Posted on 08/11/2003 5:08:57 AM PDT by chance33_98
Environmental Factors Key in Developing Children's Intelligence; New Research Shows How Parents Can Improve the Odds for Higher IQ
8/11/03 8:00:00 AM
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To: National Desk
Contact: Patty Donmoyer of the School of Public Policy at George Mason University, 703-518-4454
WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A child's IQ is shaped long before he/she enters elementary school and is affected more by environmental factors than previously thought, says a new book, which offers advice to parents for improving their children's IQ
Maximizing Intelligence, written by David J. Armor, an education expert and public policy professor at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University, says that intelligence is influenced by a series of factors, and that parents have more impact on a child's developing intelligence than anyone -- or anything -- else.
"Parents have more impact on their child's IQ than any other persons or institutions, including schools," Armor said. "The impact is greatest in infancy and early childhood, much less after ages eight or nine. To maximize this impact, parents have to do certain things, even things before their child is conceived."
The "to do" list for parents to maximize a child's IQ includes:
1. Finish high school and go as far in school as you can.
2. Wait until you're at least in your 20s to have a child.
3. Get married before having a child and make sure that both parents are involved in raising the child.
4. Limit your family to two children, especially if you have a lower income.
5. Try to have a good income before starting a family.
The second list, after conception, includes:
1. Get good nutrition and prenatal health care to avoid low-weight birth.
2. Breast feed your child -- very important! This ensures essential nutrients for brain growth.
3. Spend as much time as possible instructing your child -- starting as early as possible -- in reading, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. Expose your child to as many experiences outside the home as possible.
4. Nurture your child with love, affection and respect; avoid excessive physical discipline.
The "nature versus nurture" controversy dates back to at least the 19th century. As students prepare to return to school, and at a time when the public school system in the United States is under attack, this debate has taken center stage in arguments about what accounts for differences in academic achievement. Maximizing Intelligence convincingly argues that, while both genetics and environment play a role in a child's intelligence, environmental factors, especially at an early age, are of primary importance. Working from this premise, Armor shows how intelligence may be heightened.
"Americans tend to believe that their children's intelligence is either innate or based on what they learn in school," said Isabel Sawhill, The Brookings Institution. "This volume speaks to the importance of another important set of influences: early family environments. Armor's research suggests that young people need to focus much more on how their own decisions about marriage and childbearing affect their children's future success."
Armor presents four propositions about intelligence. His first is that intelligence exerts a major influence on educational and occupational success, following a chronological sequence, from a child's cognitive skills learned before school, to academic success during the school years, to eligibility for college. His second proposition is that intelligence can be changed, at least within limits. There is ample evidence that a child's intelligence is not fully given at birth, but continues to evolve and change at least through the early elementary school years, although at a declining rate.
The third proposition is that risk factors include parent intelligence and education, family income, family structure and size, nutrition, and specific parenting behaviors. His final proposition flows from the second and third -- that the most promising avenues for maximizing intelligence come from a child's parents.
"We must have a 'whole-family' approach," Armor said, "where government programs are modified or created to inform parents of risk factors and to reward behaviors that optimize positive outcomes."
David J. Armor is professor of public policy in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He is the author of Forced Justice: School Desegregation and the Law and Competition in Education.
Maximizing Intelligence is published by Transaction Publishers, a leading scholarly publisher of books and journals based at Rutgers University. Its flagship journal, Society, has remained the publication of record in international social science since 1962.
For more information on Maximizing Intelligence, or to purchase the book, go to http://www.transactionpub.com.
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NOTE: David Armor available for interviews. Please call 703-993-2260 or e-mail darmor@gmu.edu.
One of my sisters just had her fourth kid and she has done a heck of a job they are all bright. Many times having more than two kids helps them to interact with outher people.
Admitting that it is a terrible idea to put your children into day care.
That the tax code ought to be revised so that a parent can remain at home to provide care for their own child.
Lamenting the fact that official day care can be deducted from your income tax but there is no break for the parent that remains at home OUT of the workforce.
I'm not sure exactly what that statistic means. If my interpretation is off, perhaps you could clarify...
Mensa requires a Stanford-Binet score of at least 132 for admittance. Seventy percent of 132 is 92.4 - below average. So, I think what you are saying is that a Mensa-qualifier inherited a below average IQ from his parents. The rest was environmental.
Do I have that right?
Sure, but does leave a hefty 30%, which can be the difference b/t "average" and "smart", or "darn smart" and "brilliant/genius".
It can also work the other way, and mean the difference b/t "average", and "stupid", or "darn stupid" and "Democrat/socialist".
1. Finish high school and go as far in school as you can.
If one parent will be home with the children, it is pointless investing in more than a bachelors degree for that parent. When people have masters and doctorates they generally feel compelled to get their money's worth and work outside the home. This doesn't even address the burden of the debt. (The liberal agenda is, as always, "keep 'em school" for more brainwashing and the feminist angle of women should have as many degrees as their husband.)
2. Wait until you're at least in your 20s to have a child.
Wrong again. Our bodies make the best babies when we are young. The older we get, the higher the risk of a down syndrome or special needs baby. This should simply say wait until you finish your undergraduate degree and you have both gotten all of your partying out of both of your systems.
3. Get married before having a child and make sure that both parents are involved in raising the child.
Good. No argument on this one.
4. Limit your family to two children, especially if you have a lower income.
This is bogus, save-the-world-from-people propaganda. There is no correlation between the number of children in a family and IQ's, once factors for age and multiple births are removed.
