Tips on How to Foster your Child"s Mental Development
One of the best ways to foster your child's mental development is to make encouragement, love, and praise your primary method of discipline.
As a parent, you have the luxury of time and opportunity to study your child better than any teacher ever could. You know how your kid learns best, what encourages him to try, when it's appropriate to approach the situation with humor or with firmness, how much challenge spurs her and just how much dulls her interest.
The emotional atmosphere you create in your home can do a lot to stimulate your kid to learn, and to foster his mental skills. A lot of long-term research projects show that a child's intelligence will increase if the attitude in your home is democratic and warm instead of being authoritarian and cold. For instance, one study shows that the IQ of young children living in homes where parents were hostile, neglectful, or restrictive actually decreased over a four-year period. But in homes where parents are loving and warm, where they take time to sit down and explain their actions, gives them a chance to participate in decision-making, tries to answer their questions every chance they get, there is a significant increase in their IQ of about 9 points.
This doesn't mean that you should be absolutely lax or permissive, let your kids run wild, or allow them to interfere with the rights of others. It simply means that you should love your kid enthusiastically, wholeheartedly, and use every opportunity to make sure that he knows it. Think about it, if your child thinks that his parents don't love him, how can he be confident around his teachers and friends?
How can you foster your child's mental development through a warm and loving atmosphere at home? Below are some suggestions:
1. Plan family activities while taking into consideration your child's need to grow as an individual. Give him as much voice in decision-making involving him. Remember that your aim is to develop an individual who can think and evaluate a situation, then act appropriately; not a trained animal who obeys without question.
2. Even toddlers can be given choices. "Do you want to wear the pink shirt or the purple one today?" "Would you like your milk warm or cold?" "It's almost bedtime, shall we finish the drawing, or shall we stop now so there'll be time for a bedtime story?" The upside is your kid will not be as negative or obsessive of his independence compared to a child who is struggling for some recognition of his developing self. As he grows up, he will less likely be apt to rebel as a youngster whose parents expect him to obey "because I say so."
3. It would help too, if you take time to explain the rules you set up and the decisions you enforce on them - not in boring detail, not in an apologetic manner, not in a level above his understanding, but as a teaching tool. Gradually, your kid will learn to evaluate alternatives. And slowly, he will realize that the rules and discipline you enforce are based on love, sound reasons, and wisdom.
As a parent, you have the luxury of time and opportunity to study your child better than any teacher ever could. You know how your kid learns best, what encourages him to try, when it's appropriate to approach the situation with humor or with firmness, how much challenge spurs her and just how much dulls her interest.
The emotional atmosphere you create in your home can do a lot to stimulate your kid to learn, and to foster his mental skills. A lot of long-term research projects show that a child's intelligence will increase if the attitude in your home is democratic and warm instead of being authoritarian and cold. For instance, one study shows that the IQ of young children living in homes where parents were hostile, neglectful, or restrictive actually decreased over a four-year period. But in homes where parents are loving and warm, where they take time to sit down and explain their actions, gives them a chance to participate in decision-making, tries to answer their questions every chance they get, there is a significant increase in their IQ of about 9 points.
This doesn't mean that you should be absolutely lax or permissive, let your kids run wild, or allow them to interfere with the rights of others. It simply means that you should love your kid enthusiastically, wholeheartedly, and use every opportunity to make sure that he knows it. Think about it, if your child thinks that his parents don't love him, how can he be confident around his teachers and friends?
How can you foster your child's mental development through a warm and loving atmosphere at home? Below are some suggestions:
1. Plan family activities while taking into consideration your child's need to grow as an individual. Give him as much voice in decision-making involving him. Remember that your aim is to develop an individual who can think and evaluate a situation, then act appropriately; not a trained animal who obeys without question.
2. Even toddlers can be given choices. "Do you want to wear the pink shirt or the purple one today?" "Would you like your milk warm or cold?" "It's almost bedtime, shall we finish the drawing, or shall we stop now so there'll be time for a bedtime story?" The upside is your kid will not be as negative or obsessive of his independence compared to a child who is struggling for some recognition of his developing self. As he grows up, he will less likely be apt to rebel as a youngster whose parents expect him to obey "because I say so."
3. It would help too, if you take time to explain the rules you set up and the decisions you enforce on them - not in boring detail, not in an apologetic manner, not in a level above his understanding, but as a teaching tool. Gradually, your kid will learn to evaluate alternatives. And slowly, he will realize that the rules and discipline you enforce are based on love, sound reasons, and wisdom.