New Study Indicates Lying Children Have Better Memories

And this morning's hot button kids and lying. If you

ask any parent they'll probably tell you every child does

it but it turns out there may actually be an

up side? An upside and kids who do it well

may be smarter than you think. ABC's nick watt has

more on this. Reporter: Have you ever lied to daddy?

Yes. Reporter: That's my kid. Of course, he has. All

kids lie from pinocchio. Oh, look. My nose. Reporter: To

Laila littlely on idea modern family." Somebody knocked my bag

down and broke my phone. I'll blame everything on him

until he learns how to talk. Reporter: Watch this recent

hidden camera study and disturbing discovery. The kids and it

was one in four who peeked at the quiz answers

when the grown-up left the room. Then convincingly lied about

it. I thought it might be Jim 'cause there's someone

in nye family called Jim. Reporter: Further tests showed they

have the best memories, they're smart so we should be

proud of our kids if they're good liars? The better's

child working memory the better they were at covering up

their lies. I tell a few true parts of the

story and but then I mix in a few parts

that aren't true. Reporter: And 3-year-old Elsa sipped her dad's

beer and blamed her mum. You saw her do it

but she covered her tracks. Right. Reporter: Or tried to.

Watch her. Not a behavior we want to encourage ago

parents but it decreases over time. Reporter: Apparently I should

want them to be good at it now. I re-created

that experiment. What is the boy in space boy called?

Okay. Hang/second. Be back in one second. My kids didn't

peekty answer and didn't lie. I'm proud of them anyway.

What's space boy? Even peek. I love Sebastian at the

top. Nick's little guy. Yeah, that's my boy. But 'not

lying about that. That 'S exactly right. Yahoo! Parenting experts,

Lindsay and Dr. Robyn Silverman. The first question, just like

nick and joking should you be teaching them ow to

lie and the consequences of it. Well, I mean the

thing is with -- what research has shown that one

in five interactions that adults have are lies so 20%

-- I didn't realize it. No surprise that kids are

picking it up. These kids are lying for all different

reasons. Some do it to get out of trouble. Others

do it because other people might feel bad and they

feel bad and still others might do it just because

they think it's fun to pull the wool over somebody's

eyes and there's different lies. Some are socially acceptable and

we say thank goodness you're lying about that sweater grandma

gave you and others we wish they would tell the

truth if my parents would call it you're telling a

story. What should parents do? Well, first you really want

your child to establish the fact that honesty is a

powerful word that we want to have as a family

value. Next we want our adults in our lives to

show that they are a great example of truth-telling and

make sure that you do not scold a child for

telling the truth if you keep scolding them then they're

not going to come to you and finally teach them

to do a little bit of a gut check if

the words that are coming out of your mouth make

you feel like a dizzy in the head, hot in

the face and pit in your stomach you probably are

going down the wrong path. Yeah, exactly. You know the

study indicates that the potential upside to lying include a

better verbal memory, more creative storytelling. However, there's got to

be a way to teach -- Creative storytelling. Without encouraging

lying? Right, well, your actions speak louder than words. If

they see their parents being honest, maybe they returned a

wallet they found, kid also pick up on that. To

help foster their own creativity with, you know, plays different

games and help, you know, show kids a different way

than lieing. If it's not just grandma's sweater as you

point out and this starts to go down a road

where you're getting concerned what do you do? So when

you feel like you cannot trust what your child is

saying, that you feel like they're lying all the time,

this is a time to go to your doctor and

seek some professional advice because we want to make sure

that our children know the difference between lying and telling

the truth. It's critical. Any final word. You want to

have a little positive reinforcement, as well. Talk to your

kid, get excited about what they're excited about and don't

make them feel their self-worth is tied to a certain

thing. If you say you're so smart they may continue

to lie about being smart. We know that storytelling. We

can do storytelling. Let's give them a context to do

it. Make up stories. Let your imagination go wild. Just

don't make up a story you did your homework. Exactly.

No, no, no the dog ate the homework. Hey, you

both, very great advice, appreciate it very much.

June 24, 2015