2. Read a lot of books to your children (especially ones without lots of pictures) and tell your children lots of stories. Children love to hear stories about our lives when we were little or you can make them up. Bedtime and riding in the car provide good opportunities for telling stories. Telling our children stories helps to stimulate their internal picture-making capabilities.
3. Nature! Nature! Nature! Nature is the greatest teacher of patience, delayed gratification, reverence, awe and observation. The colours of nature are spectacular and all the senses are stimulated. Many children today think being out in nature is boring, because they are so used to the fast-paced, action-packed images from TV.
4. Pay close attention to your senses and those of your child. Our environment is noisy and over-stimulating to the sense organs. What a child sees, hears, smells, tastes, and touches is extremely important to his or her development.
5. Have children use their hands, feet and whole body performing purposeful activities. All the outdoor activities of running, jumping, climbing, and playing jump-rope help develop our children's gross motor skills and pathways in the higher brain.
Performing household chores, cooking, baking bread, knitting, woodworking, paper-folding, string games, finger games, circle games, painting, drawing, and colouring help develop fine motor skills and also pathways in the higher brain.
Prescription for brainy child
INSTEAD of plonking your toddler in front of the television, do the following and you will be helping him or her develop a range of social, emotional and learning skills.
- Cuddle the child.
- Play with the child.
- Talk to, smile at, and hug the child.
- Let the child reach for and touch objects : blocks, toys, coloured paper, etc.
- Sing to, or play music for the child.
- Play counting games.
- Play peek-a-boo