Raising Your Child's IQ |
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By: Wendy Burt-Thomas Posted: 2008-07-13 08:37:34 |
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Many parents are surprised to learn that their child's IQ score can actually be increased. After all, we were raised to believe that IQ was stagnant - that is, you are born with the IQ you'll have throughout life. But in the 1990s, brain researchers discovered that the brain is actually capable of changing and regrowing the connections between brain cells. It's these connections, or synapses, not the cells themselves, that actually increase the brain's powers by increasing the number of viable paths for information.More paths also means faster routes for information to travel. This is good news for everyone - but especially for children with learning disabilities like ADD, Asperger's, and dyslexia - because scientists have used special brain imaging technology to prove that better learners use more direct routes from point A to B when processing information. But how does a child learn to use the shorter, faster route? With "brain training."While "brain training" is a relatively generic term, it can be differentiated from tutoring, which focuses on a specific academic subjects, such as math, English or history. While tutoring has its place (such as when a child falls behind in a particular subject due to an illness, injury or school transfer), it does not serve to increase the brain's ability to learn in general. Brain training, on the other hand, works to improve a child's cognitive skills."Cognitive skills are the essential, but often overlooked fundamental tools of effective learning," explains Dr. Ken Gibson, author of "Unlock the Einstein Inside: Applying New Brain Science to Wake Up the Smart in Your Child." "Learning isn't about how much you know, but how effectively you process or handle the information you receive. Cognitive skills are the mental mechanisms that process incoming information."More specifically, cognitive skills enable children to successfully:• Focus
• Think • Prioritize • Plan • Understand • Visualize • Remember • Create useful associations • Solve problemsUsing intensive, one-on-one training, children of all learning levels can raise their IQ scores by improving their cognitive skill set. These include auditory processing, visual processing, short and long-term memory, comprehension, logic and reasoning, and attention skills. Each of these can also be divided into identifiable sub-skills. For example, attention is made up of sub-skills such as sustained attention (staying on task), selective attention (ignoring distractions) and divided attention (handling more than one task at a time). Each of these skills and sub-skills play a specific and necessary role, and must work in concert before an individual can learn effectively.Here are some specific examples of studies that have proven that children's IQ scores can be raised:• Researchers at the University of Southampton studied a group of autistic toddlers who were given Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI). Over the two-year program, the researchers found that the children who received the EIBI had higher IQs, more advanced language and better daily living skills than those who did not. The results? In two-thirds of the children, IQ increased, and in more than one-quarter, IQ increased "very substantially." This included one child whose IQ went from 30 to 70, and another who went from 72 to 115. (SOURCE: ScienceDaily, May 7, 2007)• Brain training company LearningRx showed an average gain of 28 points for children with an IQ lower than 100 using a nonverbal IQ test. The national company trains subskills of IQ like memory, processing speed, visual and auditory processing, and logic. (SOURCE: LearningRx)• A University of California study reinforced Rauscher's original theory, "The Mozart Effect" (which theorizes that listening to Mozart's music can raise your IQ). The more recent study sited that listening to Mozart's sonata for two pianos K448 can increase one's spatial-temporal IQ scores by nine points. (SOURCE: Smart-Kit)"Changing a child's learning skills makes a huge impact on all aspects of their life," says Tanya Mitchell, Director of Training for LearningRx. "When children go through our programs they get their homework done faster, plays sports better, make more friends, and just find many things easier that they used to struggle with."IQ doesn't have to be a stagnant number. Raising your child's IQ is simply a matter of increasing their cognitive skills. Talk to a cognitive skills trainer to find out your options.Wendy Burt is a full-time freelance writer and editor with more than 1,000 published pieces. She is also the author of two books for McGraw-Hill. WendyBurt-Thomas.com |
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