Two Ways to Make a Kid Smarter
By Martha Brockenbrough |
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/elementary/default.aspx?article=twoways |
When
I was pregnant with my first child, I did something I suspect many rookie
parents do: I bought a book that promised I could make my baby smarter.
It
included all sorts of instructions--everything from reading to the fetus to
making black-and-white mobiles, and later freezing cubes of breast milk and
letting them slowly thaw in her presence.
Maybe
because I've never had much luck with the do-it-yourself Popsicles, I gave up
on turning my child into a genius. But that didn't stop me from buying way too
many toys that beeped and flashed lights because the box said they were
"educational."
Give
your child the confidence to succeed in school, and in life. Make success
possible with Sylvan
Learning K-12 tutoring programs.
In
retrospect, they were educational. I learned never to buy really
annoying toys, except as gifts for other people's children.
Still,
the impulse behind the books, breast-sicles and beeping toys remains: to help
my kids be as smart as they can be.
The
hardest part about it, really, is defining what smart really means. Does it
mean high IQ? Or is it something more complicated?
For
me, it's something more complicated. After all, a person can be really smart,
but can lack the social skills and emotional intelligence our world requires.
I've seen many people with killer scores on standardized tests go on to careers
that leave them feeling less than satisfied, no matter how much money they
earn. The Unabomber went to Harvard and taught math at Berkeley, after all.
Likewise,
I've seen people I considered to be average in high school go on to run
companies and do dazzling things I never would have anticipated when they were
younger.
So
I've decided that readiness to learn and creativity in sharing and applying
knowledge are more important to me than having kids who rack up killer test
scores.
And
along the way, I've learned some interesting things. Getting kids ready to
learn--and ready to develop their own smarts for all their lives, in deeper
ways than can be measured on standardized tests--requires thinking about the
body and the mind. And it also requires time well spent.
The
body portion: Feed your child's brain UCLA
researchers looked at six- to eight-year olds in 1984, then another, larger
group of them in 1998, and noted something amazing: In just 14 years, their IQs
increased more than any other population ever studied.
What
happened?
There
were two key factors. The first is that the kids started getting better
nutrition--including more protein, which kept them alert, energetic, and less
prone to anemia, an iron deficiency that dulls thinking skills.
Even
if you don't live in Kenya, there's a good chance your kids aren't eating what
they need for optimal brain performance. For example, if they're not eating a
lot of fish, or taking fish-oil supplements, then there might be an opportunity
for some gains.
Foods
rich in omega-3 fats--such as salmon, fresh tuna, herring, and sardine--contain
something called eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA. EPA does three things: It
boosts blood flow to the brain, it helps make hormones that boost brain
function, and it helps boost the immune system by acting as an
anti-inflammatory agent. (A healthy immune system is important for young
children, because illness can wear them out and impair learning.)
A
study published in the journal Pediatrics showed that kids who took
fish-oil supplements, which contain omega-3, showed huge improvements in
spelling, IQ, and reading. Even their behavior got better.
Typically,
kids (and adults) in the United States don't eat a lot of fish--and therefore
are missing out on the benefits. Fish oil isn't a magic potion, but experts are
increasingly agreeing that we need more in our diets. (A word of caution:
Mercury levels are high in some of these same fatty fish. Mercury--a pollutant
from coal plants--can cause brain damage and other physical ailments. Many
stores now carry warnings on the most susceptible fish products.)
The
Kenyan kids didn't improve through diet alone, though.
The
second reason their IQs soared was that their parents put more emphasis on
schooling and were more literate themselves.
In
this way, they were like 20th-century nations going through industrialization.
During that time, the average IQ in 20 industrialized countries jumped 18
points per 30-year generation. This IQ boost is called the
Flynn effect, after the New Zealand political scientist
James R. Flynn, who first observed it.
And
it's not just industrialization that has led to higher IQ scores, Flynn says;
post-industrial societies with smaller families, more time off, and jobs that
demand abstract thinking also have led to higher IQs.
This
gets to the time factor. Families with fewer kids theoretically have more time
to spend on each, especially when there is leisure time to read or do other
brain-boosting activities. Also, people who work jobs that challenge their
minds get smarter.
The
mind portion School
is the same way. No matter what your kids' gifts, if they aren't ready to
benefit from what a classroom has to offer, they will probably experience the
educational equivalent of a quarterback sack. They can get up after that
happens, but not without having their confidence rattled.
It's
the parents' job to suit up their little intellectual quarterbacks. Before they
set foot in a kindergarten classroom, even the most gifted of kids need to know
how to listen, observe, ask questions, and organize and share information.
These are the fundamentals of learning.
You
need to make sure your little ones are engaging in conversations, practicing
making observations, and organizing information in their minds, or they won't
be ready to get the most out of school. This is the sort of thing you can do on
a walk--counting blue cars, for example, or finding leaves with odd numbers of
points on them. By doing this, you're teaching your child how to make
observations and make sense of them.
Kids
also need to know how to get along with others--everything from sharing toys to
taking turns. We live in a crowded world, and emotional intelligence can help
lead to success and happiness just as much as intellectual intelligence can.
In
both areas, quality preschool education could be a big help to parents and,
later, to companies that want well-educated, curious, and competent workers who
know how to play well with others.
The
United States lags badly behind the rest of the industrialized world in its
commitment to its youngest students. USA Today reported that almost
every other industrialized country in the world provides high-quality preschool
for free. By contrast, only 70 percent of four-year-olds in the United
States go to preschool, which can cost as much as $15,000 a year.
All
of this, of course, takes a lot more time, thought, and effort than dangling a
mobile over a crib, changing the batteries in an "educational" toy, or popping
in a classical music CD. But honestly--what's the alternative? Kids who achieve
some of their potential?
That
sounds worse to me than melting Popsicles made from my own milk. And that's
saying something
Martha
Brockenbrough lives, writes, and plays in Seattle. She is
the author of
It Could Happen to You: Diary of a Pregnancy and Beyond.
|