Science Explains Why Toddlers Don’t Listen

By Alex in Baby & Kids, Health, Science & Tech on Mar 27, 2009 at 1:50 pm

After determining the biological basis of why teenagers don’t like doing chores, science turns it attention to another of life’s great mystery: why toddler don’t do what they’re told.

Are you listening to me? Didn’t I just tell you to get your coat? Helloooo! It’s cold out there…

So goes many a conversation between parent and toddler. It seems everything you tell them either falls on deaf ears or goes in one ear and out the other. But that’s not how it works.

Toddlers listen, they just store the information for later use, a new study finds.

"I went into this study expecting a completely different set of findings," said psychology professor Yuko Munakata at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "There is a lot of work in the field of cognitive development that focuses on how kids are basically little versions of adults trying to do the same things adults do, but they’re just not as good at it yet. What we show here is they are doing something completely different."

Tags: psychology, toddler, Yuko Munakata

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Courageous Grace
Mar 27th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Mine listens to me. He just doesn’t do what he is told. That and he likes to test me to see how where his boundaries are.
AJ
Mar 27th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I’d like to see a real world experiment that doesn’t involve watching a screen and identifying popular cartoon characters. A child’s degree of exposure to those two characters and past experience with screen time could influence the outcome.

My explanation for disobeying instructions is far simpler. What is important to you is not important to toddlers. They don’t share your sense of priorities and often need the threat of repercussions (punishment) or verbal cues (Daddy getting upset) in order to understand urgency or importance.

My kids have no trouble understanding directions or anticipating how to fulfill my wishes. Sometimes they just don’t feel the need to do what I say. There’s a big difference between the two.
Non
Mar 27th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Interesting info, but would a parent use such knowledge in a way that would help their childs development, or would they mean well yet hinder a child’s development? If you KNEW this was how a toddler interpreted the world, would you still try to get them to remember things ahead of time (helping them develop such skills) or would you just cater to their way of thinking?
Dim67
Mar 27th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
So if parents just tell their kids to put on the coat an hour before school, then everything is fine..
Rudy Ascott
Mar 27th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
This is why I refuse to hire babies.
AJ
Mar 27th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
That’s ageist.
Timm
Mar 28th, 2009 at 4:49 am
“Science”, indeed. If “science” knew half the shit is suposes it does about human behavior we would have a lot of our problems resolved wouldn’t we? Instead we have random violent crimes where people go to their local post office, work place, school, etc. to shoot and kill the local residents. That’s what science has brought us…
Gauldar
Mar 30th, 2009 at 10:23 am
@Timm

Then stop using the frigg’in computer, science brought you it.
Gauldar
Mar 30th, 2009 at 11:19 am
@Timm

After reading your comment again I am confused to what “science” has to do with people going postal. Are you saying that “science” should have phased out the post office years ago?

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