WASHINGTON: According to studies, breastfed children perform better in school and have higher IQ scores.
According to a recent study by sociologists at Brigham Young University, two parenting techniques—responding to children’s emotional cues and reading to them beginning at age nine months—are the true sources of this cognitive boost.
According to lead study author Ben Gibbs, breastfeeding mothers typically engage in each of those activities.
Parenting is actually what makes a difference, according to Gibbs.
Breastfeeding is important in other ways, but this provides a better mechanism and can influence how confident we are in therapies that support school preparation, according to Gibbs.
By the time children are four years old (as determined by math and reading readiness testing), gains in sensitivity to emotional signals and time spent reading to children could result in 2-3 months’ worth of brain development.
A month or two is a “non-trivial chunk of time” for these four-year-olds, according to Gibbs.
And if a youngster is on the cusp of needing special education, even a tiny bump could change that child’s course in school, according to Gibbs.
Researchers monitored 7,500 women and their kids from birth to age five using a nationwide data set.
The data collection contains a wealth of information about the family setting, including how frequently and when parents read to their children.
Every mother who took part in the study also took part in activities that were filmed with their kids.
The mother’s encouragement and attentiveness to their child’s emotional indicators were evaluated as they attempted a difficult job.
Children in the study who were nursed for six months or longer did the highest on reading examinations because they “experienced the most optimal parenting practices,” according to Sandra Jacobson of Wayne State University School of Medicine.
According to Jacobson, “Gibbs and Forste found that, rather than breastfeeding per se, sensitivity to the child’s cues during social interactions and daily reading to an infant as early as age 9 months were significant predictors of reading readiness at age 4 years.”
