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Infant's Intelligence
Quotient (IQ)
Can Parenting Techniques Lead to Higher IQs in Babies?
By Kelly Burgess
Tina Blue of Lawrence, Kan., thinks of a child's potential as being like a rubber band. It has a lot of built-in stretch, but it isn't limitless, and some rubber bands just have more stretch potential than others.
Blue isn't an expert in child geniuses, just on raising them. An English teacher at the University of Kansas, Blue has two gifted children who are now grown. She credits both genetics and her early and constant involvement in their development with their intelligence. In fact, divorced as a young woman, she put her academic career on hold to start a home daycare because she was so convinced that she was the most important influence on her children's intellectual development.
In the case of Blue's two children, genetics undoubtedly gave them a good intellectual foundation, and Blue's involvement, particularly her emphasis on travel and the arts, nurtured those nascent intellects to their fullest potential. However, when it comes down to trying to determine exactly how much one can improve a child's IQ there are no hard and fast answers. It boils down to the whole "nature versus nurture" question that informs the research into virtually every aspect of child rearing.
"IQ is not set by genetics, but there is a large genetic component," says Dr. Lise Eliot, an associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Chicago Medical School. "Some scientists estimate that the inherited factors for IQ are as low as 40 percent, while some place it as high as 80 percent. Personally, I cite data that puts it at 50 percent. But, regardless of what numbers you use, this makes it clear that there is still a significant environmental component."
In other words, a child is probably born with an IQ range that is set to some extent by his or her parent's intellectual abilities. However, within that range there are possibilities for growth that can make a significant difference in a child's IQ by the time he is at an age when those abilities become measurable.
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