5 Things You Need to Know About: Kids and IQ
- Living by the highway when you're pregnant might lower it. According to a recent study, high fetal exposure to common urban pollutants, such as car emissions and coal smoke, may lead to lowered intellectual development of your child. You can prevent this high exposure by avoiding tobacco smoke, keeping a clean and well-ventilated home, and eating fruits and vegetables during pregnancy to counteract the air's free radicals. And if you can see a coal plant from your window (and you've got the bucks)--move!
- Breastfeeding might raise it. Children who were exclusively breastfed for at least three months scored higher on IQ tests and ranked higher on cognitive development levels of thinking, learning and memory at age 6 compared to children of the same age who were not breastfed. The reason for this difference is still unclear, though it may be attributed to nutrients in the mother's milk or the physical contact between the mother and child.
- Summer lowers it. Kids forget stuff over the summer--including how to think--which can cause IQ to go down, according to Psychology Today. That's particularly true for kids whose summers are the least academically oriented. So if your kids are little, read to them this summer. And if they're bigger, make them read to you.
- If you're poor, a great home and school environment can boost it. For kids in middle- and upper-income families, genes determine much of IQ--they already have an enriched environment so they can reach their IQ potential. But research by psychologist Eric Turkheimer at the University of Virginia finds that in poor households (a median income of $22,100 in 1997 dollars), environmental factors were more powerful than genetic influences in boosting IQ. In fact, studies show that when kids are adopted from impoverished backgrounds into middle-class homes their IQ goes up. A great home environment in a poor home or a great early-education program may make a difference. So researchers are now trying to figure out how to enrich the learning environment for low-income kids.
- If your kid prefers vegetables, he or she might be smarter. Children with high IQs are more likely to become vegetarians by age 30. A study reported in the British Medical Journal found that the study participants who are vegetarian as adults recorded five IQ points above average at age 10. This study may partly explain why those with high IQs have lower risks of heart disease and obesity rates on average.
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