As school resumes, raise your child’s IQ
Holiday is over and some schools have reopened for the new academic year.
While the long vac lasted, knowledgeable
parents allowed their children to enjoy the holiday full blast by
making them to follow their passion. Many school children relate that
they visited historical places, some travelled to the village to see
their grandparents, while others had the privilege of travelling abroad
for the summer.
Well, all that is over and rigorous academic work will soon set in.
As parents, you may have paid your
child’s tuition, bought the uniform and sundry other stuffs that will
make the new school year a good success.
But before you give yourself thumbs-up
for a job well done, you still have one crucial step to take: helping to
raise your child’s Intelligent Quotient. “How,” you may ask. Well,
here’s how—
PE is not a waste!
Many schools these days have done away
with the playground. Rather, the available spaces have been converted to
classrooms, all in a bid to show parents state-of-the-art structures.
Little do they know that physical education does play a significant role
in a child’s academic prowess.
If you are still in doubt, a report published in the Archives of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine should convince you.
Researchers at the Vrije Universiteit
University Medical Centre, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, say there’s a positive relationship between
physical activity and the academic performance of children.
Study leader, Dr. Amika Singh, says
though the pressure to improve test scores may often mean more
instructional time for classroom subjects, with less time for physical
activity, “According to the best-evidence synthesis, we found strong
evidence of a significant positive relationship between physical
activity and academic performance.”
The scientists advise that being more
physically active is positively related to improved academic performance
in children. They note that exercise may help cognition by increasing
blood and oxygen flow to the brain, decrease stress and improve mood;
and overall increase growth factors.
Ditch junk foods
Healthy eating is still very much in
vogue, hence scientists’ warning that foods high in sugar and saturated
fats will not only make your child sick and obese, they can actually
lower your child’s IQ!
In a study published in the Journal of
Epidemiological Community Health, researchers tracked the eating habits
of 4,000 children from age three and tested their intelligence at age
eight-and-a-half.
The scientists, led by Dr. Kate
Northstone of the Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol,
United Kingdom, discovered that children who ate the most processed
foods, with a lot of convenience food, fat and sugar, had IQ scores 1.67
points lower than their counterparts whose diets included more fruits,
vegetables, fish and pasta.
So, make it a habit from now on to fill your child’s lunch box with nutritive foods such as fruits and other whole foods.
Expose him to Omega-3
A new report published in Perspectives
on Psychological Science claims that supplementing children’s diets with
fish oil, enrolling them in quality preschool, and engaging them in
interactive reading are effective ways of raising a young child’s
intelligence.
Scientists, led by John Protzko, a
doctoral student at the New York University Steinhardt School of
Culture, Education, and Human Development, conclude that certain dietary
and environmental interventions can be effective in raising children’s
IQ.
Protzko says, “Supplementing pregnant
women and newborns with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, foods
rich in Omega-3, were found to boost children’s IQ by more than 3.5
points. These essential fatty acids may help raise intelligence by
providing the building blocks for nerve cell development that the body
cannot produce on its own.”
Encourage interactive reading
Again, the Protzko team advises that by
encouraging a child to read, it improves his intelligence. Technically
called “interactive reading,” the scientists say engaging children in
this pastime can boost their intelligent quotient.
So, instead of telling your child to
read silently instead of reading aloud, those who should know better
advise that you let him “disturb” you with his loud reading!
Give breakfast
Many parents hurry out of the home
without the least thought to the need to prepare breakfast for their
growing babies. This is wrong, as researchers warn that children who
start their days with a healthy breakfast are more focused, better
prepared for the day’s challenges and ultimately get higher grades and
test scores.
A study conducted by scientists at
Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital reveals that
when children have daily access to a breakfast that provides them with
25 per cent of the nutrients they need in a day, their test scores are
likely to improve significantly, while level of tardiness will fall
dramatically.
Music empowers
These days, many schools employ music
teachers to teach the subject. Whether or not the school owners know the
implications of this for IQ development, researchers at the University
of Toronto say music lessons boost brain power among children ages six
to 11 years old.
Led by Glenn Schellenberg, the
scientists opine that “correlational and quasi-experimental studies
reveal that music lessons have positive associations with verbal
memory.”
In layman’s language, what this
translates into is that music lessons positively impact some aspects of
development — that is intellectual functioning.
Source: Punch
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