Did you know that the first five years in the life of a child are very crucial for his prime development for learning? As a matter of fact, experts say this phase is like a foundation that will mold their wellbeing, health, and overall trajectory's development, which could help them become what they should be in the future. So how can parents help in developing this foundation?
Experts from the University of York recently conducted a study where they found how important the words are that the child encounters. According to the results of the study, frequent communicating to a child can help improve and develop their nonverbal abilities especially when it comes to their numerical understanding, reasoning, and shape awareness, as posted by Health Line.
To come up with the results, about 107 children were invited to participate in the study. During the study, researchers required every one of the participants to record everything they do every day within three days.
At the end of the study, the experts found the important link between cognitive abilities of a child and the quality of how adults communicate to them, both based on its lexical diversity and number of words.
"There is a correlation between the number of words a child hears as a baby and his verbal IQ," explains Lise Eliod, Ph.D., author of What's Going On in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life. The expert emphasized that if a parent wants to help their children become smarter, it is important for them to allot more time to talk to their children during their first five years. Your words don't need to speak so much information. Communicate only using simple terms.
You can also improve your child's intellectual abilities by also reading them some books, as reported by Parents. Doing so would teach your children "grasp the basics of literacy from your reading sessions - that there are letters and words on the pages and that you read from left to right," says Linda Acredolo Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis. It would also give you and your child a healthy, educational, and tighter bond.
Meanwhile, though both happy and surprised with the results of the study, the experts are aware of how it still needs more information. Given this, the researchers are still looking forward to conducting more studies in the future regarding the matter.
