Developing Your Child’s Mental Abilities

If you are keen to make sure that your child has a good start in life, and a chance of ongoing success, there are a few things that you might want to focus on in particular. These are the kinds of things that are going to sustain throughout their life and hopefully help them to live more fully. One of them, as it turns out, is making sure that they have strong mental abilities, and this is something that you might want to think about from as early on as you possibly can.

What kinds of mental abilities are we talking about? Well, there is a general ability to think clearly and rationally, a kind of intellectual ability, and there are also emotional elements that need considering as well. If both of these main branches are cared for, it’s going to make for a much more well-rounded child, one who is likely to have a good chance of a strong and happy life.

So let’s take a look at some of the ways to develop these mental abilities in your child, so that you can have high hopes for their future.

Reading Early

One of the simplest but most powerful things you can do here is to make sure that you spend lots of time reading with your child. As long as you do that, it’s going to mean that they are developing not just their ability to read itself, but also a general curiosity, intellectual ability and the ability to emote as well. All of that is clearly important, so it’s very much central to their progress as a child to ensure that they are reading as early on as possible.

This is also one of those things that you will probably start to enjoy quite a lot as a parent, and there is no doubt that it can be a joy to spend time reading with your child. The earlier you start doing this, the stronger the results are going to be, so it’s something that you should definitely make sure you are thinking about. And you will find that your child probably enjoys it a lot as well.

Preschool Pursuits

There are all kinds of things that you might want to try and encourage your children to do in preschool years, which can help them to develop strong mental abilities over time. These are all important things that you are going to need to think about, and it’s vital that you don’t overlook them. Actually, preschool is a really important time for your children when it comes to their development in general, so this is essential for you to think about.

What are some of the activities you might want to engage your child in during preschool years? There are many. For instance, reading as we have already seen, can be enormously powerful. There is also a simple activity like coloring in to consider, which you can easily do with them at home with some preschool coloring sheets and marker pens or felt pens.

You might also want to start them with counting or basic alphabet and letters. All of this is going to be important, so it’s vital that you start them early with it. It should help them to develop in just the right way and so that their abilities are going to get stronger and stronger as time goes on.

Exercise

You might not have known this, but it is actually the case that exercise improves a child’s ability to learn. Actually, it does the same for adults as well. Your child will hopefully naturally be getting quite a bit of exercise, as most children do so when they are simply running around and so on. But if you want to make sure that you are really encouraging this, you might want to help them to exercise and move around more, as that could mean that they are going to be even healthier and fitter.

What’s more, with more exercise, and more blood pumping to the brain, they are going to be much more likely to start developing strong mental abilities. So all in all, you are going to find that strong exercise on a regular basis proves to be incredibly important here. The best way to make sure they are exercising is to exercise together, so this is something that you are going to want to think about for sure. Doing that will be good for the both of you, and you’ll find that you are helping them to develop their cognitive skills at the same time.

Diet

It’s also the case that eating well helps the brain. A child’s brain, especially while developing, needs all the nutrients and minerals it can get in order to fully function, and that is something that is going to be really important for you to think about as a parent. Of course, with young children you have a lot of say over what they eat, so you should make sure that you are encouraging them to eat as healthily as possible during this time.

As long as they are getting plenty of whole foods and so on, that is going to make for a much more developed brain and mind, and it will mean that you can expect them to have a much better chance of doing well in educational terms and on a general intellectual level too.

There is also some evidence that healthy diets help people to manage and regulate their emotions more effectively, which is another really important mental ability that you need to try and encourage. So this is definitely something that you want to think about. All in all, a strong diet is going to prove very important in all of this.

Concentration Skills

A lot of the mental abilities that you are trying to develop in your kids are going to be easier if they have strong concentration skills, so that is something that you might want to develop as well. The better your concentration skills are, the more likely it is that you are going to be able to do anything else you might want to do. So the question is, what can you do to work on your child’s concentration and make sure that it is developing as much as you would hope?

One of the main ways we do that with children is by playing with toys with them. A lot of toys are really memory games in disguise, or otherwise helpful in encouraging a general ability to concentrate, so this is something that you are going to want to think about for sure. If you are playing with your kids in this way, you will find that you are much more likely to watch them develop strong mental skills and abilities.

At the same time, they will be developing memory, which is of course another vital thing for any kind of intellectual pursuit. And the earlier you start with all this, the stronger those abilities are going to develop overall.

Plenty Of Sleep

Sleep plays an absolutely vital role in helping your child to develop mental abilities, and it’s the kind of thing that you need to make sure you are thinking about if you want them to develop in the proper linear way. Of course, this is also one of the most common challenges that parents find themselves having to deal with, so that is something that you should be aware of. Chances are, you have already had some trouble from time to time with trying to get your child to sleep.

If that is the case, you might want to make sure that you are going to try and improve this situation. That could mean working on their bedtime and making it much more effective, or it might mean checking to see that they are getting enough physical activity in general, and that they are eating a diet which will sustain them. If all of that is the case, they are likely to have a lot more high quality sleep.

Over time, that is going to make for a much higher chance of a strong intellectual ability, so that is definitely something that you should make sure you are thinking about. It will really help them to develop in the way that you would hope.

Emotional Intelligence

Finally, a word on emotional intelligence, which is often regarded as just as important as other kinds of intelligence. This is something that may develop naturally in your child, but there are also plenty of times when this will not be the case, and when that is so you need to make sure that you are doing all you can to help them along. Depending on the situation, this might be a big event or quite a simple one, but in either case it’s something you can think about. If you can help them here, it will help with everything else.