Study Suggests That Children Who Are Fascinated With Dinosaurs Have Higher IQ

Most of the kids develop this fascination without any encouragement from their parents.

Damjan

• Published in Interesting
• September 24, 2020

Many kids are completely obsessed with dinosaurs. We can see them wearing dinosaur shirts, read books about them, and play with dinosaur toys all day long. And that is great because one study says kids obsessed with these creatures are more intelligent than children who aren’t.

This phenomenon is called "intense interests." About 30% of the children develop this intense interest in their lives, but most of the fascination typically fades away after the age of six. 

Research papers from the University of Indiana and the University of Wisconsin state that an intense interest can “enhance perseverance, improve attention and enhance skills of complex thinking as the processing of information,” especially when the interest demands a conceptual domain.

It is believed that Intense interests also improve language abilities and are a good indicator of higher understanding. The researchers also noticed that the way kids study dinosaurs help them build strategies to take on different challenges.

Intriguingly, children’s intense interest in dinosaurs starts in the first year of life, even without any family encouragement. But, as we mentioned earlier, most of these fascinations fade away, and only 20% of children still have this intense interest when they start school.

Scientists think that once children start school and have to dedicate time to learning and adopting new things, they don’t longer have enough free time to explore their interests. They suggest parents should keep their children’s curiosity alive by teaching them facts about objects of their interests, and not just let them play and pretend.

Damjan