Scientists told why joint games with a child are necessary
British psychologists and physicians conducted a large-scale experiment, which included one-year-old kids and their parents. A study published in PLoS Biology states that the benefit of playing together a child and an adult has previously been underestimated.
All children and parents were offered to simply play toys together, and at the same time a graphical recording of the electrical activity of the brain (EEG) was conducted. Then they asked to play children separately, without adults. The results were also supported by an electroencephalogram. In total, the experiment involved 20 kids and their mothers.
It turned out that the child is more attentive and interested, if he plays with his mom or dad, he pays more attention to toys, to some small details peculiar to him, which his parents pay attention to. Children playing with adults better focus.
But the benefit of independent games, scientists also did not deny.
When a child plays alone, he has higher neural attention control is fixed, it interacts more closely with toys, gives them certain properties and characters, develops imagination and fantasy.
In order for the child to develop harmoniously, experts advise to combine both types of games.
It is noteworthy that the researchers paid attention to the fact that the activity of the mother's brain directly affects the attention of the baby during the game.
If the mother herself plays with the child with enthusiasm, then he is faster “tuned” to the learning process, such children have better memory and attention, such babies start to build correct causal relationships earlier.
For the mother's brain, this process is also useful - flashes of electrical activity in certain ranges marked on the EEG contribute to the improvement of memory and logical thinking in adults.
The team leader, Sam Wass from the University of East London, noted that the results of the study should be useful to mothers. The main thing is that they should remember: when a child is fascinated by a toy, you should not interfere with it and advise something or help to play.
If the baby is bored, can not concentrate, then you should not offer him a toy for independent play. At such moments it is better to play togetherso the baby can tune in to the process of learning a new one much faster.
