The Science of Raising a Brilliant Baby (VIDEO)

Parents need facts, not just advice, about raising their children. Too bad those facts are difficult to find in the ever-growing mountain of parenting books. And blogs. And message boards, and podcasts, and mothers-in-law, and every relative who's ever had a child. There's plenty of information out there. It's just hard for parents to tell what to believe.

That's why I wrote "Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five." It's based on science that most parents (unless they subscribe to scientific journals) don't get a chance to see. The great thing about science is that it takes no sides -- and no prisoners. Once you know which research to trust, the big picture emerges and myths fade away. To gain my trust, research must first have been published in the refereed literature and then successfully replicated.

Scientists certainly don't know everything about the brain. But what we do know gives parents their best chance at raising smart, happy children.

Surprises in "Brain Rules for Baby" include:

• Why men should do more household chores
• What you do when emotions run hot profoundly affects how your child turns out
• Why you shouldn't praise your kid's intelligence
• The amount of TV kids under two should watch
• The best predictor of academic performance

Know the answers? Test yourself in the video "The Parent Quiz." In the first half, you'll watch a dad, Michael, deal with the baby crying, the wife sighing, and the goldfish dying. In the second half, I give a "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"-style quiz:

More videos detail key insights from the book, from how to deal with temper tantrums to the benefits of breast-feeding.

Nature and nurture may be split 50-50. But there's a great deal parents can do with the influence they have.

 

 

 

Follow John Medina, Ph.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/babybrainrules

Comments

[whyus]

07:10 PM on 10/22/2010

Listen to your child, interact with your child, show your love for your child, teach your child, respect your child. You will have a friend for life.

[mombabytiger]

02:56 PM on 10/22/2010

I have five kids - all pretty smart. I think the primary reason is conversation. Talk about current events in the car, discuss history at the dinner table, do brain teasers together, ask their opinions about hot topics (bullying, etc.). By voicing their thoughts, they develop verbal skills that will hold them in good stead for a lifetime and almost everyone wants to be asked their opinion.

[zeeshan809]

07:00 AM on 10/22/2010

The advent of technological revolution, in my opinion, is taking parents further away from their children as more time is spent in front of television and computer.

http://www.celebritydialogue.com/

[BlackYowe]

06:21 PM on 10/20/2010

There is but one way, lavish time and attention on a child but so many people are too busy working to buy a second new car or second home. Like anything in life you get back what you put into something and that includes children.

[ArtsyJane]

01:07 PM on 10/20/2010

The problem I see is this: most parents in this country do not seem interested in raising an intelligent child. Most children today are not intellectually stimulated and not told to trust and rely on their brains before anything else in life. Most children today count on their appearance, athletic achievement and attitude ti get ahead in life, not on their intelligence or knowledge.

[1Woman4Obama]

03:22 PM on 10/20/2010

What do you expect from a society that villifies intellectuals? In some circles, a good education is a bad thing -- makes you "uppity" or "think your better than everybody else" and certainly doesn't qualify you for a political job. It is insane.

[tmaxPA]

09:24 AM on 10/20/2010

Video is almost impossible on this box, so I might never know if I'm right, but:

1) Because if baby doesn't see dad doing housework, they won't do housework
2) What you do when emotions run hot IS how your child turns out.
3) Because kids can't change their intelligence; praise their effort, not their gifts
4) Zero
5) Their parent's income. It is horribly imprecise, yes, but less imprecise than any other indicator.

These may all be true, but they certainly aren't based on any science of molecular biology, "developmental" or otherwise.

[BlackYowe]

06:23 PM on 10/20/2010

Exactly they are just common sense observations.

[PRONESE]

09:14 AM on 10/20/2010

From all of this child micromanagement came the idea of "Play Dates"
Is childhood dead?
R/ PRONESE

[electricladyland]

07:44 AM on 10/20/2010

I see "baby geniuses" are alive and well.

[superfast48]

07:06 AM on 10/20/2010

I'll bet the video producer eats plenty of granola. And you are all right - kids are a wonderful gift.

[Sandmanj]

05:48 AM on 10/20/2010

The Beatles had a much better answer:

"All You Need Is Love"

[stavros]

02:08 AM on 10/20/2010

It's not a science. It only takes involved parents.

