Moms are, too, important

We always knew this, but I guess it's good to have it quantified.

It turns out that the ways moms act when they're playing and solving puzzles with their babies can explain some of the differences in children's development of executive functioning.

Children of moms who answered their children's requests for help quickly and accurately; talked about their children's preferences, thoughts, and memories during play; and encouraged successful strategies to help solve difficult problems performed better at a year and a half and 2 years on tasks that call for executive skills than children of moms who didn't use these techniques in interacting with their youngsters.

I'll bet this transfers directly to child care. I'll bet kids with providers who act this way do better, too. This is why  measures of teacher-child interaction are more important than measures of environment in a quality rating system.