Being brainy isn’t the be-all-and-end-all in life, but it can help in some situations. Knowing how to negotiate with the world is a significant advantage for kids who can grow up and get it right.
Most parents believe their children’s intelligence levels are set in stone, but that’s not entirely true. While family heredity plays a role, it’s always possible to get kids to move closer to their maximum. And this can be quite substantially higher than where they are at right now.
So, what can you do as a parent? Here’s a rundown of your options:
Read Aloud To Them
One of the first steps you can take is to read aloud to them. Getting them used to the spoken word increases their vocabulary substantially and gives them greater clarity on how to deploy new phrases and sentences.
You can read to them in bed before they sleep or even do it instead of watching TV. Choose something that will engross them and allow their imagination to run wild.
Make Trips To The Library
The next step is to make trips to the library and have fun on every outing. Going with your child to a place full of books shows them just how much material is out there for them to read. (It’s quite astonishing when you think about it).
During trips to the library, you might see authors signing books or you may find other items that are out of print. Collecting books in this way gives you an inexpensive way to access new stories every week to keep them interested and entertained.
Ensure you provide them with a variety of books. You never quite know what your child will find interesting. For example, you might find that they become interested in novels about small animals or love looking at the atlases of the solar system.
Celebrate Their Curiosity
Another approach is to celebrate your child’s curiosity. Supporting them through their endeavors (whether successful or not) can make a tremendous difference in their ability to unlock latent intelligence.
Ideally, parents should step back and allow the child to do whatever it is that they want to do. Then, once they make a breakthrough, you follow it with a celebration (but without applying judgment).
This approach can help to create a more dispassionate individual, someone who wants to pursue the truth for the sake of it. It reduces the involvement of the ego which can hold some kids back from achieving their dreams.
Ask Open-Ended Questions
You can also try asking them more open-ended questions. These provide their minds with more space to work, teaching them the world isn’t always as black and white as they might think.
Open-ended questions also encourage the development of thesis-making. Getting children to marshall their arguments in a logical and organized manner creates valuable debating and negotiating skills.
Get Them Brain Training Games
You can also try getting them games like chess and mahjong that force them to think. These activities require them to use critical thinking and strategy skills that would remain dormant otherwise.
Smart children will consider future sequences of moves, with the most intelligence also considering how their opponent will react to their play. This practice is similar to practicing remembering numbers or codes by expanding cognitive capacity and enabling the child to take on more knowledge.
Explore Educational Apps
Similarly, you might also consider exploring educational apps with your child. These often make learning more engaging than standard textbooks or blackboard approaches, firing their imagination and curiosity further.
Today’s educational apps gamify the learning experience. These turn learning experiences into a journey, drip-feeding kids rewards for the effort they put into learning.
The best educational apps are those focusing on knowledge and reason. These train your child’s logical skills, getting them to solve problems of increasing difficulty over time. Apps are so powerful, they can sometimes supercharge a child’s progress by up to a year in as short as a month.
Visit Museums
If your child is more visual or physical in their learning style, visiting museums is another thing you might want to try. This gives them a chance to get up close and personal with the topics they are learning about.
For example, you could take them to a natural history museum if they are interested in biological evolution and geology. You could also go to a war museum if they are learning about history at school.
These trips can have a tremendous impact on their interest in a subject. Seeing entire dinosaur skeletons or old-fashioned submarines can spark curiosity that lasts for a lifetime.
Give Them Space To Solve Problems By Themselves
Another tactic parents can use to raise kids’ brain levels is to simply let them get on and solve problems themselves. Giving them space to figure things out on their own will build brain networks that wouldn’t emerge if you interfered.
Therefore, resist the temptation to intervene when a child can’t solve a problem. Sit back and allow them to get on with it. If they come to you for help, tell them that the problem is something they can solve, but that you’re not going to show them how. This will convince them to continue persevering until they get it right in their minds.
Emphasize That Learning Is Journey
Parents can also help by emphasizing that learning is a journey, not a destination. Nobody knows everything, and everyone makes mistakes along the way.
But that’s okay. People learn from their mistakes, and that lets them make better decisions next time.
Let your child know that it’s okay for them to get some things wrong the first few times they try them. Persevering and pushing through is what matters and helps to create new levels of understanding that will guide them through the rest of their life.
So there you have it: some of the things parents can do to give their kids a leg up in life in the brain department.
