Children Who Stick Out Their Tongues When They Are Focused. Because?

Children who stick out their tongues when they’re focused. This gesture is so common that it goes unnoticed. We’ve all seen this image. But why does this happen? According to experts, in children between five and nine years old this action is more frequent.

This is not a general mental or health problem. Apparently, it is a reflex produced by the mobilization of language and motor skills. Just as we make hand or face gestures when we speak, sticking out our tongues when we think follows the same principle.

One way to identify that a child is really focused is when we see him perform this gesture. It is gratifying to see how the child focuses on an activity, so that nothing around him affects his concentration. There may be noise around, children playing, people talking. Nothing takes away her concentration.

Why do children stick out their tongues when they are focused?

In recent years, researchers have also taken an interest in this behavior. According to a study, there is a close relationship between language and motor activity. According to the results, it is not just a matter of sticking out the tongue, there are also other patterns that can be observed.

To conduct the study, researchers recorded 14 children as they performed different activities. Four-year-old children whose common characteristic was being right-handed were studied. They were observed while completing exercises designed especially for this purpose. The activities measured different levels of motricity, in which the action of putting the tongue out was supposedly taking place.

The researchers noticed that, in activities involving fine motor skills, the result was as expected. However, they were surprised to note that the observed action also occurred in exercises that required more movement. That is, the children concentrated and expressed this concentration by sticking their tongue out a little, at different levels of concentration.

Likewise, it was observed that they put the tongue out regardless of the side, either the right or the left. They also highlighted how often they performed this gesture, and how long they maintained it. Apparently, it is not the fine motor exercises that trigger the action of sticking out the tongue more often. Those activities that require less precision are the ones that most activate this reflex.

Therefore, they were able to explain that this behavior is related to communication, in the most basic terms. To explain this, they claim that in most cases, the little ones stick their tongue out from the left side. Side of the cerebral hemisphere related to language.

Now that you know…

We can bet you know what we’re talking about.  We’ve all seen our son do this. But now maybe we’ll pay more attention. It’s such a beautiful gesture and now, also so interesting. Watch your child and notice how much he concentrates. What are the activities that make him stick out his tongue?

According to the researchers, this action is related to language. Maybe we’re seeing how little brains work. Furthermore, it is indicative of what he can achieve. It demonstrates that his capabilities are being applied to the full. It’s very simple behavior. But science explains a number of neurological behaviors that are worth studying and understanding.

You may wonder why we don’t often observe this behavior in adults. Researchers explain that in some situations we react by sticking our tongue out, but then we notice. When this starts to happen, we decide to repress this action due to cultural reasons.

We don’t want other adults to see us do this. However, it is something that can happen at any time because it is a primitive reflex that is difficult to completely eliminate.