30 Facts About Child Development and Squishy Idiot Baby Brains
![30 Facts About Child Development and Squishy Idiot Baby Brains](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/7/875817_320x180.jpg)
We don't have a lot going for us when we're born: We go from hanging out comfortably in a warm meat sack, blissfully ignorant of anything going on around us, until we're expelled kicking and screaming into the outside world, with all of these pressures and rules that we're going to have to mostly figure out on our own. Unfortunately for our parents, it turns out that a lot of our adulthood can actually be determined by several of the smallest factors in our young lives.
How happy were our parents in their relationships? Did we have siblings? Were we raised religious? Bilingual? All of these little things effect how our goopy little brain bits will solidify into the adults we will eventually become. Guess it’ll be good to keep these things in mind when it becomes time to spit out some children of our own.
Touchscreens
![In Defense of Touchscreens Preschoolers can learn from educational TV, but toddlers learn more from interactive media, like apps and video chats, than TV alone. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/2/875812.jpg)
Source: 14 Fast Facts About Child Development (To Explain Why We're The Way We Are)
Siblings Are Good For You
![Sibling Protection Research shows that fighting parents can have a negative effect on children, but this effect can be negated by having strong sibling bonds. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/0/875810.jpg)
Source: 14 Fast Facts About Child Development (To Explain Why We're The Way We Are)
Inequality in Recess
![Recess Inequality Researchers have discovered that well-regulated recess time is a necessary part of learning social skills, but students who are low-income, people of color, or in urban settings are less likely to receive the same quality or time. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/1/875811.jpg)
Source: 14 Fast Facts About Child Development (To Explain Why We're The Way We Are)
Jigsaw Puzzles
![Jigsaw Puzzles as a Milestone Between the ages of three and five, children develop representational understanding, which makes them capable of putting together jigsaw puzzles. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/0/8/875808.jpg)
Source: 14 Fast Facts About Child Development (To Explain Why We're The Way We Are)
Storybooks With Answers
![Children prefer storybooks that explain why and how things happen How The STOLE GRINCH CHRISTMAS This tip goes out to aspiring children's book writers out there. And parents, I guess. Kids like .... to learn?? Weird. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/0/7/875807.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Children's Attention
![Children notice everything This is obvious to parents, but children, unlike adults, don't ignore anything. Adults have selective attention, while children distribute their attention broadly. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/0/9/875809.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Advantages of Bilingual Children
![Bilingual children lose less brain matter as they grow up It pays to be bilingual. Aside from professional advantages, it can affect your brain structure. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/0/6/875806.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Advantages in Math
![Parents who have degrees give their children significant advantage in math 50+ 19 75. 60- 10= 63 t 32 82 Just another example of how generational wealth worms its way lives._ into every opportunity in our CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/0/5/875805.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Growing Taller Kids
![Homegrown Food for Height Children grow taller in households where mothers were able to grow their own food. In low-income countries, this gave children had access to more variety food nutrients. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/0/4/875804.jpg)
Source: 14 Fast Facts About Child Development (To Explain Why We're The Way We Are)
Trauma Lasts
![Traumatic Beginnings Research shows that children exposed to family violence have the same pattern of brain activity as soldiers in combat. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/0/3/875803.jpg)
Source: 14 Fast Facts About Child Development (To Explain Why We're The Way We Are)
These Bastards Don't Get Tired
![Children As Endurance Athletes If you've ever wondered how kids can play so hard, it's because they have fatigue-resistant muscles and can recover from high-intensity exercise quicker than even well-trained adult athletes. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/0/2/875802.jpg)
Source: 14 Fast Facts About Child Development (To Explain Why We're The Way We Are)
Prioritizing Growth
![Process Over IQ Kids who were taught to value growth over intelligence or talent were higher achievers in school CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/0/1/875801.jpg)
Source: 14 Fast Facts About Child Development (To Explain Why We're The Way We Are)
Self-Control With Each Other
![Children show better self-control when they depend on each other Having someone to hold you accountable helps even when you're young. We accomplish more together, yada yada yada. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/0/0/875800.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Implicit Racial Bias
![Children show implicit racial bias from a young age Make sure to examine your own biases, you got 'em young. Makes sense that young children would pick up on racist messaging from a racist society. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/9/9/875799.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Separated from Parents Has Consequences
