Increasing babies intelligence

Khannie

So.....I stumbled upon this document which offers ways to potentially increase your childs intelligence (I was not looking for ways to improve babies intelligence at the time). It was of particular note to me that the article is hosted on the mensa website though.

I'll ask an open question: What are peoples thoughts on this?

Nevyn

Honestly I don't see anything new in it or at least new to me.
Gone are the days when infants up to the age of 1 were up dressed fed and left in the pram outside the front door.

I never used baby talk with either of mine and found that it is easy to teach languages at one they learn the word for something in english and in irish and if I dont know the word in irish it can be looked up.

I think that there is the worry of hot housing infants.
Learning should be part of play and fun.

luckat

This kind of thing always reminds me of the child of an acquaintance, who at the age of six said to an elderly man: "I believe you're quite the ornithologist?"

What on earth is wrong with addressing your child as an oogly-poogly bestest little boy in the whole European Union and just a kissable squeezable little lump of luvvie-wuvvingness, anyway? Jeepers creepers!

DublinWriter

Khannie wrote:

I'll ask an open question: What are peoples thoughts on this?

I've a passing interest in Cognitive Development and Learning Systems as I hope to do a PhD on it in the next 10 years.

There's no doubt that having a stimulating environment fosters intelligence. However most parents just limit this to having a Fischer Price mobile handing over the pram.

While I wouldn't be of the school of enrolling your kid in the Yamaha school of Violin at age 2, I would suggest that playing Mozart and atonal music (Stravinsky) at a *low* level (baby's hearing is very very sensitive) can be very beneficial in encouraging early brain development. Baby's visual cortices aren't completely developed until about 18-24 months, so visual stimulation doesn't come into it - they live in very much an aural, olfactory and tactile world at that stage.

Khannie

luckat wrote:

What on earth is wrong with addressing your child as an oogly-poogly bestest little boy in the whole European Union and just a kissable squeezable little lump of luvvie-wuvvingness, anyway? Jeepers creepers!

It's not necessarily that it's negative, just that (from what I understand) speaking to your child like you'd speak to anyone else helps to improve their vocabulary / ability to express themselves (lack of ability to express themselves can be a source of frustration to a child).

Good input though. (all of it so far).

luckat

It sounds logical enough, but do we really have any evidence? Sure, of course you should talk to your children - very, very important that you talk to young children a lot, and in positive terms, and praise them and help them to increase their vocabulary.

But I don't know that there's actually any hard evidence that Einstein or Shakespeare were never called oogly-poogly little scraps of luvvieness.

simu

Khannie wrote:

It's not necessarily that it's negative, just that (from what I understand) speaking to your child like you'd speak to anyone else helps to improve their vocabulary / ability to express themselves (lack of ability to express themselves can be a source of frustration to a child).

Good input though. (all of it so far).

Linguists are undecided on the benefits or otherwise of this "parentese" afaik. Interesting article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parentese

From what I've read of longitudinal studies on separated twins and siblings and so on, intelligence doesn't seem to be influenced all that much by the home environment (apart from obvious factors like malnutrition) so I wouldn't worry about it tbh.

Khannie

simu wrote:

intelligence doesn't seem to be influenced all that much by the home environment (apart from obvious factors like malnutrition) so I wouldn't worry about it tbh.

Interesting.

/me kicks back, homer style

But seriously, that's not what I would have expected. I'm off to read more.

Raiser

My partner [A Primary teacher] was at the Circus and waved hello to two pupils at her school. One had the hat, balloons, candy-floss, chocolate, 1.5 litre of coke and associated sugar-fuelled, crazy-eyed dementia. The other was chatting away happily with Mammy and Daddy.

The next day she asked them both [separately] if they had enjoyed the Circus last night ? Coke child looked confused...."The what Miss?" - cue patient explanation re. the big tent and animals - nobody had even told him he was AT the Circus...... :eek:

- The other child gave her 99 facts about Elephants, Tigers, Africa etc. etc. etc.

On the other hand I would personally believe that parents who hothouse children in a regimented & over the top way are simply maladjusted folks trying to ensure a continuity of maladjustment through a further generation via their unfortunate offspring.

CJhaughey

Are there any ways of increasing cunning?
I mean intelligence is all well and good but a bit of cunning would be much more valuable long term coupled with a smidgen of intelligence.
*That actually sounds like a recipe for a politician* urgh

killbillvol2

CJhaughey wrote:

Are there any ways of increasing cunning?

I like the way you're thinking!

silverharp

We used baby signing with our son and it was great fun. I think the advantage of it is that it gave him a way of expressing himself before he could speak. I don't know if there are any long term benefits and he stopped using it at about 1 1/2

for example he had a sign for drink, eat, every animal in his books and various things that we saw out and about.