A Fascinating Sign That You Have A High IQ

This parental behaviour is linked to more intelligent children.

This parental behaviour is linked to more intelligent children.

Children whose parents are ‘chatterboxes’ tend to have higher IQs, research finds.

Children hearing more speech from their caregivers had better reasoning and numeracy skills, the observational study found.

Some children in the study heard twice as many words as others.

Perhaps less surprisingly, children who heard higher quality speech from their parents, using a more diverse vocabulary, knew more words themselves.

For the study, tiny audio recorders were fitted to 107 children aged between 2 and 4.

They were recorded for 16 hours a day for three days at home.

Ms Katrina d’Apice, the study’s first author, explained the results:

“Using the audio recorders allowed us to study real-life interactions between young children and their families in an unobtrusive way within the home environment rather than a lab setting.

We found that the quantity of adult spoken words that children hear is positively associated with their cognitive ability.

However, further research is needed to explore the reasons behind this link — it could be that greater exposure to language provides more learning opportunities for children, but it could also be the case that more intelligent children evoke more words from adults in their environment.”

While parental talk was linked to children’s cognitive abilities, their parenting strategy was linked to their behaviour.

Specifically, positive parenting was linked to less aggression, disobedience and restlessness.

Positive parenting involves responding to children in positive ways and encouraging them to explore the world.

Professor Sophie von Stumm, study co-author, said:

“This study is the largest naturalistic observation of early life home environments to date.

We found that the quantity of adult spoken words that children were exposed to varied greatly within families.

Some kids heard twice as many words on one day as they did on the next.

The study highlights the importance of treating early life experiences as dynamic and changeable rather than static entities — approaching research in this way will help us to understand the interplay between environmental experiences and children’s differences in development.”

The study was published in the journal Developmental Psychology (d’Apice et al., 2019).

How Parents ‘Pass On’ Empathic Ability To Their Children & Grandchildren (M)

Learn the science-backed methods for nurturing empathy in your children.

Learn the science-backed methods for nurturing empathy in your children.

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This Is How Long Childhood Bullying Echoes Through Adulthood (M)

The shocking truth about how childhood bullying affects adults four decades later.

The shocking truth about how childhood bullying affects adults four decades later.

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4 Ways Parents Can Boost Children’s IQ

The right methods can help boost children’s IQ.

The right methods can help boost children’s IQ.

Parents can boost their children’s IQ, psychological research finds, as long as they use tried and tested methods.

After examining almost every available intervention, Dr John Protzko and colleagues found that just four had a real chance of working:

  1. Omega-3 supplementation,
  2. reading to children interactively,
  3. enrolling children in early educational interventions,
  4. and sending children to a quality preschool.

The results come from a meta-analysis, a type of study that collects together the results of many other studies.

In doing so, the researchers created a “Database of Raising Intelligence”.

Dr John Protzko, the study’s first author, explained:

“Our aim in creating this database is to learn what works and what doesn’t work to raise people’s intelligence.

For too long, findings have been disconnected and scattered throughout a wide variety of journals.

The broad consensus about what works is founded on only two or three very high-profile studies.”

Supplementation with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, like those in foods rich in omega-3, was linked to an IQ boost of 3.5 points, on average.

Preschools were linked to an increase of 7 IQ points.

They may boost IQ by providing the child with a cognitively stimulating environment.

In addition, it could be the extra exposure to language that provides the boost.

Dr Protzko said:

“Our current findings strengthen earlier conclusions that complex environments build intelligence, but do cast doubt on others, including evidence that earlier interventions are always most effective.

Overall, identifying the link between essential fatty acids and intelligence gives rise to tantalizing new questions for future research and we look forward to exploring this finding.”

Teaching parents how to read interactively with their children was linked to a 6 point IQ increase.

This is likely from the boost to language development.

The study was published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science (Protzko et al., 2013).

Why People Who Are Bullied Develop Relationship Problems (M)

How bullying in adolescence plants seeds of suspicion that lead to mental health struggles later in life.

How bullying in adolescence plants seeds of suspicion that lead to mental health struggles later in life.

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Human Consciousness May Emerge At Birth — Or Perhaps Before (M)

Until the 1980s, doctors regularly performed operations on newborns without anaesthetics, because they were assumed to lack awareness.

Until the 1980s, doctors regularly performed operations on newborns without anaesthetics, because they were assumed to lack awareness.

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How Parents Raise Selfish, Uncaring, Unhelpful Children (M)

To what extent are prosociality and mental health fixed traits, or do they change with circumstances?

To what extent are prosociality and mental health fixed traits, or do they change with circumstances?

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Happier People Are Raised By Parents Who Do These 3 Things

The largest household panel survey reveals how parents raise happy children.

The largest household panel survey reveals how parents raise happy children.

Children grow up happier when their mother is happy in her relationship.

Fully 73 percent of people whose mothers were ‘perfectly happy’ in their relationship say they are ‘completely happy’ with their family situation.

This is just one of the factors in a family that predicts which children grow up to be happier.

The others are: avoiding regular arguments and eating at least three evening meals together a week.

Arguing more than once a week with parents was linked to much lower levels of happiness among children.

The researchers also found that having no younger siblings was also beneficial for later happiness.

Older siblings, though, had no effect on happiness.

Dr Maria Iacovou, a study author, said:

“At a time when there is widespread political concern about ‘Broken Britain’, these findings show that family relationships and the happiness of parents are key to the happiness of young people.

Contrary to the popular belief that children only want to spend time playing videogames or watching TV we found that they were most happy when interacting with their parents or siblings.”

The conclusions come from a long-running UK study called ‘Understanding Society’.

It is the largest household panel survey in the world, which will follow over 40,000 households over a number of years.

These findings are based on a sample of over 10,000 men, women and children.

Dr Iacovou said:

“Together these findings reveal the complex influences of different family relationships on a child’s happiness.

Over the years, as Understanding Society follows the lives of families in the UK, we’ll build up an even better picture of how children’s lives are affected by all kinds of factors.

Understanding Society is really set to become a fantastic resource for anyone interested in the well-being of children.”

The study was published by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) (Ermisch et al., 2011).

9 Essential Child Psychology Studies

Why are children so depressed? Are modern parenting practices to blame? How has children’s play been ruined?

Why are children so depressed? Are modern parenting practices to blame? How has children’s play been ruined?

Children may be more depressed now than ever before.

For example, children were 5 times more likely to meet the criteria for a depressive or anxiety disorder in the year 2007 than they were in 1938.

Is the cause to be found in abuse, whether emotional or physical, or are parents damaging their children through what they believe are the ‘right’ practices?

Perhaps it is changes in technology, such as screen time, or in how children play that has affected them negatively?

Maybe the world is just a grimmer place than it was in 1938.

These and more subjects are touched on in these 9 essential child psychology studies from the members-only section of PsyBlog.

(If you are not already, find out how to become a PsyBlog member here.)

  1. Why Children Are More Depressed Than Ever Before
  2. The Worst Thing About Childhood Abuse Is The Memories
  3. Why Parents Should Show Children Their True Feelings
  4. What Happens When Parents Favour One Child Over The Others
  5. How Reading For Pleasure Affects Your IQ
  6. The Personality Trait Linked To Childhood Maltreatment
  7. This Much Screen Time Linked To Child Development Problems
  8. These Parental Personality Traits Are Linked To Children’s Success
  9. How Modern Parenting Has Ruined Children’s Play

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