Wouldn’t it be great if you could control how smart your kids are? According to new research from NYU, it’s possible. After ploughing through years of mostly poor research, scientists have identified only three factors which have been proven to increase a child’s IQ. What it all boils down to is fish oil, interactive reading, and a quality preschool.
Unfortunately, there are no quick-fixes. Every intervention had to be consistently applied long-term. The simplest was supplementing the diet of pregnant women or newborn babies with fish oil. These omega-3 fatty acids provide essential building blocks for brain development.
A parent’s ability to engage their child in reading was also a key IQ booster, but only worked if the child was under the age of 4. The final option? Enrolling the child in a quality preschool. The caveat? Researchers only examined the positive effect of this on children from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. Essentially, it may not make a difference for the vast-majority of middle-class individuals.
An interesting question would be whether these increases in IQ resulted in sustained gains throughout life. For parents intent on providing their kids with a kick-start, researchers caution that most methods remain untested. However, we can probably revert back to the old adage that mother knows best…unless you’re the one being punished.