5. Try to have a good income before starting a family.
Make sure you can afford it and/or can juggle things so that one parent is with the baby most of his waking hours (at least by the second child, anyway).
The second list, after conception, includes:
1. Get good nutrition and prenatal health care to avoid low-weight birth.
How about no drinking, no smoking, exercise and no caffeine? Or playing classical music regularly. Avoiding huge emotional yelling and screaming matches that raise everybody's blood pressure. Taking nice relaxing warm (not hot) baths.
2. Breast feed your child -- very important! This ensures essential nutrients for brain growth.
La Leche League liberals happen to be right about this one. And if you're having trouble with breast feeding, don't quit. Call the league for help.
3. Spend as much time as possible instructing your child -- starting as early as possible -- in reading, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. Expose your child to as many experiences outside the home as possible.
Instructing your child? This is where this lady shows her true ignorance. Young children need a wide variety of experiences and outings where they will encounter different people, different objects, and different activities. They also need lots of quiet days at home for imaginary play. Jamming letters and numbers down the preschoolers throat will prove to be an exercise in frustration for parent and child This is a plea for "Head Start". Actually, if you have a bright child, it is to their advantage to have something left to learn in kindergarten so that they are not bored out of their little minds.
4. Nurture your child with love, affection and respect; avoid excessive physical discipline.
Nurture your child with game playing, reading and casual conversation in the car.
Nurture your child by trying your best to understand what they are saying to you.
Nurture your child by being the prince to her princess.
Nurture your child by playing classical music more than you play "The wheels on the bus...."
Nurture your child by throwing the satellite dish and cable box into the dumpster. Select their videos carefully.
Nurture your child by joining a music class that emphasizes the use of the xylophone or keyboard.
Nuture your child by feeding them fresh, healthy home-prepared foods.
Nurture your child by not giving them food dyes, or soda or gobs and gobs of sugar and french fries.
Nurture your child by feeding them on their stomach's schedule not your life's schedule.
Nurture your child by making sure they are physically active and not overly protected.
Nurture your child be setting clear, predictable guidelines for behavior, so they can put their energy into exploring the world instead of manipulating you.
But above all, nurture your child by making sure that they have enough sleep.
The affection and love are always a natural outcome of the bonding process. Only a liberal would tell you to force an emotion and to limit discipline (after all, self-gratification is the core principle of liberalism).
...said Isabel Sawhill, The Brookings Institution. "This volume speaks..."
My guess is this book will prove to be a fine example of "psuedo-conservatism". See post #16.
That part was a bit of a joke.
However, I do see "leftism" affecting judgement as is proved by a dear friend of mine, a professor at a fine-arts university, who despite his considerable intelligence, keeps getting trounced in any form of debate as he continues to depend on liberal sources of (dis)information.
For example, the NYT published an item about a spot in the Artic where, according to the NYT, the ice had melted (partially) for the first time in 50,000 years. Of course, the truth was that ice in the spot at issue melted every year on record. Regardless of this and countless other trouncings, my friend continues to rely on the NYT, the WP, Salon et al as "unbiased" sources.
I'm not disputing that there might be a genetic component in intelligence differences between blacks and whites. I'm just saying that this study is very badly designed and my graduate advisor would have given me a tongue-lashing if I had even suggested an experimental design so full of statistical holes. It proves nothing.
Can't agree with you there, as that would have many of us waiting well into our 60's :)
Does this mean I can cut my wife a check every payday for "child care services" and then deduct this from my taxes? She works harder than I do, but since she "just stays at home" we get not tax credit for this.
You think kids still in their teens should be having kids? Gotta disagree with you there. Waiting until one is in one's twenties is sound advice. Geez, having a kid at 26 or 28 does not significantly increase the odds of a Down's syndrome or special needs baby. And although it is possible to have one's bachelor's degree before the age of 20, it would be hard to finish it AND have a kid before one hits 20.
Which proves that environment can make a 20 point difference in IQ for an individual -- enough to make the difference between a fry clerk and and a college graduate -- enough to make the recommendations worthwhile.
4. Limit your family to two children, especially if you have a lower income.
Nor do I. I was one of nine children, born to lower-middle class parents. I was accepted to join Mensa out of high school. I believe that the interaction with my siblings was a large part of my intellectual growth. Many children in abject poverty is probably not the best scenario, however.
I expect what they consider a "lower income" would seem like pretty good pay to most normal families.
Show me where I made any such claim.
The subtlety in the authors sentence was the phrase "at least [in their 20's]". What then would 'at most' be?
Amen, and Amen again! The responsibility of raising children belongs solely to the parents of said children. You wouldn't loan your car to a stranger 'cause you know how they treat rentals, but you'll PAY to have your kid ignored by someone else.
Chances are, unless you are a single parent (don't get me started on that) then both of the parents don't NEED to work. If you feel both you and your spouse simply MUST work then you either have too much stuff or are living beyond your means.
(Ducking for anticipated counterbattery fire!)
Excellent question? Why not earlier than 20, when one is healthier (for childbearing) and has more energy?
We think of "teenagers" as being immature dolts, but that is a distortion caused by our society (and its determination to keep young people out of the work force). People younger than 20, with either a solid upbringing or a lot of "learned the hard way" maturity, can be just as good parents as older people.
Maybe these Moms and Dads should stay at home and raise their kids out of the goodness of their hearts, and not because of tax breaks?
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