~Give Your Child The Best Head Start~
by: Kreslee Ketcham
Everybody wants to give their children the best possible step forward in life, whether its painting the room yellow or playing classical Mozart while they sleep. Nobody knows for sure if those theories work, but there is one study that has been proven to help boost your childs IQ and it starts at birth. The Abecedarian Project took children from low income families with age range starting at infancy through age five. The children would have activities they did every day that were games that focused on cognitive ares of development, social and emotional areas. These activities could be a simple as holding up a yellow block and asking the child to pick out a block that looked similar to the one you were holding. The childrens progress was monitored over time with follow-up studies conducted till they were 21. The children showed long-lasting benefits from the study and their overall IQ was higher then their peers. So instead of putting your child through this study you can simply reenact this study right in your own home with brain stimulating activities. The games don't have to be extensive in riddles or tricks, just interacting with your children with blocks and asking simple questions like which one is green? will suffice. So to give your child the best possible step forward in life, simply take a trick or two from the Abecedarian Project and you can watch your child succeed with leaps and bounds throughout their life.
I think this is a great idea to do little activities with your child even if it is just for a few minutes every day. It can be so simple and would just take a couple minutes and could possibly help your child so much in the future. -Elisabeth Arnold
ReplyDeleteI think this project proves why programs such as Early Head Start and Parents as Teachers are so important. I just wish that every child every where could have these advantages. Julie Lienard
ReplyDeleteI think the Abecedarian Project is performed often, we just do not realize it. I do believe this can be done with common items around the house. As parents, we do not need to puchase high dollar toys to interact with our children. Children can pick out colored items from around the house to get the same affect as were stressed in the Abedecarian Project. We, like our children, find commercials about stimulating toys appealing. Therefore, we rush out to buy them for our children. I was certainly guilty of that and I still do it with my grandchildren.
ReplyDeleteSusan Davis