Each of us remembers many events from our childhood, but even if we really wanted to, we couldn’t remember everything. No adult can recall the moment of their birth or the first years of their life.
Our memories generally begin around the ages of 3 to 5. Psychologists have termed this phenomenon “childhood amnesia” or “infantile amnesia.” The causes of this phenomenon are still being studied. However, some doctors and psychologists point to the “protective” function of our psyche: historically, human infants were so weak and dependent on adults that they needed this flexibility in memory to adapt to unpredictable conditions and situations that were new to them.
The process of forming memories is handled by a network of nerve cells that develops between 6 and 18 months of age. At this stage, both short-term and long-term memory emerge. But if our memory has already reached the necessary level, why do we forget our childhood?
It turns out this happens because we are unable to link events to words, since we cannot yet speak and do not know the words needed to describe any event.