You may not approve of it, but lying is an important part of cognitive development and ultimately a part of growing up!  Contrary to what you might think, new research has found that the earlier toddlers start telling lies, the more successful they will be in later life.

The research was carried out by Dr Kang Lee and his team at the Child Development Research Group at the University of Toronto in Canada.  Lee suggests that lying requires the child to manipulate a series of fabricated events to try to make them concur.  The skills required to do this include the ability to gather information from different sources and manage data to a desirable outcome.  All of this requires an awful lot of thinking and brain power - an ability that young children rarely display.  However, those that do are probably going to turn out to be more intelligent than their less capable peers in their cohort.

Whilst age two is the youngest age at children will be able to lie, for many children this 'skill' doesn't arrive until nearer the age of four.  The ability to lie is situated within cultural experience - western toddlers will lie to protect friends whilst Chinese toddlers will tell a lie in order to protect their team.

Kang Lee offers an insightful way to tell whether a toddler is telling the truth or not.  As they answer a question, watch their body language.  If a toddler glances to the right as they offer an explanation, then they are most likely fibbing - looking towards right suggests that they are using the part of the brain to visualise something that they haven't experienced directly.  If they look to their left then they are likely to be using the part of the brain that recollects events and therefore they are most likely telling the truth.

Dr. Lee suggests that parents should take advantage of these tell-tale signs in order to spot whether young children are lying and to act appropriately - this will help to teach that lying is not an acceptable option.

It stands to reason that art and craft assists to develop fine muscle control in your babies, and that kicking, running and chasing games improve their physical strength and control, but how do you kick start your baby's ability to think and solve problems?  Funnily enough, abstract thinking and analytical skills are the focus of many toys created for babies and toddlers.  You may not have thought about it, but toys such as shape sorters, simple jigsaws starting with just two pieces per puzzle, old fashioned building blocks and musical instruments all help to develop analytical and thinking skills in babies and toddlers.

Walk into a toyshop and so many of the toys available today were available in a similar form in our own childhood - many were available in similar form during our parents and grandparents childhoods too!  Science has long told us that interacting with such toys helps us explore the world and develop our thinking, perhaps what is more surprising is that there are so few innovations in childrens toys over the last two generations.  That comes down to the fact that human development hasn't evolved in that time, and for a long time we have had a pretty good understanding of it.

When nurturing your chilren, or children that you work with, introduce a good balance of 'thinking' games and activities.  This is only one area of child development, but it can be easy to overlook the importance of this area if you particularly enjoy more physical activities.  That is one reason that the Early Years Foundation Stage is so important - by following the guidelines and ticking off boxes for areas that you have pursued, you will automatically be delivering a well balanced development plan to your little ones.  If you aren't the most creative person and struggle for ideas in areas of EYFS, or you simply want ideas that you can adopt and develop, then sign up to ToucanLearn now!  We offer hundreds of activities concentrating on key development skills, and for premium members we link them all to EYFS too so that you can track progress with your little ones.  If you are toying with the idea of subscribing to ToucanLearn, then there are several hundred good reasons for doing so!