Children as young as 15 months can detect anger when watching other people’s social interactions and then use that emotional information to guide their own behavior.
When kids say “the darnedest things,” it’s often in response to something they heard or saw. This sponge-like learning starts at birth, as infants begin to decipher the social world surrounding them long before they can speak.
The study found that when toddlers watched an argument between two adults they either became more reluctant to play with their toys or their play became more impulsive and erratic
The researchers also wondered if the children’s temperament played a role. They had parents fill out the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire, which uses questions like “How long does your child stop and think before making decisions?” to measure impulsivity.
The higher the score for impulsivity, the researchers found, the more likely the toddlers were to perform the forbidden actions when the anger-prone adult was watching them. READ MORE
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