is a child's rate of intellectual development hereditary or does it comes from the way he is raised?

Question

my son is 13 months old and he seems pretty smart to me. (maybe that's just because i am his mother ) :) but most of the young children in my family seem to be well above average. i was just wondering if this could be hereditary or if its the environment they are in.

Answer 1

The answer to this question is that both hereditary and environmental factors have a role in determining intelligence.

From observation and reading, it appears that heredity plays the larger role. It determines a probable range of intelligence which is generally within 10 I.Q. points of a parent.

The environment which usually includes those parents determines a pattern of intellectual development. This development is corralled somewhat by I.Q.

For example, a person with an average brain would have difficulty being a chess champion. However, a person with 120 I.Q. points and several graduate degrees may have more developed thought processes than a high school dropout with 150 I.Q. points.

Howard Gardner identified seven major areas of intelligence - intrapersonal (self), interpersonal (social), verbal, mathematical, artistic, musical and movement (dance, sports etc.).

Children from intelligent families are typically exposed to far more learning opportunities than those from dull families.

There is debate concerning how to develop intelligence. Some teachers think that encouraging early reading gives a child a life long advantage while others think that children should learn to read when that portion of the brain is most receptive to learning.

Testing for giftedness is generally conducted at age 4 because children will "top" out on intelligence tests which prevents a true measure of intelligence. If parents are highly gifted or profoundly gifted, testing is often conducted before the age of 4. One of the leading testing centers is the Gifted Development Center. Hoagies is the main website devoted to gifted children and their education.

The average GRE score for a teacher attending one of the top few graduate schools in education is 575 out of 800 whereas the score for top grad school engineers is 775. Therefore, in order to develop the creativity and critical thinking skills of gifted children, it is important for parents to play a major role.

Answer 2

Neither and both. My son is constantly read to, sang to, and given numerous opportunities to learn, but he's slow in my opinion, and average according to Pampers.com and other similar places. My husband read regular children's books like "Where the Wild things Are" by age 3 and I spoke in sentences by the time I was 1 year old and could write in cursive by 5. My two year old son is just now starting to put phrases together, but then again, some studies say a child learning two languages at once will take longer to speak sentences. I think he may be slow because my father is dyslexic, or he may be a genius since my husband's uncle didn't speak until he was 5 and has an IQ that rates as a genius. So, you can't really tell. I think part of my son's slow-ness is that he is always on the move and won't sit-still for a whole story anymore. All we can do is try our best and hope our children will surpass our own intelects. However we did take him to a behavior analyst, and they attempted to tell me that I should put him into speech therapy! That would cause so many problems because they wanted his speech therapy to be in English when we speak German when we are in public and half the time at home and plan to send him to German schools. They refused to aknowledge that my son, in order to live in Germany with his dad being in the US Army, needs to know both languages. So, I don't know what to do... I'm glad you are able to think your child is bright, you have no idea how saddening it is when you think, after having everyone in your own family be so above average, that your child might have a learning disability.

Answer 3

Children are a product of their environment, that being said, exposing children to a wide range of things is in their best interest. Letting them expand their knowledge at their own pace. At such young ages, you would be amazed at what they can learn if given the chance. Encourage any endeavor that will bring new learning, however mundane it may seem to you.

Answer 4

From several studies it's both. Heredity is definately a big factor. But how much education and stimulus a child gets when they are young makes a lot of difference in their intellectual developement as well.

Answer 5

I believe it has more to do with nutrition along with learning experience options. Children learn in different ways, and many ways ought to be explored to discover the ways that get the best results. Consider eating more raw foods. Nature eats this way, and nature does not suffer the many dis-eases that man who cooks does.

Answer 6

definite, i think of this is thoroughly incorrect to slap a new child of any age interior the face. this is a maximum cowardly act. I do besides the undeniable fact that recommend spanking yet in basic terms in intense circumstances and continually on the posterior. yet every person who might slap a new child interior the face disgusts me.

Answer 7

Heredity specifies the RANGE of the intelligence (like from this high to this high) but what you teach him and how you stimulate his love for learning determines at what point in the range he'll grow up into.

Answer 8

childrens brains are like a sponge and they absorb--Learn-- what you teach them... If you interact with children and teach them they will learn very quickly... Some parents don't take the time. and children fall behind
other children of the same age group
give the baby a kiss for me.

Answer 9

I think both can happen. I think intelligence can be inherited (or at least the ability to learn at a faster rate) and it can be learned from one's environment.

Answer 10

Both infulence the child equally...