Living and Loving – September 2019

L&L | SEPTEMBER 2019 | 71

baby & toddler

a sports team
at school to
turn out highly
successful,” says
Koraly. Similarly,
happiness doesn’t
rest on having a big
group of friends – a couple
of really good friendships
is all that’s needed. In fact,
shyness can be a real positive
in certain situations. A large
body of research shows that most
of us interpret the signs of shyness
positively. We see a wavering smile
or an occasionally averted gaze
as indications of a good person.
And there’s more. A study
conducted at Bellarmine
University, Kentucky in the US,
indicated that five-month-old
babies with better cognitive
abilities appeared a
little more fearful at 10
months. Your shy baby
might, in other words, be
a clever one. That said,
four-year-olds who tested
shy at three appear to
do a little worse in tasks
that require their working
memory, possibly because
their brains are distracted by
their concerns. “They call this
cognitive busyness,” says Koraly.
So, as your little one grows, it’s
worth helping her be as socially
confident as she can be. And,
luckily, there are lots of easy
ways you can do that. »

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