How To Improve Your Child's IQ

Ebony, Oct, 1999

MAYBE you thought your child s first early steps were a hint that your child was destined to be the next Alvin Ailey. Or that the ease and eloquence in which your preschooler recites her favorite nursery rhyme or his ABCs may hint of the next Maya Angelou. Maybe you think the notes your child plinks on his or her toy piano signal a great composer.

Child experts say you might be right.

"Gifted" children develop faster intellectually than they do physically and emotionally. While the IQ for a normal child usually ranges between 85 and 115, gifted children score above 130.

One of the first major clues that your child may be gifted is early and extensive language development. For instance, a child who is 1 year old may possess superior intelligence if he can easily string words together to form complex sentences or understand the meaning of words when other children the same age are still saying only one or two words.

Other early signs of a potential prodigy are unusual alertness and curiosity, a long attention span and even a musical or artistic inclination. "A [gifted] child explains things that a child of that age generally cannot," says Dr Marilyn B. Benoit, program director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Services at Howard University Hospital and Medical School. "A child who picks up abstract concepts early, such as mathematics, and one who makes sense out of the world in a precocious way [is possibly gifted]."

Okay, so your 1-year-old's verbal repertoire only includes "ma-ma, dada" and a gurgling sound that means "bottle," and your preschooler can barely write his name let alone pen a Shakespearean sonnet. That doesn't mean your child isn't gifted. Genius or not, all children have special gifts, inherent talents and abilities that can flourish in the right settings.

"We know from research that the expression of your inherent intellect and abilities has a lot to do with the environment in which you are reared," says Dr. Benoit, who is also secretary of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. "Environment plays a significant role in stimulating kids to express their giftedness." Your task as parent is to provide your child with as many opportunities to discover whatever those special gifts may be and to develop them to their fullest potential.

BE ATTUNED TO YOUR CHILD

Special gifts are often hidden ones. The only true way to uncover your child's unique talents is to spend quality time with your child. The hours you spend getting to know your son or daughter not only strengthen that parent-child bond but also allow you and your little one to do some detective work. Child experts say that playing with your child, especially play that involves imagination, is one of the best ways to discover where his or her interests lie.

Just talking to your child can go a long way in helping the child establish personal goals. Children should be encouraged to express their dreams and desires, and who they admire most and why. And by all means ask them that all-important question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILD'S NATURAL CURIOSITY

Once you have an inkling about your child's interests, do all you can to encourage exploration. If your son loves to draw or color, investing in an inexpensive paint or crayon set can set him on the road to becoming the next Jacob Lawrence. Or a few canisters of colored clay might spur a future Elizabeth Catlett or Richard Hunt. Your daughter may be an aerial acrobat on the jungle gym at the park; enrolling her in a gymnastics class could very well spawn another Dominique Dawes. The possibilities for your children are endless, and that makes it that much more important for you to support them when they express an interest in something.

EXPOSE YOUR CHILD TO THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE

Sometimes it takes "getting out of the box" for your child to discover that hidden talent. A trip to a museum, library, concert or dance performance may spark a passion in your child that neither of you knew existed. Experts say that parents should go beyond their neighborhoods to let children experience the diversity of life. Music, literature, human culture in its myriad forms are the stimuli that trigger further discovery and curiosity in children.

AVOID OVEREXPOSURE

Sometimes parents--in their zeal to cultivate the next George Washington Carver or Mae Jemison--assault their children with a bevy of activities. While their hearts are certainly in the right place, experts say that exposing young children to too much, too soon can cause more harm than good. When children are overwhelmed, they get tired, bored or frustrated. They shut down to the learning process. The lesson parents need to learn is quality over quantity of time. It's better to spend 30 good minutes with a child interested and excited about an activity rather than waste three hours with a bored, sleepy or irritable youngster.

COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR CHILD'S SCHOOL

As a parent, you not only have to play your part in nurturing your child's natural gifts, but you also must make sure your child's teachers and school administrators are playing their role. "If it takes a village to raise a child, part of that village is the school," says Carlton Jordan Jr., senior associate with the Education Trust, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that advocates high academic achievement for Blacks and minority youth. "We need to make sure that we have our kids in those environments where teachers are trained to do what they need to do."