Autonomous toddlers have higher cognitive skills

Moms who encourage autonomous behaviour in their kids have children with higher cognitive skills, a new study has found.
The study led by researchers at the University of Montreal, Canada, found that a child's executive functioning is linked to the mother's ability to support his or her autonomy.
Executive functioning refers to a range of cognitive processes that are essential for cognitive, social and psychological functioning.
"Autonomy support includes things such as teaching children problem solving skills and involves taking the child's perspective while ensuring he or she takes an active role in completing tasks," said Celia Matte-Gagne, who led the study.

"Importantly, the study shows that it's not just about getting off to a good start. While many studies have confirmed that a mother's support are critical, few have looked at how these skills might change over time and what effect that might have," Matte-Gagne said.
Seventy-eight mothers and their children participated in the study. The participants were visited in their homes twice by the research team - once when the child was 15 months old, again at 3 years of age - and each visit lasted 60 to 90 minutes.

During this time, the mother was asked to help the children complete activities that were slightly too difficult for the child to complete alone (building a tower and completing puzzles at the first visit, sorting blocks at the second.)

The activities took ten minutes and were video-recorded so that the researchers could evaluate the mother's autonomy-supportive behaviours.
The researchers evaluated to what extent the mother encouraged her child in the pursuit of the task (giving positive feedback and using a positive tone of voice), took her child's perspective and demonstrated flexibility in her attempts to keep the child on task or followed her child's pace.
They also assessed whether the mother provided the child with the opportunity to make choices and play an active role, and intervened and adapted the task according to the infant's needs while minimising the use of controlling techniques.

The child's executive functioning was evaluated at three years of age by using a range of adapted games that show a child's ability to delay gratification, the strength of their working memory and their capacity to think about multiple concepts simultaneously.
The highest scores went to the children whose mothers were consistently amongst the best at promoting autonomous behaviour; conversely, those whose mothers were not scored lowest.