Can you make your baby smarter? You bet - and you don't need special toys or videos to do it. In fact, YOU are the best IQ-boosting tool your baby has.
We’ve all seen them on TV at one time or another: child prodigies. The ones who can identify the presidents at two years old and tell you everything you want to know about dinosaurs at age six. The ones who sit at a grand piano with their feet dangling well above the floor and proceed to play a shockingly beautiful rendition of Für Elise. “It started at a very early age,” their mothers proclaim to the respective talk-show hosts. You look over at your own baby, drooling as he gnaws contentedly on a toy, and wonder if perhaps you have a prodigy of your own – a great untapped well of hidden talent just waiting to be revealed.
This is why books and videos such as the Baby Einstein series are flying off the store shelves, and why toys with some educational value are the hottest sellers. We all want our children to be intelligent. Maybe not the prodigies we see on television shows, but smart enough to get along well in life – and, let’s face it, smart enough to impress others with their intellect. It seems to be a universal desire, with parents the world over striving for the same result.
Case in point, Thailand; in 2005, under the direction of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the Thai government began handing out gift sets to the parents of newborns. These gift sets contain items specially designed to boost the child’s IQ, including books, music CDs, multicolored blankets, soft toys and bath books. The Prime Minister said that a child’s brain is “like the CPU in a computer … the practice of thinking will develop different parts of the brain to work together and to boost the power of thinking.” He stated that these gift sets were being distributed in order to foster a generation of “quick and clever minds.”
But despite the trends, all the toys, books, music, and gadgets in the world can’t garner the same effect on Baby’s brain as the single most important learning tool: you, the parent. You can purchase the extras if it makes you feel better, but it’s the everyday, loving interactions you share with your baby that develop his brain the best.