![Stress in small children separated from their parents may alter genes Children separated from their parents unnecessarily have higher levels of cortisol, which may affect generations to come. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/9/7/875797.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Sleep and Mental Health
![Children's mental health is affected by sleep duration Hey, another study proved sleeping is good for you. Stop scrolling and go to bed (after you finish this article, obviously...) CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/9/8/875798.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Pivot to Video
![Educational Videos Work Studies have shown that babies under two performed just as well learning from videos as babies who were taught by their parents. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/9/6/875796.jpg)
Source: 14 Fast Facts About Child Development (To Explain Why We're The Way We Are)
Worth the Investment
![Early Investments Last North Carolina saw that increasing spending on early childhood education resulted in lasting effects on test scores and grade retention. They didn't see results fading over time...they grew or held steady. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/9/5/875795.jpg)
Source: 14 Fast Facts About Child Development (To Explain Why We're The Way We Are)
Diversity is Good
![Diversity Helps Everyone One study showed that middle school students of all races feel safer, less alone, and less bullied in schools where there are students from various racial and ethnic backgrounds. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/9/0/875790.jpg)
Source: 14 Fast Facts About Child Development (To Explain Why We're The Way We Are)
Single Mothers Do Just as Well
![Single Mothers By Choice Research shows that children in single-mother-by-choice families do just as well as those in two-parent families. Single mothers tend to have greater social support networks. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/9/1/875791.jpg)
Source: 14 Fast Facts About Child Development (To Explain Why We're The Way We Are)
Exploring vs Rewards
![Young children would rather explore than receive rewards Young children explore in order to learn about the world. Maybe listen to your inner child and go for a walk instead of chasing that reward today. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/9/4/875794.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Infant Brain Activity
![When they play together, parents' brain activity copies their infant's brain activity That's right - our mature, developed adult brains' echoes a baby's developing brain while playing. Why? No one knows yet. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/9/3/875793.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Infant Temperment and Adulthood
![An infant's temperament predicts their personality in adulthood Depending on what kind of baby you were, this could be good or bad news. Either way, not much you can do about it now. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/8/875788.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Mother's Happiness
![Mother's happiness in romantic relationship may affect baby's colic There might an argument to be made that you shouldn't stay together for the kids. Positive social support is important for everyone's health. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/9/2/875792.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Making Little Narcissists
![Making a Narcissist In one study, the children of parents who overvalued them (thought their children were more special than other children) scored higher on tests of narcissism when they were older. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/4/875784.jpg)
Source: 14 Fast Facts About Child Development (To Explain Why We're The Way We Are)
Religion and Children
![The Effect of Religion In a study of third graders, parents' religiosity positively affected children's psychological adjustment and social competence but negatively affected children's reading, math, and science scores. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/3/875783.jpg)
Source: 14 Fast Facts About Child Development (To Explain Why We're The Way We Are)
Imitating Babies
![Babies know and like it when you imitate them. Look, if someone can't take a light riffing, you can tell them they are more sensitive than a six-month-old baby. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/9/875789.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Babies and Probabilities
![Six-month-old babies can estimate probabilities SOCM 12 cm + 0=6 Aa Bb Cc Dd Ее 655 + + 7 ZI Ff LI Mm Gg Hh Nn II OOPP زل Kk 2= 12 cm a2+b2=C2 3=8 Qq RR Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz b SOH TE.... CH O NH C OH =MC2 If young babies can figure out the likelihood of events happening, I guess there was no excuse for my bad grade in Statistics. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/6/875786.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Sleeping for Learning
![Sleep makes it possible for babies to associate words with content Sleep is a big mystery to us mere mortals, but scientists have discovered that babies' sleep duration was correlated with different brain reactions to the same information. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/7/875787.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)
Random Choices and Preference
![Babies' random choices become their preferences Humans like things because they choose them and dislike things they didn't choose, instead of vice versa. We're smart like that. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/5/875785.jpg)
Source: 17 Fascinating Facts About Child Development (That Tell Us Lots About Adults)