Healthier Living

You Can Raise Your Child's IQ

BY CLAUDIA CORNWALL

Experts explain how

PONDER this scenario: As parents of children aged nine and five, you think you've done your best to help them develop their minds. You started reading to them as infants; you bought them educational toys; you took them to the library. Now they're doing well in school. But should you be taking credit? According to some scientists, your children would have done just as well without your zealous efforts.

For example, in Race, Evolution, and Behaviour, Philippe Rushton of the University of Western Ontario maintains that intelligence is predominantly genetic and varies according to race. In The Bell Curve, Charles Murray and the late Richard Hernstein make the same claim. Both books stirred controversy. After publication of The Bell Curve, The Wall Street Journal published a statement signed by 52 researchers saying studies "indicate genetics plays a bigger role than does environment in creating IQ differences."

After years of being told how important it was to stimulate their children's intellects, parents may understandably have become confused. Are efforts to improve their kids' academic skills just time down the drain?

No, say many researchers. Clyde Hertzman, an epidemiologist of the University of British Columbia and Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, recently reviewed a range of studies on the impact of childhood experiences on cognitive skills. Hertzman's report acknowledges the important roles played by both genes and the environment (which includes a child's health and nutrition as well as intellectual stimulation). The same conclusion was reached by a task force chosen by the American Psychological Association.

Even if genes play a dominant role, that leaves plenty of room for parents to influence the outcome. Indeed, a growing amount of research shows that, especially in the early years of life when the brain is still taking shape, parental attention -- even such a simple activity as playing peekaboo -- helps construct the complex brain circuitry essential to intellectual development.

Explosive Growth. "Parents have a major impact, and early environment makes a huge difference," says Gordon Wells, a professor of education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. He has spent more than 25 years studying how children learn, and how early interaction with adults develops childhood intelligence.

Convincing evidence for the importance of adult influence on a child's intelligence comes from the University of Western Ontario Preschool Project, initiated by child psychologist Mary Wright. The children in the study attended Wright's preschool for either one or two years. In the classes, Wright mixed youngsters from low-income families who were "at risk" with those of middle and high-income families. By using games and play activities, she boosted their cognitive, motor and social skills. She then compared them with a control group who did not go to preschool but started school in kindergarten.

Wright found that all the children who attended the preschool improved their scores on IQ tests significantly -- by up to 28 points, with the highest-risk children making the biggest gains. At age ten -- or in Grade V -- they were still scoring higher on IQ tests than the control group and outperforming them in language and math tests.

What accounts for these gains? According to Bryan Kolb, a neuropsychologist at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, and other scientists, early mental stimulation changes the way the brain grows.

An infant is born with billions of brain cells called neurons. Some are wired to other cells before birth to regulate the basics of life, such as heartbeat and breathing; others are waiting to be wired to help interpret and respond to the outside world. Experience dictates the hookups.

As the child matures, cells set up pathways to other cells needed to determine a behaviour. For instance, neurons in the eyes send branches to the visual cortex, which interprets what the eyes see and, via other branches, cues the person to react to what is seen. Experience strengthens the pathways.

The first two years of life are an explosion of brain growth and connections. By age two the brain has more than 300 trillion connections. At the same time, cells that aren't being connected or used are being discarded.

Many Opportunities. There seems to be a timetable for this programming of the young brain -- "windows of opportunity," as one neurobiologist puts it -- when specific connections may be made. For instance, the neurons governing vision undergo a growth spurt in the first half year of life and are connected to 15,000 others by eight months.

There's a similar window of opportunity for understanding language and learning to talk. A newborn has the capacity to distinguish among sounds in any human language. Japanese and North American children both readily distinguish between "r" and "l" during the first half year of life, according to Patricia Kuhl, who studies language development at the University of Washington. However, since there's no "l" sound in the Japanese language, Japanese infants generally fail to retain the connections for that sound. As a result, a Japanese baby not exposed to the difference between "r" and "l" before age two will usually have trouble discriminating between the two sounds as an adult.

If you miss a window of opportunity, will your child be forever handicapped? No, because opportunities to strengthen brain connections abound throughout childhood. According to Bryan Kolb, we start out life with more neurons than we need. This means that children can learn faster than adults because throughout their developing years children's brains have an abundance of connections.

