Hot Topics: Positive reinforcement may boost kids’ brains

If your child forgets his lunch or struggles with school work, a little more loving might turn things around.

Supportive mothers who practice positive reinforcement seem to help their kids’ brains grow, according to new research from Washington University.

Brain scans show that school-age children of nurturing mothers have a 10 percent larger hippocampus – the region of the brain that plays a role in memory, learning and stress response – compared to the brains of children whose mothers were deemed less supportive.

The take-home message for working and stay-at-home parents is to praise children more than you scold them, the researchers said.

“Parents might feel guilty because they’re working, and we work a lot as well,” said Dr. Kelly Botteron, a professor of child psychiatry and co-author of the study. “But when you’re home in the evening and you’re trying to rush through homework and trying to get dinner ready, if you remember to say a couple nice, really positive things ... I think a lot of parents could do that and it’s a practical thing that has very little risk to it.”

It’s long been known that orphans and other neglected children who are placed in loving homes can improve their behavior and health. And while a link between nurturing mothers and their offspring’s brain growth has been established in rats, the study is the first to show the same anatomical process in humans.

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