10 ways to improve your child’s intellectual development

Every parent wants their child to excel. To be told they are more intellectually advanced than their peers, reading at a more advanced age etc.  Intellectual development in a child starts from an earlier age than many of us realise.

Simple techniques from the moment they can start to take in the world around them can boost their intellect. There are many ways listed online to improve the intellectual development of a child, and here are 10 of the best.

Textures

Babies and toddlers feel their way around the world. A prime example is when you tell them not to touch something that is hot but they do anyway as ‘hot’ is merely a word. By being able to distinguish different textures by touch alone boosts sensory perception and help them distinguish between between good and bad items.

Early Measuring

The concept of measuring can be difficult for little ones to master so make it fun.  Using simple every day items,  a stick for example, they can measure the grass growing by marking it on their stick. The actual measurements come later, but they will be fascinated to be shown how things grow.

Labelling

One of the easiest ways to start a child reading. Label a few key objects in the home, a fridge for example, in large colourful font so they associate the word with the item. Then rotate the items and when you bring out the first ones again they should be able to put the labels on the right items.

Organisation

Kids love to throw things around but are reluctant to pick them up. Have a place for everything and make it into a game to encourage their organisational skills. Tidying up at the end of the day needn’t be a chore and a tidy mind will bode well for them in the future.

Scavenger or treasure hunts

This can take place anywhere and long before they can read. If you are in the supermarket ask them to pass you to the purple biscuits or the blue bread or in the garden which is the yellow flower? You can ask to identify colours, shapes anything at all in fact in the run up to them learning the actual words.

Familiarisation

Take your children for regular walks around the neighbourhood to teach them not only a sense of direction but to enable them to pick out features so they won’t ever get lost.  Pick them up from nursery and let them lead you home by picking out building, trees etc.

Singing

the Alphabet Song, Incy Wincy Spider,  all stimulate a child’s brain way past the music element. The easy words are picked up by little ones and the more they are repeated the more association they make. The first time a child points at a spider and calls it Incy Wincy is proof of that.

Calendars

By creating a special calendar, hanging it at your child levels and using symbols or drawings instead of writing entries is a great way of getting your child to develop the concept of time.  For example, mark Monday to Friday with pictures for nursery, pictures of play time for weekends. You get the idea.

Picture Perfect

Pinning up pictures of friends and family boosts word association, memory and allows them to associate names with people. While babies soon get the hang of close family members they see all the time those who they only see occasionally can see them become withdrawn and shy as they don’t know who they are. This is a great solution to this.

The Weather

Draw a up a chart similar to a calendar and either create your own or get hold of sticky images of the weather. Then in the morning get your child to put the picture of the weather on the day. This also works well for getting children over their fears of storms as you can say “look, it’s only a windy/lightening picture” etc.