How to make your kids smarter in 10 scientific steps

How to make your kids smarter in 10 scientific stepsHow to make your kids smarter in 10 scientific stepsIve explored the science behindwhat makes kids happier, whattype of parenting works bestand what makes forjoyful families.Butwhat makes children - from babies up through the teen years - smarter?Here are 10 things science says can help1) Music lessonsPlain and simpleresearch show music lessonsmake kids smarterCompared with children in the control groups,children in the music groups exhibited greater increases in full-scale IQ. The effect welches relatively small, but it generalized across IQ subtests, index scores, and a standardized measure of academic achievement.In fact musical training helpseveryone,young and oldA growing body of research finds musical training gives students learning advantages in the classroom. Now a Northwestern University study finds musical training can benefit Grandma, too, by offsetting some of the deleterious effects of aging.(More on what the music y ou love says about youhere.)2) The dumb jock is a mythDumb jocks are dumb because they spend mora time on the field than in the library. But what if you make sure your child devotes time to both?Being in good shapeincreases your ability to learn. After exercise people pick up new vocabulary words 20% faster.ViaSpark The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the BrainIndeed, in a 2007 study of humans, German researchers found that people learn vocabulary words 20 percent faster following exercise than they did before exercise, and that the rate of learning correlated directly with levels of BDNF.A 3 month exercise regimen increased bloodflow to thepart of the brain focused on memory and learning by 30%.ViaSpark The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the BrainIn his study, Small put a group of volunteers on a three-month exercise regimen and then took pictures of their brains What he saw was that the capillary volume in the memory area of the hippocampus increased by 30 per cent, a truly remarkable change.(More on how exercise can make you and your kids smarter and happierhere.)3) Dont read to your kids, read with themGot a little one who is learning to read?Dont let them just stare at the pictures in a book while you do all the reading.Call attention to the words. Read with them, not to them.Research showsit helps build their reading skillswhen shared book reading is enriched with explicit attention to the development of childrens reading skills and strategies, then shared book reading is an effective vehicle for promoting the early literacy ability even of disadvantaged children.(More on things most parents do wronghere.)4) Sleep deprivation makes kids stupidMissing an hour of sleep turns a sixth graders brain into that of a fourth grader.ViaNurtureShockA loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to the loss of two years of cognitive maturation and development,Sadeh explained.There is a correlation between grades and average amount of sleep.ViaNurtureS hockTeens who received As averaged about fifteen mora minutes sleep than the B students, who in turn averaged fifteen more minutes than the Cs, and so on.Wahlstroms data was an almost perfect replication of results from an earlier study of over 3,000 Rhode Island high schoolers by Browns Carskadon. Certainly, unterstellung are averages, but the consistency of the two studies stands out. Every fifteen minutes counts.(More on how to sleep betterhere.)5) IQ isnt worth much without self-disciplineSelf-discipline beats IQat predicting who will be successful in life.From Charles Duhiggs excellent bookThe Power of Habit Why We Do What We Do in Life and BusinessDozens of studies show that willpower is the single most important keystone habit for individual successStudents who exerted high levels of willpower were more likely to earn higher grades in their classes and gain admission into more selective schools. They had fewer absences and spent less time watching television and more hours on homework. Highly self-disciplined adolescents outperformed their more impulsive peers on every academic-performance variable, the researchers wrote. Self-discipline predicted academic performance more robustly than did IQ. Self-discipline also predicted which students would improve their grades over the course of the school year, whereas IQ did not. Self-discipline has a bigger effect on academic performance than does intellectual talent.Grades have more to do withconscientiousnessthan raw smarts.ViaHow Children Succeed Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Characterconscientiousness was the trait that best predicted workplace success. What intrigues Roberts about conscientiousness is that it predicts so many outcomes that go far beyond the workplace. People high in conscientiousness get better grades in school and college they commit fewer crimes and they stay married longer. They live longer and not just because they smoke and drink less. They have fewer strokes, lower blood pressure, and a lower incidence of Alzheimers disease.Who does best in life? Kids withgrit.ViaDrive The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.The best predictor of success, the researchers found, was the prospective cadets ratings on a noncognitive, nonphysical trait known asgrit- defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals.(More on how to improve self-disciplinehere.)6) Learning is an active processBaby Einstein and braintraining gamesdont work.In fact, theres reason to believe they make kidsdumber.ViaBrain Rules for Baby How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to FiveThe products didnt work at all. They had no positive effect on the vocabularies of the target audience, infants 17-24 months. Some did actual harm.For every hour per day the children spent watching certain baby DVDs and videos, the infants understood an average of six to eight fewer words than infants who did not watch them.Real learning isnt passive, its active.What doesDan Coyle, author ofThe T alent Coderecommend?Stop merely reading and test yourselfOur brains evolved to learn by doing things, not by hearing about them. This is one of the reasons that, for a lot of skills, its much better to spend about two thirds of your time testing yourself on it rather than absorbing it. Theres a rule of two thirds. If you want to, say, memorize a passage, its better to spend 30 percent of your time reading it, and the other 70 percent of your time testing yourself on that knowledge.