Intelligence in Children: Can we make our kids smarter?
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You may have seen several intelligence-boosting products in the market for improving intelligence in children such as educational programs, games, software, DVDs, toys, and books intended to make your kid into an intellectual genius.
Numerous products have claims with them – implicit or explicit – which states that some scientific evidence supports their usefulness.
A few scientific pieces of research show that:
- Some video games enhance the working memory and spatial skills
- Some board games develop the preschool math skills
- Some academic programs teaching skills of thinking improve IQ
- Playing with blocks helps children develop a diversity of cognitive skills
Irrespective of these things here is some information about some ways that parents can improve intelligence in children.
Intelligence and Exercise
It is both unexpected and intriguing: Exercise stimulates the growth of the brain and increases the ability to learn new information. It also helps children concentrate in school.
Play
Free play promotes the development of the cerebral cortex, better memory, and learning. Also, it improves the development of mathematical skills, counterfactual reasoning, spatial intelligence, and language.
Working Memory: The Latest IQ?
The latest piece of research shows that the capacity of working memory – that mental pad that we utilize to solve issues and think thoughts – is an excellent analyst of school success as compared to IQ. Working memory can be improved with training.
Gestures
Also, there is good evidence that hand gestures enhance the ability to learn and remember. Likewise, the children can remember the math lessons, events, and words while gesturing with their hands.
Intelligence in Children, attachment security, and parental sensitivity
Different researchers have revealed a relationship between attachment status and the kid’s IQ scores. The securely-attached kids scored more points on an intelligence test as compared to the insecurely attached kids.
Do you know what is accountable for this relation? The children who are more intelligent probably have an easy time making secure attachments. For example, more intelligent children are best at analyzing the behavior of their parents and choosing a suitable response.
However, there is a study showing that responsive parenting – that enhances secure attachments – leads to higher IQ.
In research with families at more risk for poor child consequences, researchers allotted mothers to get training in approachable parenting techniques. The children of trained mothers exhibited more growth in cognitive skills as compared to the babies of control mothers.
The results are constant with the latest study that shows the cognitive benefits of breastfed babies to responsive, sensitive parenting.
Beliefs that Hold Your Kid Back: Mindsets for Failures
Some experiments show that what we think about intelligence can hinder our capacity to learn.
Individuals who accept that intelligence is a stable and fixed trait are possibly avoiding challenges. Also, there are fewer chances that they learn from their errors.
Does your kid think that “a lot of people love me” do not do well intellectually?
If yes, his/her beliefs can be undermining his/her performance in school. Doesn’t it sound like diplomatically correct propaganda? Actually, there is considerable experimental evidence that confirms the presence of “stereotype threat.”
How can admiration demoralize the capacity of your kid to learn?
Appreciation is the best motivator. However, it can also make children concentrate on erroneous objectives. The wrong kinds of admiration can undermine enthusiasm and leave children feeling abandoned when they fail.
Intelligence and Sleep
Learning and Sleep
There are more chances that we retain what we have learned and more likely to get new insights. Sometimes, people do not sleep all night for work effects. For those, naps for almost one hour can be useful, as long as they include non-REM (slow-wave sleep).
The same effect has been seen in children as well. Hence, it makes sense for different kids to schedule their work before bedtime and baps. Unluckily, the institutions do not make time for the study-naps! It may seem that the other children with easy study schedules and home-schoolers, take a lot of advantage.
Cognitive Development and Sleep
Chronic sleep restriction has a long-lasting effect on your cognitive performance. Some researchers revealed that the children who were poor sleepers did not perform well on the neurodevelopemental exams.
It was right even for children whose sleep improved after the age of 3. The investigators see that there can be a “critical time” in early childhood when the sleep restriction effects are particularly dangerous.
Critical Thinking, Logic, and Math
A cognitive scientist argues that a lot of children have zero math skills because they are not encouraged by creating an instinctual sense of number. Besides, board games can help preschoolers develop their math skills.
A few experimental studies show that the explicit instructions in the critical thinking process, including scientific reasoning, hypothesis testing, and primary logo can nurture the IQ of a child. For a specific article on kids and math, please see Ten Ways to Boost Your Child’s Math Success.
Spatial Intelligence in Children
Spatial skills are essential for success in different fields such as visual arts, architecture to engineering, and physics. The performance of your child on these tasks constitutes a genetic element; however, it is clear that the experience in education also has a significant impact.
Free Choice
If kids are given a choice of what they want to do, they perform better with greater motivation. However, this effect is limited to a specific culture. The research compared Asian American and Anglo-American children. Anglo-American loves task they chose by themselves, but Asian American demonstrated more motivation when the high authority peers or figures made their choices.
For classroom learning, there is no “one size fits all” approach. Some children may prosper when their instructors give them individual choices. Others may find this way to be perplexing.
Though there is evidence that certain video games improve spatial skills and help dyslexic kids learn to read, a few essential developmental games and toys are considered outdated. For example, a piece of research shows that toy blocks can improve verbal, problem-solving, math, and spatial skills.
Improving the above-listed things can help in making our kids smarter and improving intelligence in children. For more, keep visiting our photomathonline.com.