Consider, for example, the process of learning to speak a foreign language. While a kindergartner picks up an unfamiliar tongue more readily than a nine-year-old does, the nine-year-old learns it more readily than does a high-school student.

"Casual" Emphasis. What can a parent do at home to bolster a child's IQ? "Young children do not need direct instruction," says Mary Wright. "What's necessary is to create a stimulating environment in which they find learning exciting." Begin early in the child's life, the experts suggest, and follow these steps:

Look 'em in the eye. Your six-week-old's eyes focus at roughly 18 centimetres -- just about the distance at which you hold him in front of you and gaze at his face. That tracks brain connections into a pattern of recognition that's strengthened with each exposure, and helps your child sort the world into what's familiar, what isn't, what's different, what's the same -- crucial skills in learning.

Talk, talk, talk. Vancouver resident Lorraine Ma talked a steady stream to her daughter from the time she was born. At three, Julia is speaking in well-formed sentences. Performing "plays" of her own invention, she will ask with a flourish, "Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready for the show?"

Early command of language is important, says Marvin Simner, a professor of psychology at the University of Western Ontario, because "language is a component of all learning. Children who experience a delay in learning to use language are at risk for early school failure."

In one experiment, Janellen Huttenlocher, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, and others tested the mathematical ability of two groups of kindergartners. One group came from deprived homes with presumably little parental involvement, the other from more educated families. In tests of calculation, when pennies were surreptitiously added to or taken from a pile, children in both social classes did equally well in determining the new number of pennies. But when the problems were stated in words -- "Mary had three apples. She gave one away. How many did she have left?" -- the children from more educated families did far better.

Make room for music. In the Mahoney household in Ottawa, father Keith sings and plays the guitar while his two children, Ben, four, and Aiden, three, sing along. "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer" are year-round favourites. Even if you're no Pavarotti, your lullabies and jingles help your child's brain development.

Music does more than teach kids about rhythm and melody. Research at the University of California, Irvine, shows that giving three-year-olds piano and group-singing lessons dramatically improved their spatial-temporal reasoning, important in understanding math and science.

Encourage curiosity. A child builds intellect and learns about the world by reaching out to new experiences -- by exploring. According to Gillian Doherty, a professor of Family Studies at the University of Guelph, Ontario: "Toddlers and preschoolers who experience high levels of adult involvement and encouragement show higher rates of exploratory behaviour than other children."

Lying in their cribs, little explorers have boundless curiosity, which they satisfy by touching and tasting. Encourage that curiosity -- in fact, explore with them. Pick up a toy and look it over, then hand it to your child to examine. Get down on the floor and crawl with him.

"Label" things. Lorraine Ma pointed out different colours when her daughter was learning to speak. "We had a yellow book. I'd point to it and say 'yellow.' That was Julia's first colour word." She learned the other colours quickly after that. "I just had to point them out."

"Even very young babies can recognize different colours and shapes," says Gillian Doherty. They can't say the words, but they understand that red is different from green well within the first year of life. It's the parents' role to "label" different colours, sizes and shapes to reinforce such understanding.

Stand up and cheer. "Good!" you exclaim when the little one first learns to drink from a cup. Praising your child's accomplishments not only delights your child but also reinforces connections between the frontal cortex and the amygdala in the midbrain, the seat of emotions.

Between ten and 18 months, the brain is making these connections. When you praise Baby's first steps, making Baby happy, a flood of neurochemicals is released in the brain, strengthening the circuits. Conversely, if Baby's achievements are repeatedly met with indifference, the circuits fail to strengthen, and Baby becomes reluctant to try new things.

Don't stop now. While early intervention is most important, neural networks continue to develop into the teens, especially for emotion. Continue to read to your child, keep the conversations going, play music.

Actual IQ scores may not change dramatically as a child grows older, but academic achievement can. These are the years in which the brain is fine-tuned and environmental influences continue to count. Your attention won't necessarily create an Einstein, but it remains a vital ingredient in your child's intelligence.

For further information, resources and activities related to children's learning, visit the following web sites:

National Parent Information Network
For parents and those who work with parents on early childhood education issues.

The Power of Music -- by Frances Rauscher, Ph.D
Research on the links between music education and children's cognitive skills, on the Early Childhood News web site.

Canadian Kids Page
A jumping-off point for parents and children exploring the World Wide Web together

Yahooligans!
A searchable, browsable index of the Internet for surfers aged seven to 12.