Cognitive development

Nowadays children in their pre-scholar age are much clever then they were some generations ago

It is quite rooted in the common thinking that nowadays children in their pre-scholar age are much clever then they were some generations ago. I admit that I tend to agree with that, and I think I can explain why.

As a matter of fact, it is undeniable that every child is curious by nature. I don’t see any differences in that, except for the response they get from modern adults, and in particular from their parents. In my opinion, this affects as much as 50% of a child’s cognitive development, playing an important role in that. There are multiple reasons for this. Basically, the more a child receives positive behavioural feedback, the more he feels he is taken into consideration, which leads to fulfillment. They feel encouraged to make more answers, so the adults’ responses maintain their curiosity and, as a result, children get to know many things. They are thus more intelligent and more conscious of what is around them.

In contrast, until some decades ago, it was common for children not to be listened to enough.

Where behavioural lessons are concerned, parents preferred to impose their decisions without providing proper explanations. So children often did what they were told without knowing why, and most of all without knowing the consequences of wrong or neglectful behaviour. In other situations, their curiosity was just not met. In fact, parents hardly ever handled their ‘why’ questions seriously. With no doubt, the reason for that is not just the role that children were assigned within their own family but also that some parents were simply unable to give informative answers, due to a lack of knowledge. This inevitably encouraged an approach of the sort.

In conclusion, in my opinion new generations are clever than some time ago. Nevertheless, I think a great deal is due to the constructive approach that modern parents tend to adopt.

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