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In traditional Chinese culture, there are many "sayings" about the development of individuals in their youth: for example, there are many stories about the "decline of prodigies", among which Jiang Yan's "Jiang Lang Cai Quan" and Wang Anshi's "Wounded Zhongyong" are more typical texts.
Just as claude Levi-Strauss, the famous French structuralist master, studied Western mythology, he believed that the deep thinking of human beings is common and can reflect human cognition on a common level, that is, "deep structure".
In fact, not only in China, but also in the West, there are similar related thinking and exploration: there are many studies on the moment when the child's IQ is the most outstanding in life, and whether the child's IQ can be further increased afterwards.
Professor Richard, a behaviorist at Harvard University, has found through long-term research that there are three opportunities for children to become smarter in the process of growing up.
This also means that we say that the child's brain development has a critical period, this critical period is very short, fleeting, if you do not understand and miss it will be very regrettable.
Principles of research content
Based on his long-standing research on minors, Professor Richard of Harvard University has mapped the number and status of neural connections in an individual's brain during infancy.
Related studies have shown that the level of individual intelligence and IQ level mainly depends on the number of neural connections inside their brains, according to Professor Richard's research, the number of neural connections in the brain of infants from birth to two years old will show a very large change:
In the first two years of his life, hundreds of neural connections were added inside the brain almost every second, and this rapid brain development and perception of the outside world would cause his brain to grow dramatically.
In addition, the individual brain also has different functional distinctions. In addition to the well-known functional divisions of the brain, cerebellum, and left and right brains, the individual's cognition is also very significant.
Professor Richard's research found that before the age of 1, the neural connections related to vision, hearing, language and higher cognition in the brain of an individual have been basically developed; by the age of 12, the development of these related functions is basically at a standstill.
So this study can also reflect a large extent the problem of why primates will go through a relatively long childhood, there must be a full accumulation process.
Three critical periods for improving intelligence
1.0-3 years old
As mentioned above, in the functional partitions of an individual's brain, the abilities related to language, vision, and hearing are already fixed at the age of one or so, so when the child is in the period before the age of three, it is the most critical period for parents.
Parents should do their best to provide the best environment for their children to promote their intelligence as quickly as possible and to the greatest extent possible. "The solution of the day lies in the morning", the initial stage is also the most critical time.
As a child's parent, do not think that the child at this stage is still "ignorant" to give up the intellectual improvement of it, at this time the child is the most in need of intellectual guidance and stimulation.
2.4-6 years old
If intellectual education before the age of three is to lay a good foundation for the child's IQ level after the age, then in the 4-6 year old stage, the important task as a parent is to further continue the previous intensity and focus on the improvement of the child's concentration.
This age group is also a golden period for children's intellectual improvement.
After the previous "laying the groundwork" is done, the important thing to do at this time is no longer just to improve its cognitive and intellectual level, but to help it improve its concentration when doing things and thinking about problems.
People's life is spent in learning, even if they have a high level of intelligence and strong learning ability, but for all kinds of external things are "three minutes of heat", then the learning effect will not be particularly good.
3.7-12 years old
After the child is 6 years old, it is often the age of entering primary school and beginning compulsory education. At this time, in fact, the child's intelligence level is often almost fixed, and it is no longer realistic to want to improve its intelligence level through external and artificial means.
Therefore, at this time, as a parent, the focus is no longer to blindly improve the child's intelligence level, but to help the child improve relatively "specifically".
Some children have a gentle personality and are calm; some children are relatively lively and tend to be more impulsive in doing things. Therefore, at this time, "teaching according to aptitude" is more important, as a parent, you may wish to improve from the child's logical thinking, spatial imagination or perceptual thinking.
Therefore, in summary, as a parent, in the child's growth process, at least before the age of 12, there are three stages for parents to choose to help them improve their intelligence level.
As a parent, it is best to do your job according to these age groups, although the child's intelligence level depends largely on the innate and his own personality, but it is not set in stone. If you miss these different stages, it will be a great pity.
The importance of improving intelligence
All the relevant statements in the above article can basically understand why parents should not ignore the external help and improvement of children's intellectual level.
First of all, scientific research has shown that when children are young, they are not "ignorant", but on the contrary, they are still a very critical period of intellectual improvement, and they must not relax.
Secondly, relying only on their own intellectual development, it is difficult for children to form an orderly and reasonable cognition of the outside world.
As a parent, you should help them in a targeted way, whether it is the degree of concentration or some thinking training arrangements according to their area of expertise.
Providing children with the best material standard of living is naturally beyond reproach, but do not neglect the targeted improvement of their intelligence and the shaping of their three views, because a person's growth is not only one level, but multifaceted and staged.
And the results of scientific research can provide a relatively large guiding role for our lives, relying only on our life experience, sometimes it is difficult to correctly understand and transform the world.
The timing of a child's life to become smarter is short, and parents must not miss it.
- The End -
Author | Tommy
Edit | Rain
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参考资料：Vogel, D. L., & Wester, S. R. (2003). To seek help or not to seek help: The risks of self-disclosure. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50(3), 351.