Travels make children smarter, happier

Travels stimulate young minds more than toys can. (Cathay Pacific photo)

If you’re stressing about missing big deals and looking for an alternative to an expensive toy, here’s good news from experts: Gifting your kids experiences and bonding time rather than things might be better for their soul and mind.

In a recently resurfaced 2017 study published in The Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, researchers surveyed close to 500 women between 18 and 93 years old and asked them: “Most people feel loved when … ”

The most popular answers had nothing to do with receiving a tangible item.

“Our research found that micro-moments of positivity, like a kind word, cuddling with a child or receiving compassion make people feel most loved,” said Dr. Zita Oravecz, a human development and family studies professor at Pennsylvania State University and one of the study’s authors.

“Give a two-year-old a present and she’ll get absorbed in the box instead,” said psychological author Oliver James in a conversation with U.K. outlet The Telegraph.

“It’s similar with children and travel. We should let them explore their own ways of finding wonder in their surroundings,” advised James.

Aside from a potential boost to long-term happiness, vacations can make children smarter, British child psychologist Dr. Margot Sunderland wrote.

“What is less widely known is that [vacations] can also advance brain development in children,” said Sunderland. “This is because on a family [vacation], you are exercising two genetically ingrained systems deep in the brain’s limbic area, which can all too easily be ‘unexercised’ in the home.”

Sunderland said the brain’s play system “is exercised every time you bury your child’s feet in the sand, tickle them on the pool lounger, or take them for a ride on your back. The seeking system is exercised each time you go exploring together: the forest, the beach, a hidden gem of a village.”

“So when you take your child on a [vacation], you are supporting their explorative urge, a vital resource for living life well, and their capacity to play,” she added. “In adulthood, this translates into the ability to play with ideas — essential, for example, to the successful entrepreneur.” (People.com)