Friday, July 28, 2006

Study shows benefit of play time with mom

It is interesting to see how news headlines often don't match the actual content of the article.


For example, this headline:

Social Stimulation For Kids With Stunted Growth Prevents Emotional Problems

"The researchers re-examined 103 of the children 16 years later and found that those who had the social simulation as babies had fewer psychological and social problems than the others. The milk supplements had no significant impact on the children."


Now, when you hear the phrase "social stimulation," what do you think of? I think of children in groups of other children or day care, oops I mean preschool.

In this study, the "social stimulation" was actually "weekly play sessions with their mothers."

So, why didn't the headline say "Play time with mothers prevents emotional problems?"

Regardless of the headline, the study has interesting implications. Children with stunted growth due to malnutrition did better in life as a result of play time with their mother than with milk supplements.

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2 comments:

Sandra Dodd said...

Weekly play sessions, huh? Wow. Imagine if the moms had played with them every day! What about once an hour!!? :-)

It's a cool piece of evidence. It's sad to think there might be kids, though, who wait a week to play with their moms.

Janine Cate said...

The study said a once a week organized play time. I imagine that many of the mothers then continued this pattern during the week on their own. It would be an interesting follow up on the study to find out just how much play time the children were getting.