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How can I make my child smarter?

© Schatze Rasmussen

Parents have profound impacts on their children's development in all ways. We have a huge responsibility when you think about it. We pretty much make our children who they will be. We are responsible for what they eat, how they treat other people, where they go, etc. We can even make them smart! If I had a dollar for everytime parents have asked me what they can do to make their kids brighter, smarter, intelligent, what ever you want to call it, I would definitely be retired by now.

Believe it or not we can make our children smarter. Even if they seem to be a little slower in learning the same things their peers learn, we can help them. Studies have concluded that we can do two specific things to help our children become the brightest they can be or improve their skills for language development and thinking. Like I said above, " I wish I had a dollar........".

These two things are greatly underestimated by many people. They are so obvious it is going to sound like a silly answer. They include 1) Read to your child everyday and 2) Give your child experiences and tell them about what is going on. Children learn through all of their senses so children need to see, hear and do stuff. Their language skills and "intelligence" or their cognitive abilities are closely related and even overlap during infancy through kindergarten age. This is why these two activities are so vitally important. We know that improving childrens language skills really works to increase their intelligence or cognitive skills. Reading and taking our children places or to events really opens up the world to them. They learn vocabulary. They learn how to relate to things. They learn the "who, what, when, where and how" of things. They learn how to think. They learn feelings. They learn about the world they live in. They learn to associate words with ideas and actions.

One of the things I keep in mind for the parents I work with is that things need to be cheap and accessible. Parents usually can not take their children to Paris or to outer space. They can however hop a bus or get in the car and go to the library and hear story-time. We encourage doing the free community events, such as concerts, tours, etc. A drive down a back road can take you past a farm. An older neighbor may enjoy talking about how things were when they were younger and may have "antiques" to show that they have kept their whole lives and why they are valuable to them. Volunteering time to organizations is definitely an experience no one can say is time that is wasted. Children of all ages benefit from these experiences. Get a copy of the local paper and discuss what happened in town that day. Experiences do not have to cost money. My kids and I get a kick out of watching big machines rebuild roads and then get books to read about them at the library, for example.