Theories on child’s intelligence contradict age old beliefs. People have always been brought up to believe that a child is either born bright or dumb, and whichever he happens to be at birth, he will be for the rest of his life. Intelligence is not constant and therefore can be improved or stunted. While it commonly said that heredity lays the groundwork for a child’s intelligence, it is the environment which determines the extent to which he can develop his potential. Backed up by numerous scientific studies, regardless of inherited intellectual capacity or economic background, the mental development of a child rests largely on whether or not his parents care enough to provide him with a creative and stimulating environment in the earliest years of his life, long before he enters his first classroom.
The importance of the first six years in a child’s life cannot be over-emphasized. The child’s mind is like a blank slate on which his varied perceptions of the world are recorded permanently. Based on the premise that the brain grows at a decelerating rate from birth on, waiting for formal schooling to stimulate a child’s mind is definitely too late. And since the child normally spends his first six years with his parents, they become his first and most influential teachers.
Parents were never taught to think of babies as intelligent individuals. An eight-year study on the subject, however, reveals that even newborns can focus their eyes on shapes and show obvious enjoyment in seeing them. They prefer complicated patterns to solid shapes and can recognize stripes as narrow as one-eight of an inch. They can distinguish between smells, discriminate between tones, distinguish between round nipples and rubber tubing inserted between their lips…all of which show that the infant is integrating information.
It is a firm belief that a baby craves for learning in the same way that he craves for food and for love. A baby who repeatedly drops his rattle from his playpen and howls for his mother to retrieve it is not being plain difficult. He is trying hard to discover the relationship between his releasing the toy and the sound that it makes on the floor. A child who bombards his parents with as endless whys and hows is not testing them for endurance. He is busy forming his own cause and effect. And a child who gets into everything has no behavioral problems. He is simply trying to satisfy the hunger in him to explore, to experiment and to learn. It is also suggests that a child is placed in a big room with clean floor instead of restricting devices such as playpens, infant seats and walkers. It is a spell of convenience for the mother, but disaster to the child’s intellectual growth, stimulating toys which are not necessarily expensive; short trips to the grocery, carnival and at the zoo; reading to him as soon as he reaches ten months, love of reading is one of the best legacies you can give your child; singing to him and playing records or radio music, and talking to him all the time, using correct grammar.
For preschool education, it is recommended the Montessori method of teaching which is very much like home learning. The child is left free to choose the specific activity games, learning is individualized, thereby allowing him to proceed at his own pace without the pressure of keeping up with or waiting for a group. The method also fosters self-discipline and self-reliance by teaching him how to feed, wash and dress himself, a task which parents find tedious.
A child will blossom in a warm and democratic home where his parents listen to him seriously, answer his questions with enthusiasm, correct his mistakes matter-of-factly and seek healthier ways of motivating him other then fear, scolding or physical punishment. While it may be very well to keep in mind that the goal is to develop a thinking individual who can evaluate a situation and act accordingly…not an animal who obeys without question.
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