Kids obsessed with dinosaurs are smarter than those who aren't

Some kids are absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs. They fill their rooms with dinosaur toys and posters, and can even name the most obscure species — sometimes in Latin. In psychology, this is known as having "intense interests."

About one-third of children develop an intense interest in topics like dinosaurs, astronomy, or other subjects. These obsessions often emerge between the ages of 2 and 6 and may fade over time. However, some children's interests persist well into later life.

A study carried out at the universities of Indiana and Wisconsin found that children who develop an intense interest do better later in life. Joyce M. Alexander of Indiana University and her team found that this type of interest, especially those that demand a conceptual domain, "enhance perseverance, improve attention and enhance skills of complex thinking as the processing of information." 

Alexander differentiated this "conceptual interest" from situational interests. If a dinosaur lets out a loud roar, a child will be interested in that only at that moment in time. If dinosaurs themselves are the point of interest, that's conceptual.  

Intense interests were also proven to improve linguistic skills and to be a good indicator of high understanding. Psychologists explain that the ways children study dinosaurs help them develop strategies for facing new situations and problems throughout their lives.

Yale University and the University of Virginia also found that intense interests in childhood do not seem to be a result of a parent's interest. They found that obsessions with dinosaurs or astronomy develop during the first year of life, without the parents having encouraged them.  

Unfortunately, this research also found that obsessions usually only last between six months and three years. Just 20 percent of children were still passionate about the same issue they were obsessed with as a child after they entered school.

The researchers suggest that once a kid starts studying, they lose the free time to devote themselves to their interest, meaning it quickly fades and is replaced with the general knowledge learned at school. Kids were also found to discuss their interests less if their new friends weren't interested in it.  

For any parent wanting to keep the interest alive, they recommend teaching children facts about their interests. Kids who actively learned information performed better than those who went on "pretend adventures" with their dinosaurs.   

Alexander also found that although boys and girls focused and expressed their interests in a similar manner, boys tended to develop intense interests more than girls. This may be due to the fact that the subject of their interests and the activities they used to explore that interest were so different.  

Girls tended to explore interests through "pretend adventures," as well as toward creative arts and literacy. Whereas boys would seek to gather information on their interest. 

Alexander suggested that this could be because boys tend to take comfort in set rules and finite fact. And unfortunately, parents and marketing could also be to blame because of their idea of what is appropriate for boys and girls to be interested in. 

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in 2019 and has since been updated.