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Early Childhood Memories Come and Go
Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Big Kids, Research Reveals: Tweens
Early childhood memories come and go until about the time kids hit their 10th birthdays. Credit: Getty Images
Go up to him a month later and ask if he remembers the time he swallowed the bug, and you may get that look kids get when they suspect their parents are insane.
Don't worry. Neither one of you has lost your marbles.
It's all part of the phenomenon known as infantile amnesia. The Los Angeles Times reports early childhood memories come and go until about the time kids hit their 10th birthdays. What they are left with at that point are snatches of memories of life before kindergarten.
Like most of us, they remember nothing more than bits and pieces. But even those bits and pieces float in and out of minds during the first 10 years.
This fascinates Carole Peterson, a professor of psychology at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada.
"These are the memories we use to develop a sense of identity -- who we are and where we come from," she tells the Los Angeles Times.
Although infantile amnesia has been thoroughly studied in adults, Peterson led a team of researchers to find out how it works in children. That's when they discovered memories are like bubbles wandering through children's consciousness.
The Times reports Peterson and her team interviewed the same children two years apart. They found early childhood memories had solidified by age 10, but tended to come and go when the children were younger.
"By 10, their early memories are crystallized," Peterson tells the Times. "Those are the memories they keep."
But the memories are sporadic. We might remember getting a sliver at age 3, or our first taste of licorice. But that's about it.
Kind of ironic, psychology professor Elaine Reese of the University of Otago in New Zealand, tells the Times.
"You think about the emphasis on 0 to 3 in early education, but as adults we can't remember that period," she tells the newspaper. "It's one of those enigmas of science we'd like to understand."
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
5-13-2011 @ 2:59PM
Nenny said...I disagree, completely.
Reply
5-13-2011 @ 3:23PM
joann said...i still remember sleeping(or not sleepng) in my baby bed...and watching out the window for my dad to come home and then screaming for him to come and get me......and sitting in my high chair..and the food my mother tried to make me eat and my fathers response.....i have all kinds of memories before the age of 3 and after....
Reply
5-13-2011 @ 4:01PM
SkyBlue said...I have memories dating back to age 3 and younger, but they are only bits and pieces. There are no consistent long stretches of time.
Reply
5-13-2011 @ 7:12PM
Angela said...I have vivid memories of life before three. I remember the house we lived in to the point of being able to draw a floorplan. I remember the landlady, and going to pay the rent every month, the laundromat we used, the donut shop we stopped at every morning when we took my father to work, the toys I played with, my crib, the color of the carpet and the curtains, going to my pediatrition's office, I could go on and on. All of these events were prior to the age of three. We moved when I was 2-1/2, so I know these memories were all prior to three-years-old. I tell people I remember being an infant, but they think I'm nuts. Now I realize my 14-year-old son also has vivid memories of being an infant, and can also describe a lot of events and places prior to his third birthday. I guess it must run in the family. Of course, I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning, or where I left my keys, but I remember where I hid my mother's keys when I was four years old!
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5-13-2011 @ 7:15PM
red said...I can remember the dreams I had when I was younger than three. As far as anything else, I can't remember.
Reply
5-16-2011 @ 2:39PM
Angela said...Plus, I now remember how to spell "pediatrician." Just took a second!
Reply
5-13-2011 @ 7:19PM
Jean said...I always made time to take my son and to the park and sledding and all kinds of activities, etc. when he was young. He doesn't remember. Geez, I coulda kicked back with a book and a glass of wine instead. LOL
Reply
5-13-2011 @ 8:02PM
Angela Diaz said...I remember 2 vivid dreams I had, the house I lived in, my friends and their houses, my grandparent's houses, Christmases, the time I used all my mom's lipstick to paint my brother's face like a clown, playing hide and seek in the closet that was like a long hallway and joined my parents room to ours, my brother's birthday party where a girl stepped on a really creepy looking bug, all kinds of things between the ages of 1 and a half and three. But most are not a continuous memory. Now if I could just remember where I parked my car....
Reply
5-13-2011 @ 8:59PM
Nancy said...I remember when my mother brought my baby sister home from the hospital. Mom was wearing a navy blue coat and a navy plaid scarf. I was 21/2 then. I remember our house at that age. We had ivy wallpaper. I can always remember smoke curling up out of my mother's ashtray. I remember begging my father for a television. That was new technology back then. My dad was an engineer. I remember all of his blue prints spread out on his boards. My mother read to us every night. I remember the stories. I could go on and on. I really think most people remember a lot before the age of three.
Reply