Psychology facts.

The brain forms faster now than at any other moment of life. The mother's stress, nutrition and calm are already part of the child's first environment.

• ✦About 250,000 neurons are created every minute at the peak of prenatal brain growth.
• ✦A baby recognises its mother's voice at birth — it was learning sound in the last trimester.

Trust is the first psychological task. Being answered when you cry teaches the nervous system that the world is safe — this becomes attachment style.

• ✦Secure attachment before age 2 predicts emotional regulation decades later.
• ✦Play is not a break from learning — it is how the infant brain wires itself.

Language explodes, imagination rules, and the child discovers that other people have their own minds — the birth of empathy.

• ✦A 5-year-old asks up to 300 questions a day — curiosity is a developmental need, not noise.
• ✦Naming an emotion out loud lowers its intensity — this skill starts here.

School, comparison and competence. The child now measures themselves against others — this is where self-esteem or shame takes root.

• ✦Praise for effort builds resilience; praise for talent builds fear of failure.
• ✦Friendship quality at this age predicts adult loneliness better than popularity does.

Identity is the central question: who am I, and whose am I? The emotional brain matures years before the braking system does.

• ✦The prefrontal cortex — judgement and impulse control — is not finished until about age 25.
• ✦Sleep shifts later biologically; a tired teenager is often a mis-scheduled one.

Intimacy, work and migration. Choices feel permanent even when they are not — and loneliness peaks quietly here, especially far from home.

• ✦Loneliness raises health risk comparably to smoking — connection is preventive medicine.
• ✦Identity keeps forming after 20 — most people re-choose their direction at least twice.

Generativity versus stagnation: the drive to build something that outlives you — mentoring, family, community, work with meaning.

• ✦Happiness follows a U-curve: it dips around 45–50 and rises again afterwards.
• ✦Crystallised intelligence — judgement, vocabulary, wisdom — keeps growing into the 60s.

Integrity versus despair: the mind reviews the whole story. Peace comes from meaning made, not from time left.

• ✦Emotional wellbeing often improves with age — older adults focus more on positive memories.
• ✦Being listened to at the end of life reduces fear more than any explanation does.