Awesome Robot Onesie

My new nephew is here! You may remember from an earlier post that his parents have put together a wonderful robot nursery.  It seemed only fitting that he should also be the recipient of this excellent robot vs. dinosaur onesie from Gnome Enterprises.




Can't wait to see pictures of the little guy in it!!

Creating Memories in Young Children

Hello and apologies for the huge amount of time since the last post! But now to jump back into things:

The New York Times just published a fascinating article by a pediatrician about how kids' memories work, and from what ages. A lot of this was just general overview, and you're probably already familiar with the basics. There were a few things that I thought were pretty suprising:

First, in studies comparing Chinese children with Canadian children, the Canadian children were able to remember a year further back and to remember more. The article suggests that this might reflect some type of difference in how parents talk to children and in "what kinds of stories and experiences are emphasized in the two cultures."

Secondly, the article suggests that two qualities predicted whether a child was more likely to hold on to a particular memory:

1. If the child mentioned emotion when describing a memory.
2. If the memory was described with sequence and cause understood.

These points suggest that parents could actually have an influence on their child's ability to form memories from an early age, by asking their children questions and creating stories that put memories in logical, sequential and emotional contexts. How cool is that? As a parent, you put so much effort into creating wonderful experiences for your children. Now it appears that you can also help your child to translate those experiences into lasting memories.

If you're interested in reading (a lot) more about memory and cognitive development in young children, we suggest the following 3 volume encyclopedia which provides a great discussion of the link between language development and memory in infants and children.

 

I've been looking for a shorter, more user-friendly resource on this topic, but find that books in this area tend toward the more academic side of things. If you know of a good book or website that covers early memory development, please let me know!