In a nutshell, here are the most important parenting tips on raising
your child to help him (or her) grow smart and stimulate his
intellectual growth:
1. Give your child an early start – According to
the study by Ronald Ferguson, director of the Achievement Gap Initiative
at Harvard University, giving your child a head start in learning
should “start in the crib”.
He recommends the following activities to support early childhood
development: maximizing loving responsiveness and minimizing stress,
talking, singing and gesturing a lot, using number games and rhythm,
enabling and encouraging three-dimensional competencies, and cultivating
a love of learning.
2. Read books to your kid – Start reading to him
even if he does not understand the words. This gives him 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 activity that make kids smart.
3. Talk to your kid – This develops your child’s
strong language skills. Also, listen to your child when he’s talking.
This reinforces his effort to communicate and develops his facility for
language.
4. Interact with your kid, play with him (her), and make him 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, became
depressed, and eventually died. On the other hand, many studies have
shown that loving, hugging, interacting and playing with your child
has a strong effect on developing his intelligence. The loving
connection formed between you and your kid and your one-on-one
interaction with him provide the foundation for his higher thinking
skills
.
5. Make your child a reader – The love for reading brings so many benefits for your child.
It is one of the most important quality you can develop on your child
for him to grow up smart. Reading develops your child’s appetite for
knowledge. The more your child learns from reading, the more he wants 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.
6. Let your kid play – When your kid plays,
he is creating the foundation for his intellectual, social, physical
and emotional skills. When he plays with other kids, he learns to
combine ideas, impressions and feelings with other kids’ experiences and
opinions.
7. Encourage your kid to exercise – Physical
exercise does not only make your kid strong, but it also makes your kid
smart! 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. See
more benefits of exercise on children’s brain
8. Make music a part of your child’s 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.
9. Let your child see you doing smart things – Kids
learn by modeling adult’s behavior. If he sees you engaged in reading
books, writing, making music, or doing creative things, he will imitate
you, and in the process make himself smart.
10. 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.
11. Give your kid smart computer games – The best
kid-friendly computer games teach your kid about letters, math, music,
phonics and many others. It also develops his hand-eye coordination and
prepares him for tomorrow’s technology. More importantly, he learns
these while he plays. Learning and having fun at the same time is the
best way for your kid to learn. See also the positive and negative effects of video games
12. Allow your child to get bored – According to
Julia Robinson, Education and Training Director of the Independent
Association of Prep Schools, it is okay for you child to get bored.
Learning to be bored is part of preparing for adulthood. Your child
should learn to enjoy “quiet reflection” instead of forcing him to fill
his days with activities.
13. Allow your child to take risks and fail – Kids
who don’t take risk and experience failure or pain like falling off a
bike or losing in competitions can develop low self-esteem and phobias,
discourage creativity and learning for themselves. Also, do not rescue
kids too quickly. Let them solve problems on their own so they learn
from their experience.
14. Feed your kid right – Giving the right food to your kid is important to making him smart. Giving your baby the proper nutrition
should begin while you are pregnant. For an older kid, a protein-rich
diet (egg, fish, meat) improves his attention, alertness, and thinking.
Carbohydrates give his brain the fuel that is used in thinking. The
best ones are those that come from whole grain and fruits. Processed
carbohydrates and sugar have bad effects on attention span, focusing
ability, and activity level. Vitamins and minerals are also important.
15. Make sure your child gets enough sleep – A
number of studies show a correlation in the amount of sleep and grades.
If continued long enough, sleep issues can cause permanent problems.
16. Help your kid to develop grit. – Grit is the
disposition to pursue long term goals with hard work, perseverance and
stamina. Having grit is said to make the difference between a high
achiever and an unsuccessful person, and is more important for success
than innate talent or intelligence. One way to teach your child about
grit is to share with him the disappointments and frustrations that you
have experienced.
17. Praise your child for hard work, instead of “being smart”
– Praising your child for effort help your child see himself as being
in control of his success. Praising your child for “being smart” may
discourage him from doing hard tasks because failing may conflict with
his self-image of “being smart”. Also, praise intermittently so your
child’s persistence is not based only on rewards like praise.
18. Give your child a growth mindset – According to
psychiatrist Joe Brewster, kids should be encouraged to see learning as
the process of becoming better at something, instead of having a fixed
mind-set of his intelligence. When your child fails, he should see it as
an opportunity for growth, instead of seeing himself as a failure.
19. Avoid coddling your child – if you want him to
be a leader, according to leadership expert Tim Elmore. Also, give him
projects that require patience, so he learns to master certain
disciplines. Find more tips in this Forbes article.
20. Use bribery as part of your parental toolkit –
Experts say that it is okay to bribe your child to motivate her, like
“paying” for getting good grades or doing chores. You can ask your child
what she prefers as an incentive. Sometimes, money or material items
are not that important to her, compared to video game time, for example.
Bribery should not be used, however, to control your kid or to make her
stop an unacceptable behavior.
21. Consider giving your child more time engaging in open-ended, free-flowing activities
instead of forcing him into a schedule. According to a study by
doctoral and undergraduate researchers at University of Colorado,
Boulder, children who have less-structured time display higher levels of
executive functioning, and vice versa. According to Yuko Munakata, the
study’s lead researcher, “Executive function helps [children] in all
kinds of ways throughout their daily lives, from flexibly switching
between different activities rather than getting stuck on one thing, to
stopping themselves from yelling when angry, to delaying gratification.
Executive function during childhood predict important outcomes, like
academic performance, health, wealth, and criminality, years and even
decades.”
22. Don’t micromanage your child – or constantly correct her. Let her discover things for herself to nurture her creative and innovative thinking.
23. Get your kid involved in the kitchen. It will not only teach him how to cook, it will also enhance his math and motor skills.
24. Dads who help out at home raise daughters who
select from a broader range of career options than daughters of families
in which chores are not equitably shared, a study suggests.
Source: www.raisesmartkid.com