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According to new research from Washington University School of Medicine, children whose mothers were more nurturing during the preschool years, rather than later on in childhood, have more robust growth in brain structures associated with learning memory and stress response, than kids with less supportive mums.

As part of the study, published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, 127 children underwent three magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans beginning in the preschool period and including three scans through school age and early adolescence.

– Ariane Beeston

Source: The years when nurturing makes kids smarter and more resilient