Talking, playing, interacting with young children to wake them up is the surest way to lead them to a successful life when they become adults. This is shown by a study by researchers at Virginia Tech and the University of Pennsylvania published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, which concludes that the first five years of life have the effect of a good learning environment. Four decades later, on the size and function of the brain.

“Our research shows an association between brain structure and five years of high-quality educational and social experiences,” says study lead author Craig Ramey. In this, using brain imaging, the statistically significant changes that appear in brain structure in middle age depend on the environment in which the first five years of life took place.

High quality educational aid

A group of children received health care, nutrition, and family support services from the age of six weeks, adding some five years of high quality educational support five days a week and fifty weeks per year. Follow-up examinations of 47 study participants showed that 29 people in the group received educational enrichment, focusing on promoting language, cognition, and interactive learning, as their body size increased. Of the entire brain including the cortex and language-associated regions.

These findings were made by studying, by the time children were in their late 30s or early 40s, scans of the entire brain, but more focused examinations of the cortex and five other brain regions. Selected for their expected link with cognitive stimulation.

Biological effects with behavioral benefits

The scientists show that the results of the group that benefited from educational enrichment were more spectacular for men than for women, without the reasons for this condition being explained.

“These results suggest that biological effects accompany the behavioral, social and economic benefits of early childhood experiences and support the value of positive learning and socio-educational support for all children, particularly improving outcomes For. The consequences of children who are weak at first. Years of life, “emphasizes the researchers.