At what age do children have memory

When people think back on their childhood, they find that they can only remember things from kindergarten, and most of the things from younger times cannot be remembered. Many parents are curious about at what age children have memory. Do children really forget many things from their childhood? In fact, children have memories since they are born. It’s not that babies have no memories before the age of 3, but they are hidden.

Most people believe that babies have no memories before the age of 3, but this is not true. For example, when they start to feel familiar with the special smells, sounds or lights at the hospital, they recall their previous unpleasant experiences there and start crying.

Babies have memories from birth, but their way of remembering is quite special. It is usually a conditioned response to conditioned stimuli. For example, they create memories by observing objects around them and making comparisons; they remember their mother's smell through their sense of smell, and they remember their own toys through the touch, etc. These are the secrets of their memory.

◇ When he is just born, he can recognize the smell and taste of food that his mother ate when she was pregnant.

◇ Newborns can recognize their mother’s voice.

◇ After a few months, he was able to listen to what people around him said and hear some simple words from a series of sounds.

◇ When he is about 9 months old, he can remember specific details, such as an adult demonstrating how to play with a certain toy, and he can remember it for at least a month.

Memories before the age of 3 are not lost; they are deep in our brains, but hidden in some way.

Although most of us cannot recall events before the age of 3, these memories stored in our minds will not be wasted and will become active as long as there is a suitable scenario. The memory of babies before the age of 3 mainly has the following characteristics:

◆ Image memory

The memory before the age of 3 focuses on image memory. What is remembered is the appearance of things, but there is no certain ability to understand. For example, at only two months old, he already recognized the bottle. He would open his mouth as soon as the bottle approached and sometimes even smack his lips. In the memory of young children, they often rely on image memory, especially visual image memory.

◆ Motor memory

It means that the baby remembers his own movements or actions. For example, when she was taking a bath, she threw the duck into the water and the splashing water made her feel very interesting, so she remembered this interesting thing. When the same scene appears again, he will repeat the action.

◆ Emotional memory

Emotional memory is also common. For example, babies can especially remember things or scenes that make them feel scared or sad.

◆ Mechanical memory

When babies are young, their comprehension ability is relatively poor. They often don’t quite understand what they are trying to remember, but they can still recite it happily. For example, they may learn a lot of nursery rhymes or tell stories, but they don’t know what they mean.

◆ Remember quickly, forget quickly

Although babies under 3 years old have memory, the memory is generally retained for a short time. When something a baby has seen appears in front of him again, babies under one year old can basically remember what happened a few days ago, while two-year-old babies can recognize what happened a few weeks ago, and three-year-old babies can recognize what happened a few months ago.

One important reason why humans lose their memories before the age of three is that the various areas of the cortex have not yet fully matured; another important reason is that the baby has not yet learned the ability to control language, and early memories are generally preserved in non-verbal form.

Therefore, the memories before the age of three that seem to be lost are actually still present in our subconscious mind, but because we were still young at that time, we had not yet learned to express them in words.

Don’t think that babies under 3 years old have no memory, they are actually very smart. When you enter their world and understand the characteristics of their memory, you will discover more cuteness of babies. In addition, babies have emotional memories in their brains, so they can feel whether you are caring and enthusiastic about them or indifferent to them.