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Pre-schoolers' memory and language skills can be significantly improved if their mothers talk to them in richer ways about past events, University of Otago researchers say.
Associate Professor Elaine Reese, of the psychology department, said the findings had important implications for efforts to ensure children were well-prepared to learn once in school.
The study, published in the United States journal Child Development, found that training mothers to talk in detail helped their children's memory and narrative development by age 3 1/2.
Dr Reese and Rhiannon Newcombe carried out a year-long intervention study with 115 Dunedin mothers and their 1 1/2 to 3 1/2-year-old children.
At the start, researchers assessed all the mothers' natural style of talking about the past and their children's language skills and level of self awareness.
Half the mothers were then trained in "elaborative" questioning. They were prompted to ask more questions containing new information about events and to confirm their children's responses.
The children's memory was tested at 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 years.
"We found that children of trained mothers remembered more details ... than children of untrained mothers," Dr Reese said.
- NZPA
