What makes kids smarter

Okay, so you may not want your child to aspire to be a rockstar or maybe you do , but music lessons have been shown to help make kids smarter. On average, music students perform better on standardized tests and have higher overall GPAs.

In one experiment, it was found that taking piano lessons even helped raised IQ significantly. Physical Activity. Another study shows that for 9 and year-olds, 20 minutes of exercise before a test significantly improves test scores. When reading to your kids, don't let them just stare at the pictures while you do all the work! Share the task with them, as this will help them build their reading skills.

When reading is shared between you and your little one, it promotes early literacy, even among disadvantaged children. The benefits of sleep for brain development are endless. Studies have shown a correlation between grades and the average amount of sleep a child gets. In fact, it has been found that a loss of just one hour of sleep is equivalent to a loss of two years of cognitive maturation and development.

Students with high levels of self-discipline are more likely to earn higher grades in their classes. They also tend to have fewer absences and spend less time watching television and more hours doing school work. Self-discipline has also been found to predict which students would improve their grades over the course of the school year, whereas IQ did not.

Active Learning. Skip the brain training games and apps and opt for a more active learning approach. Of course, too much of anything can still be bad thing. Kids still need time away from the TV to develop social skills and do homework. For toddlers and infants, it has been found that TV has no educational benefits for kids under 2. Unstructured playtime has always been an important part of "being a kid," but it is also crucial to a child's development.

Hovering and over-parenting is linked with psychological problems. The specifics of how exercise affects brain growth and development is unclear, but studies show that for 9 and year-olds, 20 minutes of exercise before a test significantly improves test scores. Kids who are read to frequently develop earlier writing and number skills as well.

For parents who don't have as much time, just surrounding your kids with books goes a long way too. Studies from a California-based group called SRI International show that kids with regular bedtimes are better at languages, math, and reading. Preschool children should get at least eleven hours of sleep, and kids up to age 12 should try to get at least ten hours of sleep.

Your kids may be smart, but you should focus your praise on the effort they put into succeeding at tasks. Kids who are praised on intelligence often feel it is a fixed trait, and mistakes or failures severely hurt their self-confidence. Kids who are praised on effort often focus more on learning, and are not afraid of a challenge, or to fail and try again.

Early studies in this field have preliminarily shown that bilingual kids can focus better under pressure and focus better on relevant information. Research is being done still, but many argue that the peak of language learning ability ends before puberty. It has been shown that young children can learn new languages with nearly perfect fluency and pronunciation.

For you. Here are ten things you should do to raise smart, well-rounded kids. A year study by researchers at Pennsylvania State and Duke University shows a positive correlation between children's social skills in kindergarten and their success in early adulthood. Teaching your kids how to resolve issues with friends, share their belongings, listen without interrupting, and help others in the home is a great place to start. In today's age of helicopter parenting, many parents including myself have difficulty allowing our kids to solve problems, but rather rush to fix challenges for them.

Drawing on a Harvard University study, Julie Lythcott-Haims argues that allowing kids to make mistakes and develop resilience and resourcefulness is critical in setting them up for success. Newsflash: This isn't easy. We all need to walk a fine line between protecting our children and letting them tackle problems in order to learn from them.

Research shows that reading to your children and teaching them math early can greatly impact achievement in later years. However, it is best to start weaning kids off homework help later in elementary school, as helping your child with homework can actually stunt their development. Parents should always communicate interest in their children's schooling, but encourage them to take charge of their work independently. Too much screen time has been linked to childhood obesity, irregular sleep patterns, and behavioral issues.

In addition, a study by Greg L. West at the University of Montreal revealed that playing "shooter" games can damage the brain, causing it to lose cells. So what can we do about the ever-so-helpful digital babysitter that so many of us rely on?