The noise wars: New study feeds ammunition to parents of noisy toddlers
Apartment-dwelling parents fending off complaints about their pint-sized noisemakers may find some ammunition in a new study that balks at teaching toddlers self-control.
Little kids lack self-control because they have an immature prefrontal cortex. But, according to the study by a University of Pennsylvania neuropsychologist in the latest issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, that immaturity is necessary for learning language and other social conventions.
As a result, “[I]t may be detrimental to the developing brain to push it toward maturity too soon,” says the press release emailed to us this morning.
As yet, no word on the psychological impact of juvenile temper tantrums on the prefrontal cortexes of adjacent neighbors.
Read the abstract here.
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