Raising Smart Kids! hint: Start Early

Everyone wants their kids to be smart. And happy. There are a few things that early childhood teachers know that others may not. After five decades of teaching infants, toddlers, and preschoolers and holding degrees in both education and human development, I now feel privileged to have the chance to share.

one

Start Early

Too many people wait too long to start. It's not that the experts think we could prevent all mental and physical challenges. Of course not. Genetics and trauma count.

However, they do agree that we can develop resilience to challenges by forming new neural pathways as needed. Those pathways are strengthened by repetition. Those pathways develop the fastest early on. Here's a quote from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child.

In the first few years of life, more than 1 million new neural connections form every second. After this period of rapid proliferation, connections are reduced through a process called pruning, which allows brain circuits to become more efficient. In light of these findings, focusing on early childhood only makes sense. -Center for the Developing Child, Harvard University-

The infant brain, however, isn't ready for ABCs and 123s. It's about learning how to learn and approach everything in life. So what can we actually do to help them at such a young age?

The experts say that for the first few years, we should work on forming emotional connections with them.

Communicate with them, read to them, listen to them. Social learning leads to cognitive learning for many reasons.

Let them learn the way their brains are wired to learn. Through play.

two

Play

Have a great time with your child. Rather than "working" on skills, PLAY!   more. Laugh more. Explore! Those things actually work to increase their intelligence.  

Allow them large blocks of time to play freely. It helps with communication. The back and forth, right to left movements that are inherent to play enable their brains to make stronger learning connections.  If they ask you for a lot of help with their play, Try giving them a little instead and see how they do. Sometimes kids need to start to feel bored to get some good ideas. That kind of problem-solving transfers over to creativity and innovation.

Play works to increase intelligence because it's is a multisensory activity. It combines visual, auditory, kinesthetic and other senses to form a completely immersive learning session.

Multisensory activities help the brain form connections between regions. This is what their brain need to do.

three

Scaffolding

Scaffolding helps make a good parent or a good teacher into a great one. It's when we take the time to notice where a child is at, and then give them the least amount of help they need in order to master the task at hand.

Notice that I said the least amount of help, not the most!

When a child whines because they need help getting off off a tire swing or anything else, it's tempting to either take them off quickly or ask them to do it themselves. But what if they just whine more?

Using scaffolding, you might say, "OK, I'll come over and help. Once you get your foot over, it's easier to get off.

Then you might scoot the foot over until it reaches the other side and then offer to hold a hand while they transfer their weight. Then you might ask them to throw the second foot over. Scaffolding takes more time but it teaches them to problem solve.

four

develop strong communication skills

We now have a name for a language-building technique that's been used for centuries by parents and caregivers throughout the world. Serve and return.

 Serve and return is unique because it builds trust, empathy, and language skills simultaneously. Here's a short video from Harvard that explains.

In the next video, we have an example of serve and return with an infant. Notice how the Dad reacts to the infant's cue of turning their head by turning off the camera when the baby seems to say "no!".

Here's another trick from an experienced child care provider. Infants and toddlers are always busy, so you can provide them with both positive attention and language development at the same time. The trick is that you have to be genuinely interested in them and what they're doing. This is really helpful when you're caring for more than one child at a time.

Try noticing the children you care for like this:

I see you're lining up cars, Mary. Looks like fun!

Amy's walking down the sidewalk in a Wonder Woman costume!

Penny's climbing!

Raj's cooking in the kitchen. What are you making, Raj?

Beverly's digging in the sand. Are you making something, Beverly?

Howard's checking on his Mom. Give her a hug from us Howard!

Helping to develop your child's language in this way sets the stage for reading, math, and all other higher-level concepts.

At early childhood rocks, a nonprofit organization, we want you to be your best self and to help the children you care for to succeed.

Do you struggle with teaching self-regulation?

We have tools. Today, we're offering our presentation, Magic Words, How To Get Kids To Listen and Like It. (9.99 value) for free to community members. If you're not a community member, you can join here for free and get it right away. it contains all the best teacher tools for everyday parents to use.

We also have presentations available as tokens of appreciation with small donations to our nonprofit.

How To Respond When A Toddler Hits or Hurts will give you exact words and actions to take in the moment the deed occurs.

Nanci J Bradley is an early childhood and family educator, author, teacher, family aerobics instructor, and an all-around fun-loving person. She believes in the power of sleep, healthy eating, lifelong learning, and most of all, PLAY!  She studied early childhood ed at Triton College and received her BS in education in 1986 from NIU. She received her MA in human development from Pacific Oaks College in 2011. She lives and teaches in Madison WI and is the founder of early childhood rocks, a non-profit org dedicated to creating change through early childhood education.