How To Boost Your Child’s Brain Power

Parents give their best for their children and strive to practice effective parenting. This is more than just about working to provide financial needs and whatnot. Instead, it’s about ensuring their children have holistic development right from birth.

One of the most compelling concerns running through a parent’s mind is how they can enhance their child’s mental development. While genetics play a significant role in a child’s in-born qualities, the environment is just as big a factor.

Placing children in a home where their abilities are nurtured and fostered gives them that strong head starts in their early years. It’s that foundation needed to prepare them for all the thinking, decision-making, and learning they’ll face as they grow toward independent adulthood.

Below are tips that can help you boost your child’s brain power early on and prime for years of development and learning. Read on.

Encourage Them To Play With Brain-Engaging Toys And Games

There are several toys your kids can play with, but not every toy in stores is good for your kids. This is why it’s essential to be intentional when shopping for toys. An excellent example of engaging toys is a puzzle. They’ve been present for so many years, and for a very good reason, it still stands as one of the best toys children can play with.

Puzzles aren’t just fun, but they’re also good for the brain. Some toys don’t encourage a lot of thinking, while there are many brain-feeding activities when forming puzzles, like the following:

• It promotes critical thinking skills.
• It enhances fine motor skills.
• It strengthens a child’s psychological well-being.

Young children develop a sense of joy and pride in accomplishing something. Puzzles teach children that they can complete whatever challenge they face with patience, hard work, and perseverance. For now, it’s puzzling. As they grow older, it’ll be the ‘bigger’ things.

If you’re interested in shopping for puzzles now, check out this shop’s largest selection of jigsaw puzzles, and see if there’s anything you’d like to add to your cart.

Along with puzzles, there are other toys, like stackable blocks, play magnets, big and small bricks, dolls, and other toys that encourage pretend play. What’s suitable for your child also depends on their age, so factor that in.

Read To Your Child

No matter how busy you are as a parent, it’s ideal to give time to read to your child during the day or at night before bedtime. Your child can have toys, but don’t forget a book corner. Every child needs to have exposure to books, and for the younger ones, this means actively reading to them.

Storytelling is important as it strongly impacts children’s vocabulary, memory, and attention span. Most importantly, it also encourages bonding time between parent and child. It makes your daily or bedtime routine more special when the children look forward to it, making them more likely to continue reading on their own time as they grow older.

Feed Your Kids With Brain Food

What you feed your kids matters a lot, too, to keep children healthy and well-developed. Growing bodies need many nutrients and brain food to take them through long school learning hours. Examples of brain food are the following:

• Salmon: It’s one of the best kinds of fatty fish for children as it’s rich in Omega-3 Fatty Acids like docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), both of which are essential to brain growth and function;

• Peanut butter: This is a good source of Vitamin E, an antioxidant that protects the nervous membranes.

• Eggs: These are packed in choline, which helps in memory development;

• Whole grains: This food contains B-Vitamins needed by the body for a healthy nervous system.

• Blueberries: This fruit is rich in flavonoids that help improve their general thinking skills and learning ability.

The list above is only a few, as there are many more. Your pediatrician would also be a valuable resource for more information. Then, it’s up to parents to tweak their kids’ diets to make sure brain food makes it into their daily healthy diet.

Ask A Lot Of Questions

Asking your kids questions encourages them to think. They may not get the answer right, but you can at least prod them to give answers. The questions don’t have to be school-related. You can ask about anything under the sun for as long as it encourages conversation.

For instance, get your child involved in what you’re doing. Ask them questions while they’re playing. Ask them about how they feel. This flow of open-ended communication may be what your kid needs for better comprehension and problem-solving skills.

The Bottomline

As opposed to thinking of young children as ‘only babies,’ it’s essential for parents to have that mindset that young kids are, in fact, intelligent sponges. They have a powerful ability to absorb whatever they’re taught, especially during those first six years.

For parents, that’s a lot of opportunity to feed their brain with learning, so it’s constantly exercised and learning new things. There are many things parents can do for that brain power boost, starting with those above.