As parents and caregivers, we often underestimate our children’s ability to learn at a young age. What we fail to recognise is that our young children are actually GENIUSES.

In this TED Talk, Dr Laura Schulz shows that children observe and receive the information we give them. The results are quite amazing.  As demonstrated in this clip, they emulate what they see.  They watch, learn, and basically do exactly the same things we show them, and from such a young age. The babies in these experiments are only 15 months old.

So the question is: how does the way we act impact on the way our children act? How does our behaviour model for them what is possible – not only as babies, but as they grow in to adults? At Bonnie’s we have a lot of women with young children come to us. They have made tough choices and big decisions to keep themselves and their children safe. What courage, resilience and strength they must be teaching their children!

Skip ahead to 3:46 if you just want to see the experiments – but if you have 20 minutes, the whole video is well worth a watch and really gets you thinking.

by Pauline, Child and Youth Support Worker