Eliza Karazah can still remember the moment her husband, Balpreet, introduced their two-and-a-half-year-old son, Sabar, to the concept of dinosaurs. A 2020 study published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience found evidence that imaginative play can help support children's social and emotional development. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), the team monitored the brain activity of 33 children aged 4 to 8 and discovered that playing with dolls activated the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), a brain region associated with empathy and social information processing, even when children were playing alone.
The researchers also found significantly less activation in this area when children played solo tablet games, suggesting that pretend play may provide unique opportunities for youngsters to practice understanding other people's thoughts and feelings. Seeing Sabar transported to another world by this pack of dinosaurs was a joy to behold for Karazah. They’d come with him all over the house.
All 15.” Soon, Sabar’s interest in dinosaurs would seep into every other aspect of his life. He’d see a dinosaur and it was like seeing a celebrity. Dinosaurs were the Beatles to him.” Though this interest didn’t extend to screen time at first, eventually Sabar began to consume more and more dinosaur media.
Dinosaur movies, documentaries, YouTube videos. If the TV was on, a dinosaur was on the screen,” Karazah said. Sabar watched a few minutes of Jurassic Park (none of the scary parts), took in The Land Before Time (none of the sad parts), and developed a keen interest in dinosaur documentaries and dino-led specials of favorite shows like Sesame Street.
This kind of obsession isn’t uncommon in young children. Kaitlynn Blyth is a childhood development expert, family life educator, and member of the National Council on Family Relations. She is also the founder and CEO of Happy Day Play, a New York-based family learning company that offers play-based classes, events, and educational resources designed to support children's development and help parents navigate the early years.
For a pre-schooler, being the expert in the room is a rare feeling, and it is a feeling of empowerment.” Blyth points to the findings of a 2007 study published in the journal Developmental Psychology that found nearly one in three children develops an “extremely intense interest” in a particular topic, with vehicles and dinosaurs among the most common subjects. The researchers found that these passions were significantly more common in boys, though many girls developed them as well. Parents involved in the study reported the fascination lasting anywhere from six months to three years, and for most kids it fades once school starts and the world gets bigger.
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