Many parents are surprised to learn that their child's Iq score can really be increased. After all, we were raised to believe that Iq was stagnant - that is, you are born with the Iq you'll have throughout life. But in the 1990s, brain researchers discovered that the brain is really capable of changing and regrowing the connections in the middle of brain cells. It's these connections, or synapses, not the cells themselves, that really growth the brain's powers by increasing the whole of viable paths for information.
More paths also means faster routes for information to travel. This is good news for everyone - but especially for children with learning disabilities like Add, Asperger's, and dyslexia - because scientists have used special brain imaging technology to prove that good learners use more direct routes from point A to B when processing information. But how does a child learn to use the shorter, faster route? With "brain training."
While "brain training" is a relatively generic term, it can be differentiated from tutoring, which focuses on a exact scholastic subjects, such as math, English or history. While tutoring has its place (such as when a child falls behind in a singular branch due to an illness, injury or school transfer), it does not serve to growth the brain's quality to learn in general. Brain training, on the other hand, works to improve a child's cognitive skills.
"Cognitive skills are the essential, but often overlooked basal tools of productive learning," explains Dr. Ken Gibson, author of "Unlock the Einstein Inside: Applying New Brain Science to Wake Up the Smart in Your Child." "Learning isn't about how much you know, but how effectively you process or deal with the information you receive. Cognitive skills are the reasoning mechanisms that process incoming information."
More specifically, cognitive skills enable children to successfully:
o Focus
o Think
o Prioritize
o Plan
o Understand
o Visualize
o Remember
o create useful associations
o Solve problems
Using intensive, one-on-one training, children of all learning levels can raise their Iq scores by enhancing their cognitive skill set. These consist of auditory processing, visual processing, short and long-term memory, comprehension, logic and reasoning, and concentration skills. Each of these can also be divided into identifiable sub-skills. For example, concentration is made up of sub-skills such as sustained concentration (staying on task), selective concentration (ignoring distractions) and divided concentration (handling more than one task at a time). Each of these skills and sub-skills play a exact and essential role, and must work in concert before an personel can learn effectively.
Here are some exact examples of studies that have proven that children's Iq scores can be raised:
o Researchers at the University of Southampton studied a group of autistic toddlers who were given Early laberious Behavioral Intervention (Eibi). Over the two-year program, the researchers found that the children who received the Eibi had higher Iqs, more developed language and good daily living skills than those who did not. The results? In two-thirds of the children, Iq increased, and in more than one-quarter, Iq increased "very substantially." This included one child whose Iq went from 30 to 70, and someone else who went from 72 to 115. (Source: ScienceDaily, May 7, 2007)
o Brain training enterprise LearningRx showed an median gain of 28 points for children with an Iq lower than 100 using a nonverbal Iq test. The national enterprise trains subskills of Iq like memory, processing speed, visual and auditory processing, and logic. (Source: LearningRx)
o A University of California study reinforced Rauscher's former theory, "The Mozart Effect" (which theorizes that listening to Mozart's music can raise your Iq). The more modern study sited that listening to Mozart's sonata for two pianos K448 can growth one's spatial-temporal Iq scores by nine points. (Source: Smart-Kit)
"Changing a child's learning skills makes a huge impact on all aspects of their life," says Tanya Mitchell, Director of Training for LearningRx. "When children go through our programs they get their homework done faster, plays sports better, make more friends, and just find many things easier that they used to struggle with."
Iq doesn't have to be a stagnant number. Raising your child's Iq is plainly a matter of increasing their cognitive skills. Talk to a cognitive skills educator to find out your options.
Raising Your Child's Iq