During childhood, especially in the first years of life, it is common for boys and girls to play with dolls or stuffed animals, taking them with them everywhere and sometimes imitating what mom and dad do, such as feeding them, dressing them, and so on. But did you know that the side on which they choose to load it could tell you something about your son?
A new study found that the side on which children choose to carry their dolls could be an indication of the level of their social and cognitive skills.
Some time ago, we shared the scientific explanation about why most mothers carried or cradled their babies on the left side of the body. Now, this new study analyzed the same action, but in children and is based precisely on previous studies such as the one we share about mothers.
Counting with the participation of 98 children of four and five years (54 girls and 44 boys), the study carried out in London analyzed the way in which the children carried or cradled a doll that pretended to be a baby and also two pillows, one which they drew a happy face and another left blank.
It was found that those children who carried the doll or the pillow with the happy face on the left side, showed better cognitive and social skills than those who did it on the right side. These skills include the probability of following the rules, the willingness to share with others and the desire to please their teachers.
In the case of the pillow they left blank, the children showed no preference for any particular side, unlike that in which they could identify a face, even if it was not in a doll that simulated a human baby.
And why does this happen? The researchers explain that faces receive special attention from our left field of vision (which is connected to the right side of the brain, which is responsible for the emotional and social relationships), a skill that most people have and that may be due to the need thousands of years ago to identify predators around us.
So as in the study of mothers, keep a baby or doll on the left side, It is something that is done because it allows you to be watching more efficiently, which represents an advantage for socializing with other people, as well as a better processing of the social stimuli that surround us.
