Is your child genetically predisposed with extraordinary learning skills or does he need an ideal environment to flourish his cognitive abilities? Is it the genetics or the environment that determines the intelligence level of your child?
Well, both, actually. And we aren’t saying that out of thin air. Scientists have been rigorously working on determining the factors or genes that are responsible for maximum intelligence in a child. Simultaneously, parents are also doing their best to provide their kids with everything that’s necessary for a successful life. But ugh! There is a discrepancy with what parents think is good for their kids.
Most of the parents think that their kids need to be digitally savvy so they don’t find anything wrong with their toddlers holding onto an iPad or a smartphone. However, giving your kids easy access to technology wouldn’t just make them savvy, rather sleepless and probably smartphone addicts by the time of their teenage.
Well, it’s still enigmatic with no conclusive findings that what really influences our kids more; the environment or the genes. But there are a few studies that you need to take a look at and probably they will help you determine the rest by yourself.
One study that advocates the significance of environmental factors is done by the American Psychological Association. The scientists have tried to build a causality between the environmental factors and the level of intelligence of the foster kids as the caregivers who were responsible for the upbringing of the foster children had no genetic relation with the kids. According to the findings, environment did have a significant effect on the intelligence of the study’ subjects. The results have proven what we have always suspected, i.e. parents do influence their child’s character and intelligence and that too a LOT!
Many parents would simply start feeling more burdened of responsibilities on their shoulders, hearing the the aforementioned. However, there is more than just worrying. You can make effective use of this information, rather screwing it up with overthinking.
So let’s first take a look at how parents’ habit of allowing their kids to have early access to technology influences them.
The correlation between a child’s brain and technology
It’s true that there are a few games that do actually live up to their promise of improving the cognitive skill of the kids, but before you move on to type “best educational iPad apps for kids” in the Google, you need to know this too: Electronics devices can vastly disturb your kid’s intellectual development.
The foremost reason is the child’s inability to interact in the real world that’s full of challenges and lessons. So when kids prefer to binge-watch a television show or spend most of their day on gaming, it can really affect a child’s development, or more importantly, his intellectual development.
But take note that a child’s underdevelopment is closely related to unhealthy amounts of exposure to electronic devices, because it leaves a child with relatively lesser time to interact with the real world that can distort how they see the reality.
Another reason how technology could be interfering with our children’s development is the search engines. Well, we are more guilty than our kids with this one, because we have, somehow, inculcated this belief into their minds that you can search for any of your life’s problems by Googling it. We are so dependent on search engines that even if we have to look up for a spelling, we do it using Google.
Gordon Pennycook, who headed a study about smartphone-reliance and its correlation with problem solving, support the belief that this behavior does have negative consequences over a child’s problem-solving abilities. What Pennycook wants to tell us is very simple. Would your kids try to think logically or analytically when they have answers to all of their homework in front of them? They won’t. And Google is the place where our kids can get all the answers to their questions.
But wait, technology isn’t just absolutely bad for our kids. In fact, with proper mediation, it’s possible to reap all the positive benefits of technology. But for that, parents need to know the risks that their kids could possibly face while being online, so to follow up with an action plan that would save their kids against those online risks.
How music influences a child’s brain?
Well, there are numerous studies by now that look into the benefits of listening to music. Brain MRIs are conducted time and again to study the impact of music, and there have been some significantly positive results. Studies show that kids who play instruments have “better neural processing”.
Bottom line: While technology is an easy-way-out for the parents to keep their kids busy, but it’s not the best choice that they can have for their kids. Get your child to participate in the alternate activities that could stimulate their minds. Try exercise, music lessons, writing, reading, cooking, crafting, etc.
Try to make the most out of your child’s development years by giving them a positive learning space and resources.
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