Being messy helps toddlers learn
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Toddlers
Before you sigh in frustration as your little one throws their food across the kitchen, you might find comfort in the fact that messy children are likely to be better at learning.
According to a new study carried out by Dr. Larissa Samuelson from the University of Iowa, toddlers who grasp, feel, taste and throw objects are constantly gathering information about the world.
Psychologists tested 72 16-month-old children and found that those who were messy were better at retaining words.
The kids in the study were divided into two groups, one half sat in a highchair and the other at the table, and were asked to identify the names of object. Those sitting the highchair performed better than the other group and the report states that this demonstrates that eating can be associate with learning.
Co-author, Lynn Perry, claims that those who use non-messy actions had a 50% chance of correctly identifying an object compared to the 70% chance of those who used messy actions.
The report published in the journal Developmental Science states that when young children are messy in the process of exploring their food they “may be doing more than just making a mess in the moment: they are forever changing... the way they will learn over development.”
