What 4-year-olds can do better than we can do

Also: The routine medical tests that can trigger a cascade of costly, unnecessary care [View in browser](    [❤️]( June 14, 2022 Hello CommonHealth reader, I got to peek into a child’s brain — and it’s a busy place. As part of WBUR's [special series this week on child care]( why it costs so darn much (despite meager wages for workers), I reported about what happens in the brain before kids start school — essentially from 0 to 5 years old. Turns out, it’s the period of the most rapid brain development. The story I wrote includes both fun discoveries and worrisome findings about the long-term effects of our earliest learning years. You can [read all about that here](. But I wanted to share an interesting experiment I heard about during the course of my reporting that didn't make it into the final article. Here's what the researchers did: 4-year-olds and their parents were given a picture book to read once every night for 10 nights. At the end of the 10 nights, the words were covered up, but the illustrations remained visible. Both the child and the parent were asked to recite the words as best they could. The parents, on average, got only a few lines. The kids, on average, could recount 60%-70% verbatim. Those results were unexpected. Zsuzsa Kaldy, a researcher at the Baby Lab at UMass Boston and co-author of the study, said it contradicted prior research that found kids didn't have great long-term memories and that their memories are highly influenced by emotions. “We thought, ‘Okay, maybe this was not fair to the parents because they were tired,” Kaldy said. After all, parenting a little kiddo is exhausting. Seems like a plausible explanation, right? Nope. Kaldy’s team tried the experiment with undergraduates. They also tried it again with parents, this time giving them a heads up that they’d be tested on the story at the end. And yet, the results remained similar. “Basically, no matter what we did, adults were always worse at this test than the 4-year-olds,” she said. “There aren’t that many situations where that happens.” Their explanation? Before you learn how to read, the only way to access previously learned information is to commit it to memory. So, memorizing is a skill young kids have developed and practiced. Kaldy’s guess is this memorizing superpower starts to diminish once kids are about 8 or 9 years old, when they have learned to read and aren’t practicing memorization as much. I wonder if there’s some way kids can retain this amazing ability while also learning to read! Perhaps we should have them performing in plays and memorizing scripts from a very young age? P.S. — This month, WBUR is conducting a different kind of fundraiser. Instead of our usual five-day on-air event, you’ll hear WBUR uninterrupted on the radio. But we still need to meet our monthly goal — and today is a great day to give! Why? Some members of our Murrow Society will double the first year of monthly gifts starting today. So, [make your monthly gift now]( Already a WBUR Sustainer? They're [offering to match increases to existing gifts]( too! Thank you for reading and supporting our work. Gabrielle Emanuel Health reporter [Follow]( Support the news  This Week's Must Reads [How child care can build kids' brains, one interaction at a time]( The most rapid brain development happens in the first five years of life, and evidence suggests back-and-forth interactions between children and their caregivers play a pivotal role. [Read more.]( [How child care can build kids' brains, one interaction at a time]( The most rapid brain development happens in the first five years of life, and evidence suggests back-and-forth interactions between children and their caregivers play a pivotal role. [Read more.]( [Overdose deaths reached a record high in Mass. during 2021]( A stunning 2,290 people died after an overdose in Massachusetts last year, setting a new record, according to state officials. Experts believe a two factors contributed to the increase. [Read more.]( [Overdose deaths reached a record high in Mass. during 2021]( A stunning 2,290 people died after an overdose in Massachusetts last year, setting a new record, according to state officials. Experts believe a two factors contributed to the increase. [Read more.]( [When routine medical tests trigger a cascade of costly, unnecessary care]( MRIs done early for uncomplicated low back pain and routine vitamin D tests "just to be thorough" are considered "low-value care" and can lead to further testing that can cost patients thousands. [Read more.]( [When routine medical tests trigger a cascade of costly, unnecessary care]( MRIs done early for uncomplicated low back pain and routine vitamin D tests "just to be thorough" are considered "low-value care" and can lead to further testing that can cost patients thousands. [Read more.]( [More states are allowing students to take mental health days off]( While a growing number of states are trying to address the increasing mental health crisis among youths, many schools are woefully short of therapists and the budget to hire them. [Read more.]( [More states are allowing students to take mental health days off]( While a growing number of states are trying to address the increasing mental health crisis among youths, many schools are woefully short of therapists and the budget to hire them. [Read more.]( [On advice of city health commission, Boston will end mask mandate in schools]( The announcement that the in-school mandate is ending came with messages of praise for its effectiveness. [Read more.]( [On advice of city health commission, Boston will end mask mandate in schools]( The announcement that the in-school mandate is ending came with messages of praise for its effectiveness. [Read more.]( What We're Reading 📚 Massachusetts announced [two new cases of monkeypox]( on Sunday. As the outbreak in the U.S. grows, it’s worth understanding how the virus spreads. Unfortunately, there isn't a simple answer. Officials at the CDC say the monkeypox virus is usually transmitted through direct physical contact, and they’re pushing back against the idea that it can spread through the air. The New York Times's Apoorva Mandavilli [reports that not all experts agree](. “Airborne transmission may not be the dominant route of transmission nor very efficient, but it could still occur,” Linsey Marr, an expert on airborne viruses at Virginia Tech, told the Times. You might recall a similar debate from the early days of COVID. The coronavirus, we now know, can spread through tiny airborne particles called aerosols. That doesn't mean we should expect a similar scenario with monkeypox. Most experts agree that monkeypox does not seem to be transmitted over the distances that the coronavirus can be. And they say it’s unlikely that monkeypox will create a pandemic on the scale of the COVID crisis. "These are sobering and devastating statistics." — Deirdre Calvert, of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, about [opioid overdose deaths in 2021]( ICYMI [Why this wave of COVID hospitalizations in Mass. is different]( For much of the past two months, COVID hospitalizations in Massachusetts were rising again. But this COVID "creep" is not quite the same as prior surges. [Read more.]( [Why this wave of COVID hospitalizations in Mass. is different]( For much of the past two months, COVID hospitalizations in Massachusetts were rising again. But this COVID "creep" is not quite the same as prior surges. [Read more.]( Did you know... that a positive outlook could help you live longer? Harvard researchers found [higher levels of optimism]( were associated with longer lifespans in women across racial and ethnic groups. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news     Want to change how you receive these emails? Stop getting this newsletter by [updating your preferences.](  I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. Unsubscribe from all WBUR editorial newsletters [here.](  Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? [Click here.]( Copyright © 2022 WBUR-FM, All rights reserved.