How to develop intelligent children: the way we are trying to do it and the results so far.
Every parent wants their child to grow up intelligent and wish they could influence this. In most cases this wish remains just that, a wish, and whether the child who is conceived, born and raised is intelligent or not remains a hit-or-miss affair. When I met my future wife, aged sixteen at the time and I was seventeen, we decided that we would take as many steps as necessary in attempting to influence the development of our future children. Now I am 43 and my wife 42 and we have two daughters aged 12 and 10 who are extremely intelligent. Here is what we did:-
(1) Pursued careers that allow us to directly participate in our children's learning.
When we finished high school, my wife took a teaching course and qualified to teach pupils from preschool to pre-University. I took an engineering degree, developed my electronics hobby into a second career in computer science and qualified to be an adjunct lecturer at a university.
(2) Found reliable literature on child development and imbibed the knowledge.
(3) Delayed marriage until we were fully mature and financially sound.
We dated for ten years before getting married when I was 28. By then we were both working, had a car and a fully-furnished house of our own with no mortgage on it.
(4) Delayed having children, though married, until we were emotionally stable.
We had fun for three years before having our first child when I was 31. By then we had smoothened out the rough and tumble of getting married.
(5) Made an early start on creating an extensive physical book library.
We bought a large number of assorted books for our future children to develop a reading culture early.
(6) Made an early start on creating a home computer/technical room.
We created a room with seven networked computers plus extensive gadgetry and toys to develop curiosity and technical enquiry with (immersive learning).
(7) Made an early start in communicating with the unborn child.
I started talking to the unborn child three months after my wife was confirmed pregnant. I would also play soft music from time to time. I could vouch that from the seventh month onwards the child seemed to kick in response when spoken to.
(8) Made thorough preparations for birthing.
We read lots of literature about birthing and the preparation of the birth canal to reduce the birthing trauma on the child. I attended their birth and the doctor involved me fully.
(9) Made an early start on mental and psychomotor development.
The gadgetry and toys helped the children to tinker with multi-colored, moving and stationary objects very early and that appears to have boosted their appreciation for science and how things work. The second daughter is also incredible at art having taken early interest in crayons and large drawing pads.
(10) Made an early start on computer usage (educational software).
From the age of eighteen months we exposed the children to computers. We had to keep a stack of spare keyboards because they got hammered and broke very often. We developed numerous software programs for our children and ended up opening a whole business selling the software!.
(11) Increased exposure to knowledge and interactivity during the formative years.
The literature said that the years from five to just after eight were critical for mental development and that during that time the brain would map its wiring to the variety and scope of experience it was subjected to. We covered many aspects; from literature to electronics, including opening up TV's and constructing electronic circuits for fun. By the time the children were eight they had become "local geniuses" and being reported on by the press from time to time.
(12) Encouraged mental activity during the formative years.
The children participated in public speaking, debates, quizzes, art contests and national competitions on the environment. The older child scooped the top national heritage and environment quiz competition while leading a team of pupils three years older than her.
(13) We insisted on reasoning one's way to decisions and conclusions.
Finally, we deliberately taught the children that if asked the question "Why?" by anyone they were to fashion a thoroughly considered answer. And on our part we never say to the children, "Do this because I say so".
The outcome so far has been incredible.
Our daughters could read, write and speak fluent English (a second language) by the age of four. They come top of their classes all the time except once or twice when they have had severe flu during school tests then they come second or third. They stay about three years ahead of their classmates but enjoy tutoring them in current studies to keep themselves motivated in class. They did their fifth and sixth year of primary school in one year to finish in six years rather than seven. They could have skipped half the classes but the target was not to break records but to achieve full development.
The older one has gone on to secondary school where she is now almost four years ahead of her classmates and is set to write her "O" level examinations at the age of thirteen. Her mock exams show her scoring over 90% in the exams. Her target is a Bachelor's degree in computer science before her seventeenth birthday.
Our second daughter had febrile convulsions from birth and was diagnosed with complex epileptic seizures at the age of five. Usage of epilepsy drugs started depressing her intellect and a top neurologist advised us to stop the drugs completely, which we did. He believed that,in our child'd particular case in our intensive development program and intellectual environment in the home, her brain would probably re-wire itself out of the seizures.
That professor has turned out right - so far. At seven, our daughter used to have as many as twenty seizures a day and stay away from school, but attend tests and beat the class nevertheless. Now, at ten, she has perhaps one seizure in nine months.
One observation is that they still love their dolls and when in the mood play hide and seek in the orchard then we can't believe they are the same little devils who do "O" level statistics in their heads.
This is not a scientific experiment and I have no qualifications in a medical field. The question we ask ourselves frankly is whether any of what we have done has played any role in our children having the obvious intelligence they have. Or it is just their genetics. We do not know. We have no way of knowing. We just have this intuitive feeling that it all helped