Nurturing your young child and giving them a chance to play is the way to create an intelligent child, says Nathan
Mikaere Wallis of the Brainwave Trust.
When a baby feels nurtured, their survival networks are calmed and their higher intelligence can develop, he says.
“Feeling really safe and like the centre of the universe and really nurtured – that’s creating intelligence in the brain.”
Parents often make the mistake of thinking their child will be intelligent if they’re taught to read early, he says, but
that isn’t how the brain develops.
The best food for a baby’s brain isn’t anything you can teach them, he says, it’s play.
“Encourage the child to explore, to generate solutions, to be allowed to get things wrong, to be creative.”
A child that’s been taught ‘right and wrong’ answers and numbers and letters will develop “a type of intelligence
that’s like a parrot”, he says.
But creative discovery-type play creates much more in-depth cognition.
Parents of under-sevens, especially, should focus less on academic performance.
“There’s plenty of time when you are seven to get those right and wrong answers and literacy and numeracy.”
According to Mikaere-Wallis, the three most important things for helping a young human brain reach its full potential
are ‘relationship, relationship, relationship’.
“Enjoy the baby. Have your face in front of the baby and be talking to the baby, responding to them, making them
feel safe, singing, laughing – it’s not about academics.”
From RNZ Nine to Noon programme, December 15, 2016
Listen to the full interview here:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2595176/what-3-to-7-year-olds-need-to-learn-nathan-mikaere-wallis
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