Maybe you’ve never heard of child amnesia. But you probably have already wondered why you (or your child) can’t remember remarkable things from when you were a child such as, for example, your first steps, your first words , what I was afraid of or the birthday party for one year of life.
The phenomenon of not having a memory of early childhood is what science calls childhood amnesia, that is, the gradual and natural loss of memories obtained in the first years of life.
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Why do we lose our memories?
For students of psychology, childhood amnesia is an important and normal part of of brain development, in which those memories that are not reinforced or repeated are lost over time.
When we consider memory, we generally link it to human ability to remember lived experiences. These punctual experiences are called episodic memories and are related to the hippocampus, a part of our brain located in the temporal lobe.
The issue is that the hippocampus area is not fully developed at birth. . Neuroscience has known for some time that the hippocampus forms, or rather develops, around age 4, a period when children tend to remember things more consistently. This can help to understand why we remember almost nothing of our first years of life.
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The role of language
Research carried out in recent times has also shown that language plays an important role in our memory formation process. Between one and six years, in the so-called early childhood, we go from the stage of pronouncing just one word to the level of becoming fluent in our native language.
Therefore, the older the child becomes, the better she will remember her experiences, as the changes in her verbal ability are significant and overlap with the period of childhood amnesia (before age 4).
In 2005, a team of researchers conducted a paper, later published in the American Psychological Association
, trying to elucidate some aspects between language and childhood memory.
They interviewed children who had suffered a typical childhood injury, such as a knee injury . According to the data collected, those around 3 years old who were able to verbalize what happened at the time it happened, could remember the event up to five years later.
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Already those with less 3-year-olds who could not verbalize the incident, remembered nothing or very little. That is, there is the possibility of losing our childhood memories because we cannot translate them into words.
Even so, experiences are important
Dr. Rachael Elward, an expert in the cognitive neuroscience of memory and childhood amnesia, says she should not be a reason for parents not to create memories with their young children. According to the expert, even if they don’t remember it later, the experiences help children learn more about the world.
For example, although a child may not remember a specific visit to a zoo, having been there can help them remember the names of animals or what a zoo is. In addition, there is the fundamental aspect of creating bonds between parents and young children and learning about social interactions.
