Nothing pleases a parent more than being told that their child is intelligent and smart. Are there any secrets in raising a clever kid? Indeed there are. Here are some secrets shared in stimulating a child’s intellectual growth.
Give your child an early start
Give your child a head start beginning from infancy. Ronald Ferguson, director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University, recommends a number of activities to support early childhood development:
- Maximize loving responsiveness. When your little one tries to get your attention, respond to him or her with love.
- Talk to your child whenever you can. Singing and gesturing also support early development.
- Enable and encourage basic competencies in your child beginning from as young as possible
Start reading to your child regardless of the fact that he or she might not even understand the words. This gives your child a head start in developing language skills. Kids who are read to when young are more likely to develop a lifelong interest in reading, do well in school and succeed in adult life. Reading books is one of the most important activities that make kids smart.
Talk is cheap, but not in child development!
Having conversations with your child helps to develop strong language skills. Also, listen to your child when he or she has something to say. This reinforces the effort to communicate and develop a knack for a language.
Interaction
Playing with children makes them feel loved – Scientists observed that babies who were not cuddled, played with, and loved have stunted brain growth. They also observed that babies who were not held and did not receive attention failed to grow and some even became depressed. On the other hand, many studies have shown that loving, hugging, interacting, and playing with a child has a strong effect on developing his or her intelligence. The loving connection formed between you and your offspring, including one-on-one interactions, provides the foundation for higher thinking skills.
Raise a reader
Nothing, and we mean nothing, will benefit a child more than possessing the love for reading. It is one of the most important quality you can develop on your child to set up an appetite for knowledge. The more your child learns from reading, the more he or she will want to know. By being a reader early in life, your child is well-prepared to grasp the complexities of mathematics, science, history, engineering, mechanics, political science, and other knowledge necessary for a productive life.
Let your kid play
During playtime, a child is creating a foundation for intellectual, social, physical, and emotional skills. When a child plays with other kids, ideas, impressions, and feelings are combined with other kids’ experiences and opinions.
Encourage physical exercise
Physical exercise does not only make a kid strong, but it also does its part to promote intelligence! Exercise increases the flow of blood to the brain and builds new brain cells. Exercise is good for adults’ mental sharpness, but it has a more long-lasting effect on your kid’s still-developing brain.
Make music a part of life
Studies have shown that listening to music can boost memory, attention, motivation, and learning. It can also lower stress that is destructive to your kid’s brain. Learning to play a musical instrument has an effect on the brain’s proportional thinking and spatial-temporal reasoning that lay the foundation for abstract math.
Set smart examples
Children learn by modeling an adult’s behavior. If your child sees you engaged in reading books, writing, making music, or doing creative things, he or she will imitate you, and in the process, get smart!
Limit your kid’s TV viewing – Your child should not be watching TV before age 2. Letting your kid watch too much TV takes him away from doing activities that are more important to his developing brain, like playing, socializing, and reading books.
Use computer games
Appropriate kid-friendly computer games can help teach about letters, math, music, phonics, and many others. It also develops a child’s hand-eye coordination and prepares for tomorrow’s technology. More importantly, a child learns these while playing. Learning and having fun at the same time is the best way for a young kid to learn.
Boredom is not always a bad thing!
It’s alright for a child to get bored. Coping with boredom builds the virtue of patience and is part of preparing for adulthood. Your child should learn to enjoy “quiet reflection” instead of expecting every waking moment of his or her life to be filled with activities or entertainment.
