Because they’re learning every day.
Trying to teach your baby a new skill? Wait until they’re just about to fall asleep; according to research that’s the sweet point when infants retain the most information.
A study of 216 babies, the results of which were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that they were more likely to remember new information if they learned it right before they dropped off.
Researchers at the University of Sheffield started by showing the infants, aged between six months and 12 months, how to remove a mitten from a hand puppet. Babies who had a 30 –minute nap after being shown the puppet were more likely to remember how to remove the mitten up to 24 hours later.
“These findings are particularly interesting to both parents and educationalists because they suggest that the optimal time for infants to learn new information is just before they have a sleep,” said Jane Herbert of the University of Sheffield.
