MOTHERS can give their babies a head start in life simply by understanding their feelings. A study of 200 mothers and their infants has found that in the first two years of life, the most important factor in a child’s development is not its mother’s education or wealth, but how well she interprets her baby’s moods.
Elizabeth Meins’s team at the University of Durham, UK, tested the babies’ language and play skills at 8, 14 and 24 months old. The researchers also assessed how well the mothers, half of whom had left school at 16, could read the mood of their child from video footage. They…
