There is no substitute to mother, and a mother’s influence is one of the most powerful forces in the lives of young children.
A recent Research has shown that a healthy and playful relationship between a child and a mother results in adult children having higher intelligence and low affinity for violence.
Researchers in Jamaica have evaluated 129 toddlers who lived in poor areas and were subject to poor nutrition and lack of support. The research began in the 1980s, with the children being divided into three intervention groups and one control group.
One of the groups of children was provided with academic motivation and interactive playtime with their mothers. The second group was given supplemental baby food while the third received both motherly care and nutrition supplementation. A fourth group received no intervention. All intercessions lasted 2 years. The follow-up period of the research exceeded 2 decades.
The latest results of these interventions, published by the journal Pediatrics, reports that children who received academic inspiration and had a playful relationship with their mothers had higher IQs as adults, with higher educational attainment and better general knowledge. They were less prone to symptoms of depression or social inhibition than children who did not receive such stimulation. They were also found to stay away from violence avoiding violent behavior as adults. The children who received nutritional supplementation showed no improvement among these measurements.
“Mother” is a word that means the world to children everywhere, and “M” is for the million things mothers give their children, not the least of which is time to play together.
