Yes! Your Child Is A Genius!

Most parents and children get nervous when the word ‘test’ is mentioned.  While tests may be useful in some ways to measure how well or not, a child is doing, it does have its drawbacks.  Too much emphasis on test results can place an artificial age barrier on children’s individual abilities.

The idea that a child’s ability to learn is age dependent is a relatively new one in human history.  If, for instance, we go back to the Middle Ages we see that age and ability were thought of differently at that time.  Elizabeth I, one of the most famous and successful queens in European history was an accomplished philosopher, historian, politician, and multi-lingual before her teens.  There is absolutely nothing in research to say that children are not s capable today.

Who then is best placed to say what a child is or is not capable of understanding or learning at any given age – us, armed with a bunch of education statistics, or them?  Any parent who has spent hours trying to sort out how the video recorder works  only to have their five-year fix it for them in under 10 seconds, knows exactly what I mean.  A child does not know that something is too complex for them until we tell them that it is.  If we pre-condition them into thinking their abilities are somehow determined by their age, then we are putting the brakes on them before they even got started.  We are presuming that we know the limits of what they are capable of, and when they will be able to achieve it.  Well-meaning or not, in a more scientific way this is exactly what ability tests do.  If they were not based on preset expectations and markers on ability, what is considered simple or complex, they would not function as tests at all.

One of the things to note is that IQ does not equate ability.  The specific role of IQ tests is to measure intelligence in some way.  People with high IQs are not necessarily the academic types.  They may or may not have a degree and they are found in all walks of life, including but certainly not only, academia. 

There is certainly  more than one kind of intelligence.  In the 20th century, the research of Professor Howard Gardner, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education questioned the established idea that intelligence came in just one form that could be measured in an IQ test and that was that.  Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences suggests that there may be at least seven different kinds of intelligences in humans, ranging from mathematical/logical to kinaesthetic (finely-tuned motor control and co-ordination).  For example, a successful footballer might have kinaesthetic intelligence.  A successful entrepreneur might have mathematical/logical intelligence.   You may know or be aware of someone who is a successful entrepreneur and footballer all at the same time.  In which case, they would have to have both kinaesthetic as well as mathematical/logical intelligence.

Whatever kind of intelligence your child may be gifted in, it is always a good idea to start as soon as possible to train his young brain.  There are home-based training programs available to help busy parents take just minutes a day to bring out the best in their children.  The effects of which are cumulative and the benefits will last a lifetime.  You can teach your child to read or learn math from as little as 2 months old (yes, your baby can read).  Early child education is now more popular than ever and is gaining worldwide recognition.  The earlier your child starts learning, the better will be the effects of such early childhood development program, like learning math or reading  A child genius may be born, but who is to say you cannot develop your own child to be a genius?