Stimulating Those Synapses! 7 Ways To Help Your Child Be More Intelligent

It’s amazing how you see your children grow into something completely different. When you are learning to look after your baby, you may not think about how they are doing to develop in terms of their intelligence, mainly because most mothers are in survival mode! We’re just trying to make sure they are fed and are sleeping properly. But once we get beyond that and our children are either showing the signs of limited development or we feel that other children are developing quicker than ours, we may wonder what it takes to help our children develop their intelligence. What can we all learn when it comes to helping our children become more intelligent? 

Music Lessons

One of the most important things that can benefit children in terms of their IQ and academic success is music lessons. There is a reason why this list of favorite toys for your toddler has the KidiBeats Drum Set, because it gets children started on rhythms and sounds as soon as they are born. But research has shown that music lessons can make our children smarter. Music lessons show an increase in full-scale IQ, so the solution is simple: if you want your child to be smarter, you’ve got to get them to learn musical instruments! 

Read With Your Children

At bedtime, we can easily read to our children while they scan the pictures. If your child is at the age where they are learning to read, you can start by calling attention to the words. You can start by holding your finger underneath each word as you read it out, which can be an excellent way for your child to learn to read by themselves. Research has shown that when you read with your children, this starts to promote early literacy ability, even with children at a disadvantage. It may seem like a big effort, especially if you are feeling tired and just want to get the book done, but if you want a smart child, it’s important to get them involved with literature. 

This simple act of putting your finger underneath a word and reading it out as you go doesn’t just give them an insight into the words, but it also can act as a visual pacer, which is a habit that, unfortunately, schools try to knock out of us. But if you use a visual pacer underneath the words, it actually can improve your ability to read words, and also increase your reading speed. This is something that adults and children can should all get to grips with! 

Exercising

We can all subscribe to the dumb jock myth at times, but the fact is that jocks are less intelligent because they don’t bother spending time doing their studying. The reality is that if you are in good shape, you can learn better. Exercise is something that can give us all a cognitive advantage because exercise increases blood flow around the body and to the brain. You can actually increase your ability to learn just by being in good shape, and your child can actually than their unfit contemporaries! 

Many children can suffer from a sedentary lifestyle due to playing games and being on their devices, so if you get your children to do any type of exercise, it’s going to benefit their brains as well! It doesn’t have to be any specific or structured form of exercise; the fact is that when our kids are young, they may want to run around and play, so let them do so because although they may be frustrating you, they are benefiting their brains! 

Focusing on Active Learning

Something that we are all guilty of, especially if we want to better ourselves is thinking that if we just have brain training games or literature within arm’s reach, we can become more intelligent by the wonders of osmosis! The fact is that if you are giving your children the right literature, this is certainly a good start, but if your children are not engaging with the material, in other words, learning passively, it’s not going to benefit them. The reality is that we all evolved to learn by doing things. 

When it comes to learning skills, it’s far better to test ourselves rather than spend time absorbing the information. There is a school of thought that subscribes to it being a rule of two-thirds. For example, if you want your child to learn a selection of new words, it’s far better to spend one-third of the time reading it and the other two-thirds testing your child on what they have learned. 

Implementing Self-Discipline

The fact is if you want your children to be smarter, you could try to discipline them and force them to do things that are for their own good but against their will. Barack Obama talks about his mother waking him up before school to do extra learning when he would rather do anything but! While this naturally had a profound impact on him in the end, the reality is that if you want your child to do well and be more intelligent, you’ve got to implement the notion of self-discipline. 

We can measure our child’s intelligence based on their IQ scores, but if we have learned anything from people who have started out with nothing, it’s that sheer willpower is the single most important habit for success. Students who have learned from their bad grades are more likely to display levels of willpower and get better grades later on. Intelligence is not necessary to do with natural smartness, so we have to focus on the notion of conscientiousness. People that are high in conscientiousness can be happier in many aspects of their lives. If we want our children to be smarter, we have to look at the big picture as well. Improving self-discipline involves three key components: 

• Practicing a bit of willpower every day to build it.
• Automating behaviors, in other words, making something habitual.
• Pre-committing to doing it.

Let Your Children Sleep

There is a lot to be said for the benefits of routine. Our children need routines in order to thrive, but we also need to get a grip on our children’s sleep habits. Children between 3 and 6 need between 10 and 12 hours of sleep, 7 to 12-year-olds need between 10 and 11 hours, and teenagers may require between 8 to 9 or potentially more. Rather than trying to get them up on weekends, perhaps we should let them sleep in. Studies have shown that even 15 minutes more sleep could make a big difference in grades. 

Focus on Happiness

Intelligence is not just about academics, but emotional intelligence. Happiness is something that can give our children an amazing advantage. And this means that we’ve got to be happier parents. If we create stressful home environments, our children may not benefit in other areas of their lives. If we can focus on an environment where we provide love, and support, and give them that comfort, it’s more likely they will become more successful adults. 

Creating a happier home environment may not seem so easy in the modern world, but if we are to make a big difference in our children’s overall intelligence, it’s not just about pinpointing academic smarts or being able to spell. If we can give our children that undercurrent of happiness and ensure that they feel emotionally comfortable, it will give them the bravery to try new things and develop those all-important synapses.