Like a good gardener, you must tend lovingly to the budding brain.Your child is a special gift from God to nurture and develop through your positive thoughts and confidence. Each child has his/her own brain, which allows the child to think in order to fulfill his/her dreams and visions–provided you, as parents, are there to guide the child. You can help the child if you believe you can do it. Through your confidence, you can teach the child from a very young age. With your support and guidance, the child will not feel inferior but grow with confidence.
As a good parent, you provide shelter for your child, clothe your child, feed your child with healthy and nourishing food, and it is also important to provide a good atmosphere with excellent facilities and feed your child's brain with healthy, educative thoughts. One must also believe in his/her own child, in terms of the child's abilities, and it is important to show the child that you have confidence in him/her, which will kindle the best in the child's intellectual power to exploit them to their fullest potential. A parent always wants what is best for the child, thus parents must give their best to the child. A parent's positive thought-patterns will nurture the child's intelligence.
Encourage your child to have a thirst for knowledge
A child is very sensitive to the tone you use, so one must speak gently in order to get the co-operation you desire. Have patience and do not have high expectations too quickly, as this will create undue stress and anxiety on the child and yourself. Let your instincts guide you to guide your child. Knowledge and love (most important) are what you should impart on your child. You can increase the child's intelligence at a very early age, the earlier the better, through your attitude. If you create the right atmosphere (such as fun-to-learn games anywhere and anytime), your child will have a love for knowledge and ask questions through his/her own creative thinking. Introduce your child to colourful picture books, flash-cards and oral reading at a very early age. Adopt a fun-to-learn attitude which will develop the child's intelligence and provide the child with choices so he/she can control his/her own destiny. Your child can learn within minutes, hours, days, weeks or even months and it will not be your child's ability at test here, but yours. Your positive attitude, your belief in your child, your love and care, your patience and your perseverance will be tried, but you must allow the child to feel that learning is a fun-experience.
Developing the child's brain at home from an early age
From the time a child is conceived, the child becomes part of his/her mother and over the months develops the senses of sound. This is why it is important for the parents to speak gently and to relate to the child while it is still in the mother's womb. When the child is born, he/she begins to live in a world of the five senses–sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. Initially, the child is a pictorial visualiser, looking at all the new faces, places, etc, then in his/her own way, the child will try to converse with you in baby sounds. Parents must always sing, talk to the child gently and touch the child in loving ways as the child will eventually try to mimic what they see, hear and feel and respond to it accordingly. The more interaction there is between the child and the parent in the early stages of life, the sooner the child will develop his senses–his thinking and speaking abilities, and the sooner will the child be ready for reading and the thirst for knowledge.
Nursery rhymes play an important part in educating the child. The catchy rhythms stimulate the child's hearing and help to distinguish between different words. Repetition gives the child constant practice of saying out words aloud and, as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. When you encourage your child to talk, you are making the child use his/her natural ability to hear, which will give the child a sense of achievement and make him/her want to learn more, which will lead the child to reading.
Stimulating the child's brain to blossom
Your child looks to you, as parents, as their role models, so you have to set the child's experiences of the senses in the right direction through your actions and the examples you set. What you expose the child to from an early age will be a factor determining how your child's thinking, behaviour and reactions to situations will be. How much your child enjoys reading is determined by your attitude towards reading. You can help your child develop his/her language and thinking skills at home through colorful books. Read aloud for at least 15 minutes daily, preferably at bedtime, whether it is nursery rhymes or stories. This also helps to build a warm and close bond with the child as you give your child full attention during this time, sharing and caring and making the child feel a sense of security.
Never postpone bedtime reading sessions, which the child enjoys and looks forward to. Stories chosen should convey messages of hope, love and achievement. This eventually encourages the child to read on his/her own. The child's experiences help to develop them from an early age, so take your child on outings–to the park, the zoo, the grocery, the mall, the beach, for a picnic. Explain things to the child and ask questions to allow him/her to think, form sentences and relate his/her experiences to feelings. Sightseeing trips are a treasure of information and fun. Music can also have a positive effect on the child's development. The child tries to imitate the sound which encourages him to talk and learn faster, and to ask questions which are an integral part of the child's growth and search for knowledge.