You want a child who’s smart, calm and caring? Science Daily recommends doing it like the Neanderthals:
Three new studies led by Notre Dame Psychology Professor Darcia Narvaez show a relationship between child rearing practices common in foraging hunter-gatherer societies (how we humans have spent about 99 percent of our history) and better mental health, greater empathy and conscience development, and higher intelligence in children.
“Our research shows that the roots of moral functioning form early in life, in infancy, and depend on the affective quality of family and community support,” says Narvaez, who specializes in the moral and character development of children.
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“The way we raise our children today in this country is increasingly depriving them of the practices that lead to well being and a moral sense,” she says.
Narvaez identifies six characteristics of child rearing that were common to our distant ancestors:
* Lots of positive touch — as in no spanking — but nearly constant carrying, cuddling and holding;
* Prompt response to baby’s fusses and cries. You can’t “spoil” a baby. This means meeting a child’s needs before they get upset and the brain is flooded with toxic chemicals. “Warm, responsive caregiving like this keeps the infant’s brain calm in the years it is forming its personality and response to the world,” Narvaez says.
* Breastfeeding, ideally 2 to 5 years. A child’s immune system isn’t fully formed until age 6 and breast milk provides its building blocks.
* Multiple adult caregivers — people beyond mom and dad who also love the child.
* Free play with multi-age playmates. Studies show that kids who don’t play enough are more likely to have ADHD and other mental health issues.
* Natural childbirth, which provides mothers with the hormone boosts that give the energy to care for a newborn.
The U.S. has been on a downward trajectory on all of these care characteristics, according to Narvaez. Instead of being held, infants spend much more time in carriers, car seats and strollers than they did in the past. Only about 15 percent of mothers are breastfeeding at all by 12 months, extended families are broken up, and free play allowed by parents has decreased dramatically since 1970.
File under “de-evolution” perhaps?