[DeuxExMachina]

12:54 AM on 10/20/2010

In reality, there are very few real infant or child genuises despite what the "gifted and talented schools" imply. I've come across infant genuises and generally for their age they have abilities that are a year of two ahead of their peers although some are more advanced than that. Baby genuises are those that learn to read and do arithmetic by the age of one or maybe even teach themselves with learning toys. Later when they are infants they may pick up a music playing ability or learn to play chess. Child genuises can be derailed by the unrealistic expectations of their parents and more importantly by the unrealistic demands of those same parents. The trick is to keep these children stimulated without being overbearing. Outside of scolastic or talent matters those genuises are still are children and have to be given the same loving care and social interaction that any child would receive.

[HypocrisyAlarm]

05:58 AM on 10/20/2010

And some may have genius and never get the chance to display it.

[spiegelmama]

12:13 PM on 10/20/2010

If Billie Holiday can develop and display her genius coming up in a whorehouse, anyone can. Maybe if she'd had better parents, she wouldn't have been a junkie, but genius is inborn.

[tmaxPA]

09:32 AM on 10/20/2010

This is just my guess, but I don't think there are any child "geniuses". The word is improperly used in this regard, connoting an understanding of intelligence and cognition that we really really don't have. "Genius" is what you call a person who has a fully developed (generally typical) brain and either great intuitive insight or a particular score in some quantitative analysis, depending on your definition. We now know that the human brain is still undergoing a great deal of development for the entire first two decades of a human being's life. I suggest we wait until it is complete before making judgments along these lines. Your unstated presumption that advanced development at some early age (math by one or whatever) results in advanced development at any or all later stages of development (if not "derailed") is counter-factual.

Let's keep every child stimulated; we will most certainly be amazed at the results.

[DeuxExMachina]

09:54 AM on 10/20/2010

I tend to agree that the term "genius" is often overused in the USA. In the past you may have used the term, prodigy, to indicate outstanding abiliity and generally applied to that of a particular field, e.g. Mozart was a child prodigy who could compose music by the age of four. It was a considerable achievement for someone so young and he continued to develop his musical ability as he grew older. A more recent example is Terrance Tao from Australia who at was a child the age of two attempted to teach a 5-year-old child mathematics and English. He has since gone on to win many internationally recognized mathematical prizes and at age 24 became the youngest professor at UCLA. These are by no means the only examples where early promise led to advanced development. I agree however you should keep every child stimulated so that they may achieve whatever level of success their genes permit.

[1Woman4Obama]

03:25 PM on 10/20/2010

I completely agree with this. The issue came up about my child taking an IQ test (she's 3) and the whole concept annoys me for precisely the reasons you state -- at this age, brain development is still undergoing and attempting to take a snapshot of that development is nothing more than a snapshot. But the whole picture can change in a week.

[hoppingestfrog]

12:51 AM on 10/20/2010

Love your baby. Accept them. Realize that no parent is perfect, but no matter what, your child is. And an occasional game of Hop Hop bunny doesn't hurt. That's my advise, for what it's worth.

[Rubyfoo]

12:20 AM on 10/20/2010

I have Ph.D. in molecular biology too, and I don't know where he found those refereed journal articles that prove his contentions. I certainly can't. All this stuff is way beyond our current ability to make firm conclusions about. Here's another guy trying to market the latest and greatest. I've checked out his book on Amazon and note that it includes no references to any of those famous journal articles. Sounds like opinion to me.

[Tennis-Guy]

03:04 PM on 10/20/2010

All the references for this video and the book Brain Rules for Baby are posted on the website, http://brainrules.net/brain-rules-for-baby-resources since there are so many (over 63 pages) to include in the book itself.

[Rubyfoo]

10:07 PM on 10/20/2010

Well I have to apologize on that one. I don't think I've ever seen so many references for one book before.

[diverssant]

11:49 PM on 10/19/2010

There is no such thing as a brilliant baby... Well, may be to their parents but to the rest of us they are, let's face it, nothing but messy, noisy trouble, and much less cute than puppies.