Independent Thinking: Raising Independent Thinking Children Tips and Sugggestions

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Hi,
Working as a team has its significant advantages and benefits. Teams always win, while individual players in a team are the ultimate achievers. Families are no different. All families are just like any other team. Every family should has its own goals and objectives.

Every individual within a family contributes his or her individual skills, traits, personalities and role-play to make the family-as-a-whole to succeed. Team efforts also keep the family bonds tight and glued. Teamwork starts with the parents; in fact, they are the precursors to the success of family life. Parents may wish to take their children along by teaching them values of family life, like integrity, responsibility, morality and individuality. Life success starts at home! All the best to you.

Thought for today:
"We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give." - Winston Churchill

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Raising Independent Thinking Children
Learning independent thinking skills help your children face difficulties and obstacles of life. The act of being an independent thinker is encouraged by several factors. Very high self-esteem or self-image is the two characters that separate an ordinary thinker from an independent one.

Raising Independent Thinking Children - Tips and Suggestions
Teaching independent thinking skills to your children relates to the act of mental metamorphosis, where they will change the manner and ways in which thinking process is performed. Parents may need to understand the fundamental principles of independent skills before they can help their children.

Q1: I'm writing regarding my son's test results at two different GT schools. His is currently 5 yrs 1 month and will be enrolled in kindergarten in the fall. His scores are as follows:

School #1:
WPPSI-III
Verbal: 29
Performance: 26

Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement: 2nd Edition
Reading: 113
Math: 120

School #2:
Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test 2nd Edition Verbal Reasoning percentile rank: 87 Performance Reasoning percentile rank: 88 Composite Score percentile rank: 92

Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement, 3rd edition Age Equivalency: 5.9 Grade Equivalency: K.5

My questions are:

A: Standardized tests give reliable scores regardless of where the tests are taken due to high objectivity in marking. However, different tests focus on different strength and should not be compared based on the scores alone. It should be compared with the norms of the test, not with another. All the intelligence and achievement tests taken are reliable tests and the scores (with all conditions the same) should be reliable.... Continue to read Dr. Sandhu's answer on Comparison of Test Scores here.

Q2: My 9 year old has recently taken the Kbit2 test and I am confused about the results I received. The paper shows a graphical profile between 40 and 160, aside from this the back of the results pages states it is not an IQ score and children tend to score higher on a comprehensive IQ test than of an abilities test. My son scored:

Verbal Knowledge 33 Riddles 38 = Verbal 71 - Standard Score 122
Matrices 44 = Non-Verbal 144 = IQ Composite 266

WHAT????? I know he is smart but what steps should I take to nurture this little mind? Should I have his IQ tested? He attends Edmond Public Schools in Oklahoma and when he was in Kindergarten his teacher wanted him tested for a learning disability....

A: The graphical profile is between 40 and 160, which is the range of IQs the verbal, non verbal and IQ composites scores. The non verbal scores indicate very high abilities. The standard score indicates above average (above 131 is the upper extreme). Here, there appears to be a rather large discrepancy of the verbal and non verbal components, which is why a comprehensive IQ test is recommended. In this case, I believe a comprehensive test may capture his strengths and weaknesses in more detail. Note that the KBIT-2 samples only limited areas of cognitive functioning and does not measure processing speed or working memory constructs....Continue to read Dr. Sandhu's answer on Superior Ability Concerns here.

Q3: My daughter had WISC VI GAI test done in March 2010 by her school and she scored 147, with very high verbal comprehension scores: similarities 16, vocabulary 18, and comprehension 19; for perceptual reasoning: block design 12, picture concepts 15 and matrix reasoning 18.

However, her school just administered WJ-COG for her last month in preparation for grade acceleration, and the result seems to contradict with WISC IV result. Her WJ-COG GIA score is 133, with her verbal comprehension and passage comprehension second to the lowest of her all COG test results around 115 (SS with 65% bound). And her numbers reversed and Incomplete words stand out to be the lowest of her COG test score -- around 107...

A: The psychologist is right - no two tests should be compared since the measure and capture different strengths. Furthermore, done during two different times may also provide some difference. However, I can understand your concern about the discrepancies between the two.

In terms of scoring, the scoring for both the test is similar in a full scale kind of way; not a brief version of the tests. They have a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, so scores of 130 on each test represents the 98th percentile. However, while this appears to be comparable, what is tested is not necessarily so .... Continue to read Dr. Sandhu's answer on Different Scores on Different Intelligence Tests here.

Raising Children Who Think for Themselves
By Dr. Elisa Medhus

This book is a must-have if you want your child to be independent, confident, responsible and able to make sound decisions without your constant hovering. If you read and incorporate its advice into your life, by the time your children reach adulthood, you will have done your job as a parent well. The author gives more practical suggestions for real-life situations than you can ever seen in any book on child-rearing, and is particularly helpful for those of us with children about to enter or in middle school or jr. high school.

This is a wonderful guide for parents and educators who are searching for techniques to help children avoid the pitfalls of "following the crowd." The author provides many practical strategies and "real life" examples of how to interact with children to prevent inadvertent development of an external locus of control.

The Little Book of Values: Educating Children to Become Thinking, Responsible and Caring Citizens
By Julie Duckworth and Ian Gilbert

We live in a society consumed by materialism and the desire for more. Does this mean our next generation of children will grow up being literate and numerate greedy consumers whose lives are judged by the size of their houses and the latest model BMW that they drive?

The Little Book of Values explores twenty-two values that can be taught through schools and indeed the whole community. The book will inspire you by using examples of where values are already being used by children and adults in schools and share practical tools to stimulate discussion and philosophical debate. It will also help people to take stock of their own values and how they wish to lead their life.

How to Make Your Baby Smarter
Forbes Apr 18, 2011

In today's global knowledge economy, it's increasingly important to provide children every opportunity to get ahead. How? Jumpstart that baby brainpower from the very beginning.

Growing Brains: Development from birth to age 3 sets stage for all of life
TDN Apr 18, 2011

Babies are born learning. The more they are held, nurtured, and stimulated by language, movement and play in the first three years of life, the better their brains will be for the rest of their lives.

Could Junk Food Lower Your Child's IQ?
FY Living Apr 12, 2011

Is IQ linked to eating healthy food? As if parents needed any more reasons to keep their kids off junk food, here is another: doing so makes them smarter. The results of a recent study suggest kids with diets rich in salad, fish and fruit had higher IQs than kids whose diets were heavy with high fat, high-sugar processed foods.

Good-night, teen. Too little sleep can harm young brains
MSNBC Apr 13, 2011

Across the country each morning, groggy teens are dragging themselves out of bed and trudging sleepily off to school. These bleary-eyed young people are often too tired to take in much of what's being taught in their early morning classes.

DHA a brain booster
The Star Apr 27, 2011

THE early year is when a child needs DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) for optimal brain development. This does not start when the child begins preschool. It actually starts from the time the child is in the mother's womb - from the third trimester.

IQ is as much a measure of motivation as intelligence, study finds
The Telegraph Apr 27, 2011

Parents if you want to improve your child's chances of getting into Mensa then bribe them during their IQ test, a new study suggests.

Should every child be made to play chess?
BBC Apr 25, 2010

Every child aged six or over in Armenia is now destined to learn chess. The authorities there believe compulsory lessons will "foster schoolchildren's intellectual development" and improve critical thinking skills.

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