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Hi,

Few weeks ago, I read a thought provoking quote from the newspaper. The mother-cum-agent of teenage singer/actress Lindsay Lohan said "I want Lindsay to fail so she can succeed later!" I couldn't agree more. As parents we must allow our children to fail on little things when they are young. This is how they learn and grow. But parents today have the tendency to do everything for their children in order to protect them from 'failing'. These groups of children often can't perform certain tasks because they know that their parents will bail them out. As a result, they don't have many chances to come face to face with failure. More often than not, they can't handle failure appropriately when they grow up.

Failure is necessary for success. Have you ever heard of a company called Traf-O-Data? That was the first company started by Bill Gates and Paul Allen back in 1972 which was closed down after several years. If Bill Gates had given up after Traf-O-Data, we wouldn't have Microsoft today. We should help our children to embrace "failure" and teach our children to learn to take risks instead of play it safe. It is perfectly fine to fail because when they are failing, they are learning. And if they are learning, they are growing. And growing is really what life is all about.

The feature article "Failure - Boon or Burden for Children" in this issue (which was published on BrainyZine about 1.5 years ago) may be an interesting article to read again. Have a great week ahead. Take care

Best Regards,
Andrew Loh
Andrew Loh
Publisher & Editor, BrainyZine
andrew @ brainy-child.com

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Failure - Boon or Burden for Children?
By Dr. Elisa Medhus

As parents, we can raise our children to both welcome and learn from the mistakes they will surely make during their lives instead of being shattered by them. We can teach them to use their mistakes to help them grow instead of allowing those mistakes to generate external reactions that will make them wither. Only then can they strive for personal excellence, which, when it boils right down to it, is what we really want for them.

Q1: What are the levels of thinking for special children particularly the gifted? What are the ways in determining their levels of thinking? What are the limitations of the thinking of special children?

A: For gifted children, they usually use higher levels of thinking skills in any form of their learning. If taught these skills, they are able to think creatively, to analyze, synthesize, apply and evaluate information. Continue to read Dr. Sandhu's answer on Thinking Skills of the Gifted here.

Q2: I have a 5 year old little girl that I believe may be gifted. She is extremely creative - for example, she will create her own dot to dot drawings, she writes her own books and plays, and spends most of her spare time drawing or creating something....

A: Read Dr. Sandhu's answer on Signs of Early Creative Giftedness

Q3: My child is wonderfully smart this year as she got accepted in a gifted and talented class. However, she is very dramatic and sensitive. Also, she is very defensive and would not let other help her. What is wrong with her or that's how all smart kids act? How do I help her?

A: Gifted individuals can be very different from one another, and no single individual will exhibit all the distinctively known characteristics of the gifted. Furthermore, these characteristics may be manifested in both positive and negative ways. See Dr. Sandhu's answer on Distinct Characteristics of Gifted Children

Q4: I have a 27 month old son that my husband and I have always wondered since he was just a few months old if he was a genius....Everyone has always commented on how smart he is and how we need to help him build on his education. We have noticed a change in his behavior. He is slowing down a little bit now and seems to be bored. We wonder if he is above the average in intelligence for his age and we are not doing enough to keep him challenged.

A: See Dr. Sandhu's answer on Slowing Down of Above-average Children

Brain Development and Intelligence Linked, Study Says
Washington Post Mar 30, 2006

The scans showed that children with the highest IQs began with a relatively thin cortex -- the folded outer layer of the brain that is involved in complex thinking -- which rapidly grew thicker before reaching a peak and then rapidly becoming thinner, said Philip Shaw, the lead investigator. Children of average intelligence had a thicker cortex around age 6, but by around 13 it was thinner than in children of superior intelligence.

Boosting Baby's Brain Before Birth
Parents.com Mar 28, 2006

"Intelligence isn't entirely predetermined by genes," says Lise Eliot, Ph.D., an assistant professor of cell biology and anatomy at the Chicago Medical School and author of What's Going On in There? (Bantam, 1999). "Your diet, your health, and even your emotional state all influence the developing structure of your baby's brain." To ensure that your child gets the best possible start, follow these ten surprisingly simple steps.

Scientists show that children think like scientists
PhysOrg.com Mar 29, 2006

Even preschoolers approach the world much like scientists: They are convinced that perplexing and unpredictable events can be explained, according to an MIT brain researcher's study in the April issue of Child Development.

'Bright' kids are those strong in areas we celebrate
Scripps Howard News Mar 30, 2006

When we think about it, a "bright" person is often one who fulfills our own stereotypes of what individuals should attain. Once we hang the "bright" label on them, however, we forget the original reason we used and then expected the child to be brilliant in everything. Just because someone is good at one thing does not mean that he or she is good at everything. Each person is "bright" in a different way.

IQ test's age can help or hinder children
TwinCities Mar 20, 2006

Many school districts don't immediately buy the latest versions of IQ tests when they're published. That's because they're expensive, the old tests seem to work just fine, and their school psychologists are used to administering and scoring the old ones. That can work out to your child's advantage - or disadvantage.

What is an IQ? And who gets tested?
TwinCities Mar 19, 2006

What is an IQ? And who gets tested? Dr. Matt McGue, a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, took time out to answer basic questions about IQ.

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