How To Raise Your Kid's I.Q.

We also have to define "smart". I know someone who is wicked-smart, book wise. She can spit out stats like crazy and is working toward her Doctorate. But ask her to stand outside and locate North, and she hasn't a clue. Even if you give her a compass and explain how to use it.

Book smarts are great, but I really think we place WAY too much emphasis on it in this country, and not enough on just plain ol' street smarts.

I haven't read Nisbett's book, but a few of the things he advocates make me worry:

"a sort of intellectual-stimulus program that would allow more children to take advantage of these intensive childhood programs"

this screams "more public education" to me. And our public education system is already three steps below crap. This would simply cause the politicians to take more money from taxpayers and throw it into the black hole.

"He says young children benefit when effort is valued over achievement"

Haven't we done this already? Kids get a trophy for *showing up*, for pete's sake. Unless this is an awkward way of saying that "effort is it's own reward", in which case, I retract my skepticism of this part.

"Convincing junior-high kids that intelligence is under their control - you could argue that that should be in the junior-high curriculum right now."

This is already there, in a seriously misguided fashion. It's called "self-esteem", and it's batted around so much that it has become meaningless.

The biggest thing is to teach kids that hard work is the key to anything, that accomplishing something is the best reward, and intelligence does NOT mean getting the best grade or going to Harvard Law School, but in setting goals and achieving them.

But unfortunately, we are a society that must quantify everything, so the IQ will never go away. How else is a college going to determine who gets in and who doesn't, if they don't have some sort of quantification system (which, admittedly, is simply a springboard into the quagmire of race, citizenship, and other admission parameters)?

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So you mean there's no excuse for apathy among ghetto youth? How politically incorrect!

I would argue that true poverty is a springboard to intelligence, as long as it's not coupled with apathy. Most of the successful people I know had to struggle, plan, and take risks for everything they have.

I liked a couple of things he said. LS, I interpreted the thing about effort to mean encourage a child to keep reaching, versus checking off which age-appropriate milestones he has/hasn't reached. I find that encouraging my kids to "try" brings the goal within reach sooner than if I just told myself "they can't do that yet."

The other thing I liked was the comment about delayed gratification. I've been preaching this for decades. Unfortunately our schools and parenting advisors are getting farther and farther away from this. Children must have an immediate reward for everything, even when they don't really exert themselves. To change your tot's behavior, you have to discipline them on the spot or not at all. Grades are a demotivator, not a motivator. Nonsense! Kids need to understand that the seeds you sow today will bear fruit in the future. In my opinion, that concept is one of the most important foundations of success. And this understanding can come at an early age - if we teach it.

Did you ever wonder if one of the reasons we are getting dumber in this country is that we are ceding more and more of child development to the lowest (on average) college achievers - which is what "educators" have been in recent decades?

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But I do agree with LS that the comment about more publicly-funded "enrichment" programs made me cringe. What we really need is more accountability - fewer excuses. Just stop telling people "poor you, you're brown, you're screwed for life and it's all whitey's fault, here's a dollar," and just give people a chance to reach their true potential.

Oh, one statistic I recall from my college days - on average, black kids have higher IQ scores than white kids up to the age of 3. What does that tell you? Think!

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IQ has been proved to be an insufficient way of measuring intelligence. Even the environment a person is in while testing can affect their ability to standardize test. We should focus less on quantitative results and focus more on increasing our children's ability to read, comprehend, and be intelligent humans.

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Intelligence is one that we have added all without differentiation, but to read Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, who will determine the development of intelligence in infants, Jan. l course of their development until they enter the teen years.
But human beings are not more intelligent than others in different age groups are differentiated simply by a time of development, according to their age.
Herbal Remedies

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If the same Milwaukee Project intensive care & education were applied to "normal" kids, would their IQ's rise to a 140 average...??
No conclusion can be drawn about raising IQ's beyond the "genetic potential," via therapy, until such comparative studies are perfromed on normal kids and gifted kids.

The likely situation is that few people ever get the best environment to achieve the maximum intellectual potential genetically encoded in their DNA. And if a bunch of money is going to be spent trying to raise IQ's, a much better place to spend it is on the gifted end of the spectrum. More *bang* for the educational buck. These are the ones who will be making the breakthoughs and advancements that benefit the reat of society. Futile achievement gap closure attempts and NCLB are a senseless waste...

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I take issue with the idea that placing children in structured settings as early as infancy, will help them be higher achievers. As a SAHM for 20 years and now a teacher in a child care center,(primarily, the "infant room") I am constantly comparing my children's milestones with those of the kids in my care. None of them, in the past 4 years I have worked, have developed more quickly than my own children. Because I have a BS in Education, I am constantly singing to the infants, reciting nursery rhymes, reading, and offering stimulating toys. I also encourage them to feed themselves, which they will need to be able to do, once they move to the next classroom. The one-on-one contact with a parent cannot be replaced by a teacher who may have three (or more in the older childrens' classrooms) other children in her care.Often, children are dropped off before breakfast. I feed them all day, including a late snack in the afternoon, which might be dinner! Parents report that they put them to bed, shortly after taking them home at the end of the day. I understand they have household responsibilities waiting. But I feel certain that spending 15 or 20 minutes of quality time with your child each day (Read! Read! Read!) will make a difference in his/her development. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts!

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IQ is not an indicator of success.

I have a very gifted child with a high IQ. She is not however very motivated to do well. She is highly creative, a bit lazy and much more interested in her social life than she is in academics.

It has all come very easy to her up until this point. But now that she has to work at it, she is even less interested. Her IQ is in the 160 range.

I think we need to focus on work ethic and teaching skills that allow children to use their intelligence in a productive way.

We have several "genius" IQ people in my family without an ounce of common sense and that would be considered failures at life.

We need to teach children to work to their potential (hard to do when bored to death at school) and the importance of organization, focus, completing tasks, etc.

That -- and take them OUTSIDE where they learn about LIFE!

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It bothers me when we get too hung up on an IQ score. Don't we want our kids to reach their potential and love learning?

An easy and cheap way to encourage learning and build knowledge is by reading to your child and instilling a love for reading. Many IQ tests are based heavily on vocabulary and language skills.

I am a speech language pathologist with a website filled with suggestions for great books, educational games and toys to build language at http://www.playonwords.com. My book reviews include tips to build language and literacy:
http://playonwords.com/reviews/2009/03/24/one-book-review/

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