expert (http://babytalk.org/about/consultation.htm)
Great article and I couldn’t agree more! I hope that our modern society will realize the importance of this, but until then, we mothers need to make sure we give our kids the best jump start to life that we can–through affection and unconditional love!
Say CHEESE!
There are kids who see less of their parents since moms and dads might be working more than 1 job. The responsibility of nurturing kids then fall on the caregivers (nannies or day care teachers), other relatives and friends. So you are right to say that society should be aware of the importance of this study.
Great comment, Ang. Thank you very much for it.
Wow. So it’s not all the crafts, it’s the CARE in child care that matters! Thanks for this! Tweeting NOW!
Twitter: MyBuddiesandI
Hi Suzanne, care definitely matters but we can still continue with the crafts and other activities as well. Thank you for tweeting this and I do hope to see you around here more often. Have a wonderful weekend.
what an interesting read… i agree with this ^_^
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Hi Gladys, glad you found this interesting!
Not a day passes by that I don’t hug, kiss and tell “I love you” to my son, but of course, he gets reprimanded, too, for his misbehavior, but that’s also part of nurturing, right? Now that I know that nurturing increases his brain size, then I should double my efforts, too. Thanks for this informative post!
Happy Birthday, Mommy!
Twitter: TetchaF
Expressions of love are definitely part of nurturing behavior. So is being supportive and understanding when your child is frustrated.
Very interesting article. I like the term hippocampus
I think I cannot think of anything negative that can be brought by love… and I wouldn’t be surprised of this kind of effect of how parents of caregivers nurture kids… I am not surprised but I am really, really glad studies like are being done so that more parents and caregivers become more aware of its good effect 
Spanish Pinay
Making it happen…
Twitter: Spanish_Pinay
It’s really good to spread the word on the importance of nurturing. Here in the Philippines we still see parents wanting to raise independent children by leaving them to figure things out on their own. While it’s good to do that from time to time, children need support. They need parents to explain to them how things work whether it be emotionally, academically, etc.