04/23/2026
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Grandparenting for a Sharp Brain
To keep your brain sharp as you age, a new study suggests you try looking after the grandchildren. Researchers analyzed data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging, tracking 2,887 grandparents with an average age of 67 between 2016 and 2022. They found that those who were actively involved in child care—from playing and preparing meals to helping with homework—consistently performed better on cognitive tests. Non-caregiving grandparents saw their memory scores fall more sharply over time, while caregiving grandparents experienced only modest declines. A similar pattern emerged for verbal fluency, measured by how many animals participants could name in one minute. The benefits, which were most apparent in grandmothers, appeared regardless of how regularly grandparents helped out or what kind of care they provided. Lead author Flavia Chereches, from Tilburg University in the Netherlands, tells The Times (U.K.): “Being a caregiving grandparent seemed to matter more for cognitive functioning than how often grandparents provided care or what exactly they did with their grandchildren.”
