Brain Food: Best Brain Food for Children

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Hi,
There are two distinctive sides to normal baby development - physical development and brain development. Both of them are extremely important and critical for baby's future survival in a world that is full of harsh realities. Both sides relate to the other and one simply cannot exist without the other as well. In other words, a body is a sum of both physical and mental sides.

Brain development is as critical and important as physical development. Parents can do many things or adopt a number of techniques to make their children smarter and brain-powered. Brain development starts as soon as a baby takes its birth. Brain growth will be at its maximum best within the first six or seven years. Do we give them enough opportunities to become mentally able and smart? I have selected few quality brain building toys in this issue that I hope will enhance the mental and physical growth of your child. Take care!

Thought for today:
"What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity? Our attitude toward it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and every difficulty has an opportunity." - J. Sidlow Baxter (1903-1999), Author and Theologian

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Q1: My daughter who just turn 7 a day ago has done extremely well on report cards and placement tests throughout her school years. Just recently, she scored all 99's on her Terra Nova tests and will be moving from a private school to a full-time gifted school. I am a bit concerned since she has pretty much breezed through school thus far and don't want her to feel too much pressure as she may now be challenged more in this school. Any words of advice we could pass along to ease mine and possibly my daughter's feelings?

Also, could you recommend a free on-line IQ test for a child her age? Her current teacher suggested she be tested but really didn't give us any options as to how or where we would go to have this done.

A: Parents usually ask how to prepare a child for a gifted entrance exam, but your girl has already been selected in the programme. There is indeed no standard way to prepare any child for a gifted programme. In fact, that she is already selected for the programme indicates that she is more suited for the programme than the regular programme. It is also presumed that she would automatically fit in better as this is a better educational match..... Continue to read Dr. Sandhu's answer on Preparing Your Child for a Full-Time Gifted Programme here.

Q2: I'm actually the child, not the parent. I know that I'm different than other kids, but I can't seem to find out how on the internet.

I am very disorganized, but I like things that way. I have an excellent memory and can retain and comprehend things well. I can remember and recall things I have learned years ago almost perfectly, and my science teacher really believes I have a photographic memory, (technically eidetic) which I know I don't. He only believes this because I don't take notes in his class. He shows slideshows, and I remember the information by discussing in class and hearing the information spoken aloud. I never study or do homework, and always get very high grades, usually nothing below an A minus...

A: It is perfectly fine for anyone to post any query they may have on giftedness - child or parent! And I am glad that you did. We are all different in our own ways, just that some difference is seen further from the norms and others are more easily acceptable. There is nothing wrong being different - as long as it does not disrupt your life and the lives of significant others. For gifted individuals, it is more the intensity of their emotions rather than negative emotions .... Continue to read Dr. Sandhu's answer on Bright, Gifted or Asperger's here.

Q3: I just used the CogAT to assess a student and got back an interesting result of an extremely low verbal classification score when all other sub-tests were up in the 8th and 9th stanines. Please help me understand how to help this student with building on strength and building that verbal cognition to better match the quantitative and non-verbal strength.

A: The verbal score reveals the student's ability to perceive the meaning of and relationships between words and word combinations. Since the evaluation of verbal reasoning depends on effective reading, the reasoning ability of poor readers may not be fully revealed. Students are tested in this area by performing sentence completion, solving verbal analogies, and figuring out the relationships between the meanings of words....... Continue to read Dr. Sandhu's answer on Low Verbal Classification Score on CogAT here.

Smart Play Smart Toys: How to Raise a Child with a High PQ
By Stevanne Auerbach, Ph.D

We've all heard of IQ but do you know your child's PQ or Play Quotient? A child's ability to play does more than provide for fund and diversion; it is critical for his or her emotion and intellectual growth, an teaches everything from social skills to analytical thinking. For the developing mind of a child, learning to play is paramount--but is your child getting the most out of playtime?

Stevanne Auerbach is more affectionately known as Dr. Toy, has dedicated a lifetime to the importance of play and gives you specific advice on which toys to buy and what kind of games to play to empower your child's overall development.

Teaching Toys: Educational Toys Are The Children's Choice As An Investment In Their Future
By Mia Doclain

Learning does not have to be dull, drab, and boring. For children, learning should be about fun if you want them to be interested in lifelong learning. Children often have no idea that they are learning while they are at play, so if you can find ways to get them to learn while they play, you have a leg up on raising a child with a love of learning.

You can find and choose from over a hundred educational toys in an educational toy catalog. Educational toy catalogs are, indeed, convenient because they spare you time from having to scrutinize the toys you would probably see on the racks in various toy stores.

Child prodigies: born or made?
Health Canal July 15, 2011

There is scientific evidence to suggest that if children become intensely motivated in a particular area early in life, that developmental pattern is replicated in other parts of the brain and fundamentally ‘laid down’, such that the child can build on the equipping skills of concentration and self-determination established while young, which is then reflected in their level of ability.

Finding Creativity on IQ Tests
Huffington Post July 17, 2010

IQ tests have received a very large number of criticisms since their inception. One of the main arguments made against the use of IQ tests is that they don't measure creativity. But is this true?

Early years critical to developing child
News Leader July 31, 2011

The brain continues to develop throughout our lives but the reason the early years are so important is that the brain is much more impressionable or plastic in these years. Plasticity means the brain is more open to learning and enriching influences.

Reading fosters brain development in young children
Post Independent July 28, 2011

Babies come into the world ready to learn. Their brains are thirsty for stimulation. Experiences that fill a baby's first days, months and years have a critical impact on brain development. Children develop much of their capacity for learning in the first three years of life, when their brains grow to 90 percent of their eventual adult weight.

Start Early to Get Ahead
Sparta Expositor July 18, 2011

What does being ready for elementary school really mean? It used to mean starting the first day of school with all the supplies on the list, but now we know so much more about how young children's brains develop. More and more parents are aware of the positive effects of a high quality early childhood education for their child's success.

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