Teach Kids to Explore

August 6, 2008

Kids might be more adventuresome in life if they explore in their youth. Well, I’m really only writing about this today because of rats. In “Social Competitiveness and Plasticity of Neuroendocrine Function in Old Age: Influence of Neonatal Novelty Exposure and Maternal Care Reliability,” which was published in PLoS ONE, Akaysha Tang and her colleagues report that rats that experienced new environments in their youth were better at social competition as adults. Also, the rats that experienced new environments as pups didn’t get as stressed as rats that just stayed home in their early days.

Does this apply to kids? I have no idea, but it certainly makes sense. It’s just the idea of practice: Start experiencing new things early on and it will be life as usual. Whatever you do, you get better at it. So if you put your kids in new situations early on, then they will do better in new situations as an adult. If it doesn’t work, at least you know just what to say: Rats!

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