Talking to children is beneficial for their brain

Norwich: A study has found that older adults talking to children more early in life can help shape their brains.

Previous studies have shown that talking to young children has benefits. As such it can improve children’s use of language and increase vocabulary.

Now researchers say they have discovered a link between the amount of talking adults do to children and a compound in children’s brains called myelin, which surrounds nerves and makes signals more effective.

Lead author of the study Professor John Spencer, from the University of East Anglia, said it sends the message that talking to your children is important. Interestingly, this process shapes the structure of the brain.

In a study published in the journal Neuroscience, John Spencer and his colleagues said they attached a device to the shirts of 87 six-month-olds and 76 about 30-month-olds and recorded their conversations.

The team recorded 6208 hours of verbal data. Scientists found that children whose mothers were more educated were talked to more than children, which made the children try to make more noise.

The team then called 84 children to the hospital and put them in a special quiet room. They were then taken quietly to MRI and measured the amount of myelin in their brains.

As the brain develops, the amount of myelin increases. However, the team found that the 30-month-olds who were exposed to more talk were associated with more myelin in language-related pathways in the brain. In contrast, the six-month-olds had less myelin. was less.