(More on how to teach your child to be a hard worker in schoolhere.)7) Treats can be a good thing - at the right timeOverall, it would be better if kids ate healthy all the time.Research shows eating makes a difference inchildrens gradesEverybody knows you should eat breakfast the day of a big test. High-carb, high-fiber, slow-digesting foods like oatmeal are best, research shows. But what you eat a week in advance matters, too. When 16 college students were tested on attention and thinking speed, then fe d a five-day high-fat, low-carb diet heavy on meat, eggs, cheese and cream and tested again, their performance declined.There are always exceptions. No kid eats healthy all the time.But the irony is thatkids often get bad foods at the wrong time.Researchshows caffeine and sugar can be brain boostersCaffeine and glucose can have beneficial effects on cognitive performance Since these areas have been related to the sustained attention and working memory processes, results would suggest that combined caffeine and glucose could increase the efficiency of the attentional system.Theyre also potent rewards kids love.So if kids are going to occasionally eat candy and sodamaybe its better to give it to them while they study then when theyre relaxing.(More on the best way for kids to studyhere.)8) Happy kids = successful kidsHappier kids are more likely to turn into successful, accomplished adults.ViaRaising Happiness 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parentshappiness is a trem endous advantage in a world that emphasizes performance. On average, happy people are more successful than unhappy people at both work and love. They get better performance reviews, have more prestigious jobs, and earn higher salaries. They are more likely to get married, and once married, they are more satisfied with their marriage.And whats the first step in creating happier kids? Being ahappy parent.(More on how to raise happy kidshere.)9) Peer group mattersYour genetics and the genetics of your partner have a huge effect on your kids. But the way you raise your kids?Not nearly as much.Via Malcolm GladwellsThe Tipping Point How Little Things Can Make a Big DifferenceOn things like measures of intellectual ability and certain aspects of personality, the biological children are fairly similar to their parents. For the adopted kids, however, the results are downright strange.Their scores have nothing whatsoever in common with their adoptive parents these children are no more similar in their personality or intellectual skills to the people who raised them, fed them, clothed them, read to them, taught them, and loved them for sixteen years than they are to any two adults taken at random off the street.So what does have an enormous affect on your childrens behavior? Theirpeer group.We usually only talk aboutpeer pressurewhen its a negative but more often than not, its apositive.Living in a nice neighborhood, going to solid schools and making sure your children hang out with good kids can make a huge difference.Whats the easiest way for a college student to improve their GPA?Pick a smart roommate.ViaThe Happiness Advantage The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at WorkOne study of Dartmouth College students by economist Bruce Sacerdote illustrates how powerful this influence is.He found that when students with low grade-point averages simply began rooming with higher-scoring students, their grade-point averages increased.The se students, according to the researchers, appeared to infect each other with good and bad study habits- such that a roommate with a high grade-point average would drag upward the G.P.A. of his lower-scoring roommate.(More on the how others affect your behavior without you realizing ithere.)10) Believe in themBelieving your kid is smarter than average makes a difference.When teachers were told certain kids were sharper, those kids did better - even though the kids were selected at random.ViaThe Heart of Social Psychology A Backstage View of a Passionate ScienceRosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968) did the saatkorn study in a classroom,telling elementary school teachers that they had certain students in their class who were academic spurters. In fact, these students were selected at random. Absolutely nothing else was done by the researchers to single out these children. Yet by the end of the school year, 30 percent of the the children arbitrarily named as spurters had gained an aver age of 22 IQ points, and almost all had gained at least 10 IQ points.Sum upMusic LessonsThe Dumb Jock Is A MythDont Read To Your Kids, Read With ThemSleep Deprivation Makes Kids StupidIQ Isnt Worth Much Without Self-DisciplineLearning Is An Active ProcessTreats Can Be a Good Thing - At The Right TimeHappy Kids = Successful KidsPeer Group MattersBelieve In ThemOne final noteIntelligence isnteverything.Without ethics and empathy really smart people can be scary.AsP.J. ORourkeonce saidSmart people dont start many bar fights. But stupid people dont build many hydrogen bombs.So if you want to learn how to raise a happier kid gohereand a more well-behaved kid gohere.I hope this helps your child be brilliant.Join more than 320,000 readers.Get a free weekly update via emailhere.Related postsGood Parenting Skills 7 Research-Backed Ways to Raise Kids RightHow To Have A Happy Family 7 Tips Backed By ResearchHow To Raise Happy Kids 10 Steps Backed By ScienceThis article originally appeared a t Barking Up the Wrong Tree.