huntpaulineee: Parenting tips from neuroscience

Saturday 10 September 2011

Parenting tips from neuroscience

Linda Geddes, reporter

How to Persuade Your Toddler to Eat Spinach might have been a catchier title for this book, which tackles the fascinating subject of child brain development from infancy through to adolescence. Written by the former editor of Nature Neuroscience and a professor of neuroscience at Princeton University, Welcome to Your Child's Brain provides an authoritative overview and is also littered with practical tips for parents.

Among the advice are insights on how to get your child to sleep (small children quickly associate particular cues with sleep, so establish a regular bedtime routine); improve their vision (children who spend more time outdoors are less likely to be short-sighted, possibly because bright light helps the eyes to develop); and promote the development of obedience and moral behaviour (warm and sensitive parenting produces more obedient children than strict parenting, because these children want to please their parents). It also includes interesting boxes that bust myths about child rearing, and fascinating factoids such as what young children dream about - animals apparently, and these dreams also tend to lack feelings like fear or aggression.

But it's a shame that these nuggets are so few and far between; the rest of the book is less penetrable. While it provides a well written introduction to neuroscience more generally and would appeal to parents with a strong interest in science, I suspect others might tire of the lengthy chapters filled with more intricate descriptions of how the brain works.

As for how to get your little one to eat spinach, the authors recommend combining it with another well-liked flavour like yoghurt, offering it repeatedly even if they only eat a bite each time, or serving a spoonful of pudding shortly before the spinach - so long as it's within nine seconds. Sadly, the book doesn't elaborate on why this 9-second window is so important, but it may at least give fraught parents some new ideas.