Ding-dong! It was the doorbell for the third time. Mrs. Cooper opened the door and little Ben rushed in. “Mom, look! Dad got me another one!”
Every kid has one thing they’re crazy about, and can’t go a day without them. For little ben, its dinosaurs! Just like Ben, some kids are really interested in dinosaur kinds of stuff because it gets them excited. If you ever visit a “tiny paleontologist’s” room, you’ll know it for sure, from the presence of dinosaur posters, toys, backpacks etc.
Dinosaurs are very fascinating, most of the time a child’s first encounter may be through the children’s encyclopedia, and it fascinates them to see such large and beautiful creatures that they’ve never seen at the zoo. Also, the fact that these creatures lived in our world and are no longer in existence sparks a whole new level of interest and makes them want to know more about these creatures and that’s how the whole obsession begins.
Basically, children are obsessed with dinosaurs because they find them fun and awesome. All thanks to movies like Jurassic Park, seeing these creatures live on TV gets them super excited. Imagine a two-year-old staring at a 30ft long version of a toy he/she has in his/her room, its more thrilling and it raises their level of curiousness.
It seems pretty normal for kids to love dinosaurs, let’s face it; they’re really cool! Dinosaurs are no longer here, sadly, but they’ve left a long-lasting impression, especially on children. Their mounted skeletons at museums, realistic dinosaur costumes, colorful documentaries on The Discovery Channel, and dinosaur inspired CGI movies are very fascinating even for adults, so it’s understandable that children love these creatures.
In an interview with The Cut, Chen said “asking questions, finding answers, and gaining expertise is the learning process in general.” Early interests, especially in dinosaurs, can help kids develop broader knowledge, a better focus, improved thinking, and retentive memory, hence they become smarter.
Brian Switek had his thoughts on why children love dinosaurs, “We first meet Tyrannosaurus and Diplodocus as children, their bones inspiring dreams, nightmares, and some of our earliest connections to science,” he wrote. Those dreams become bigger and develop into curiosities that lead to the search for more information and this makes kids more intelligent.
A recent study has shown that kids with great interests in astronomy and dinosaurs tend to be highly intelligent. As a parent, you shouldn’t think your kid is weird for playing with dinosaur toys and train sets rather than toy cars or toy planes. Studies have revealed that being obsessed with dinosaurs enhances your kids’ intelligence. Somehow, it helps them start studying at such a young age, they learn to recite scientific names of different species, talk about their habitats, what they feed on, some even paint these wonderful creatures and it’s always so cute!
Unfortunately, as time goes on, the dinosaur obsession most of those kids had begins to die down gradually as they grow older, due to having more important stuff to do such as schoolwork or discovering new sets of interests. Luckily, some still grow up with the whole dinosaur obsession thing; they are the ones that end up being paleontologists, taphonomists, dino wranglers or even biologists.