Value Bookshop’s Reading Notes

What’s the formula in making a gifted child? According to research, intelligence is influenced by a person’s genes and also the environment. There’s nothing we can do about genes, so let’s talk about the environmental influence. With the right stimulation, the brain can develop new neurons and interconnections, resulting in increased intelligence.

Parents should be aware that a supportive environment fosters many aspects of intelligence. Here are 10 ways how you can enrich your child’s environment that will stimulate their intelligence.

1. Show Love and Boost Their Self-Esteem
   You have to be careful how you talk to your children. Choose your words carefully. Are you building them up or tearing them down? Do you make your children doubt their abilities or do you make them feel like they can achieve anything? I’m sure you will agree that it is easy to pick our children’s faults. Seems effortless right? Decide today what phrases you can use to make your children realize their self worth. You could say things like “that’s a very good question”, instead of saying “don’t talk so much.” Help your children belief in themselves and they will be able to work to their full potential.
2. Breastfeed Your Babies For Optimal Brain Development.
   Mother’s milk contains essential micronutrients for brain development. The longer you breastfeed your baby, the more the brain is nourished. Danish researchers found infants who were breast fed for 9 months were smarter than infants only breast fed for two months.
3. Provide Proper Nutrition
   Children have a knack for gravitating towards junk food — foods full of sugar, fat and high salt content. It is very tempting for parents to “bribe” their children with these treats. However, junk food does nothing for brain development. You may get your children to be obedient temporarily, but you are doing them a greater disservice. Examples of brain food are omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, egg yolk, wheatgerm, vegetables, peanuts, fruits, and vitamin B complex. Feed your children the right kind of food and you will be able to boost their IQ, improve their memory and increase their concentration.
4. A Proper Breakfast Improves Attention At School
   Have you heard that breakfast is the most important meal? There is a strong correlation between between breakfast and mental alertness. Did you know that children who consume nutritious breakfasts have better memory? It also helps them concentrate better and absorb more information during class time. A child with no breakfast or poor breakfast may become irritable and distracted.
5. Get Your Children Involved In Exercises and Sports
   Exercise not only benefits a child’s intelligence but helps to build personality too. Research conducted by the University of Illinois showed that fitter children performed better academically. Physiologically, exercise improves oxygen intake, blood circulation, immune stimulation and neural transmission. Exercise also effects children psychologically and sociologically. Fitter children display higher self esteem. And those who participated in organized sports exude more confidence, more cooperation, and spontaneous leadership.
6. Give Children The Opportunity to Learn Music
   I’m sure you’ve heard it before, that musical training improves a person’s IQ into adulthood. Long-term research by the University of Toronto supports this statement. They found that the longer the child studied music, the higher their IQs as adults. Music students also had better academic achievements throughout their educational years.
7. Give Video Games a Chance
   Not all video games are bad. Some actually do enhance mental acuity. Research by the University of Rochester found that certain video games improved sensory perception, strategic thinking, and pre-planning skills. The video games that created positive mental improvements had an educational element that improved motor skills and enhanced memory. I guess that means instead of eradicating video games entirely, we just have to be highly selective of the games our children play and impose stringent rules on video game time.
8. Encourage Mind Games
   As part of you family entertainment, play games that need creativity such as building blocks, Lego, jigsaw puzzles, win-lose-or-draw or charades. Board games are good too like chess, monopoly and checkers. Let’s not forget brainteaser games such as Sudoku, crosswords, boggle, cryptograms and riddles. Apart from being fun, they function to improve intelligence. Yes, even yours! Specifically, they are wonderful tools to stimulated better decision-making, smarter analytical thinking, and more accurate problem solving.
9. Cultivate In Your Children The Love For Reading
   Reading improves both creativity and logic. Reading also increases left and right brain intellectual growth. Read aloud to your children often, even if they can already read. Encourage them to also actively read books on their own, whether silently or aloud.
   Fill your house with both fiction and non-fiction books to improve creative imagination and logical, sequential thinking.
10. Nurture Your Children’s Curiosity
    Nurturing curiosity creates an open, absorbent mind. I know sometimes it can be annoying to constantly hear your children ask “why?”. Plus the fact that learning usually goes hand in hand with “mess” can be quite stressful. However, curiosity, the urge to seek knowledge, is essential to improving intelligence in children. Therefore, do give room for safe exploration. Also, don’t just feed your children with answers, teach them where to find answers too. Try to include in your yearly calendar 1-2 educational outings. Identify new skills that your children would like to learn and support their hobbies.

I hope you’ve found these 10 suggestions easy to apply, practical, and doable. You want to bring out the genius in your children, then start creating the environmental support needed to develop their intelligence.