“My kids love dinosaurs! Actually they are obsessed, really really obsessed and they know all the dinosaur types and names”, said a Mom who loved dinosaurs too, a long long time ago!
“My daughter has an obsession for cars. She loves to collect toy cars and park them in various places in the house, some times those places are under our feet and a whole lot of household members are tripping on them always”, said another mom who is amazed at her daughter’s knowledge about different kinds of cars!
Child Development experts call obsessions like these a “Deep Intense Interest”. We educationists don’t know exactly what sparks these interests and parents often can’t think of the exact moment or event that kicked off this interest — but a lot of children have one at some point, between the ages of two and six and for some the interest lasts further into childhood. Studies in this field have shown that the most common interests that children show at early age is in vehicles like planes, trains, cars, action figures, super heroes, machines, live animals, balls and dinosaurs.
For many of them, these obsessions are their first taste of mastery. They love being an expert. To have a deeper understanding of something their parent doesn’t know enough about, is awesome for them. It makes them feel like a boss and very powerful. Kelli Chen, a known paediatric psychiatric occupational therapist is of the opinion that these deep interests and obsessions are a big confidence booster for children and help in children’s cognitive development. Many studies in this area point out that these sustained obsessions help them to develop persistence skills and result in increased knowledge, a longer attention span and much deeper information-processing skills. In nutshell they make intense learners pretty smart and bright. Decades of research suggest that older children with these so called obsessions and intense interests tend to be of above-average intelligence.
So let your kids develop intense interests and don’t worry about their obsessions. Encourage their need to learn more and more about their favourite topic. Help stimulate their brains by getting them books on the topic and surround their environment with things that can help them in sustaining these obsessions to learn for a long long time.
I love Dinosaurs even now, It is one of my few intense interest obsessions that stuck right into adulthood.
Check some dinosaur themed products in available on our store!
https://www.lilsakos.com/style-story/little-dinosaur-lovers
Much Love from a Mom who has some of her own intense obsessions !
Saakshi Kapoor Singla
Kid photo created by freepik – www.freepik.com
SAAKSHI SINGLA 