Everybody wants their children to be a genius but have you ever wondered what makes a child to be genius? is it the IQ, academic intelligence or environmental influence? how do we even know as to what extent can our smartness be inherited? this issue has long been an academic war zone among experts. no matter how we look at it we need to understand some basic things that can help us boost that child's smartness and they are mostly overlooked by parents for example.
30% of children aged 2 and below have television sets in their bedrooms and 59% of children under 2 watch two hours of television everyday which adds little or no benefit to a child's mental development. american academy of paediatrics recently issued a warning urging parents not to let infants and toddlers watch TV because they do not get any benefit. Television impairs cognitive skills and waste crucial brain development time that should be spent in conversing with people, says infant language expert Roberta Golinkoff author of Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: How Our Children Really Learn and Why They Need To Play More and Memorise less. Language is crucial to children's learning and the language they get from television is not tailored to the individual needs. It will not answer their questions or follow their leads which is how you create smart kids. One thing I don't do is let my kids watch TV on school days.
6 year old children who were breastfed consistently as babies score 5% higher on IQ test than 6 year old who were not. Based on a study of new Belarusian mothers and their children, in one group some mothers breastfed exclusively for a year than the other group who did not breastfeed exclusively. the children of the first group scored higher in reading,writing and solving problems than the children of the other group. Breastfeeding is very important to the development of brain cells unlike cow milk which is only for fast growth. breast-milk also has a greater percentage of fat.
Children who play piano or a stringed instrument score 15% higher in verbal skills than children who don't play instrument. A study carried out on children within a ten years bracket who have played music for years from public and private schools pointed to the fact that there are correlations between musical, language skills and IQ.
Children who are able to delay gratification are found to be more smarter than children who can't; like holding onto snacks longer than their peers. Impulse control is a crucial factor in executive function Golinkoff asserts. "the ability to switch between tasks, hold things in your working memory and inhibit impulses is much more connected to success than IQ.
A child raised in a home with plenty books is 39% more likely to graduate with better grades than a child raised in a home with less reading.
The children of women who used cocaine while pregnant are more likely to have IQ below 70% according to a study published in the journal of the American Medical Association.
Overweight children are likely to have a less IQ than children with average weight "being sedentary has huge opportunity cost for children" says Golinkoff .
Aerobic exercise increases children's executive-functioning abilities by as much as 100% Encouraging an active lifestyle is one of the best gifts you can ever give your child says biologist John Medina in his book Brain Rules for Baby. Focus on what you can control; the environment...there's a lot people can do to help their kids, it is what happens after you are born that matters and not what you inherit.
Children born to 20 year old fathers score 3 to 6 points higher on IQ tests than children born to fathers who are twice that age.
Learning to juggle can increase the volume of gray matter in children's brains by 3%.
Students who spend more than two hours a day playing computer and video games score 9.4% lower on school exams than students who play no such games.
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