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Hi,
I hope you had a happy New Year's celebration! I organized a New Year's Countdown party at my home with good food and wine … It was a great party to kick start a brand new year! Anyway, how's 2007 looking for you? Have you set goals to do some of the things you've always wanted to do last year but couldn't find the time or will to do it...Well, I've got a very good report that may be able to help you to achieve your goals this year. The report provides some insider "secrets" that you can learn. You can download the report here (Right click and select "Save Target As"). Let this 2007 New Year be better than all the other years for you. Once again, have a Fantastic 2007!

Thought for today:
"  We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential. " - Ellen Goodman

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

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Building Self-Confidence In Your Child
By Silvana Clark

Give children the skills needed to take risks while developing self-confidence. Tips on helping children learn to be leaders and build their self-confident.

Five Biggest Mistakes Parents Make With Confidence-Boosting
By Michael Grose

Parents always have the right intentions when they boost their children's confidence but sometimes their esteem-boosting efforts backfire and have the reverse effect. Here are the five biggest mistakes parents make when boosting kids' confidence and what they can do to avoid them.

Q1: Hi, I have a question about my daughter (6yr old). I am thinking about testing her intelligence in order to guide my parenting. I read many articles and pretty sure she is gifted. I spoke to few psychologists and received very disappointing answers. They believe parenting should be nothing to do with a child's intelligence and believe a child is a child. My discipline/parenting should be as same as any other 6 yrs old child...

A: If you feel that your girl has above average qualities, I am sure you are the best person to judge regardless of what others may say. Parents are sometimes able to observe abilities in their children that may not be very obvious to others. At her age, you can take a few standardized IQ test if you want to determine her level of intelligence and provide her with the necessary exposure... Read Dr. Sandhu's answer on Parenting a Gifted Child here.

Q2: My son is 5.5 years old and has issues in his preschool to the fact where I have dis-enrolled him from the school. My son started walking and talking at 8 months old. Now at 5 he speaks with the vocabulary and sentence structure of an adult. His psychologist recommended the school giving him more challenging work, but they just gave him more work....My question is what is an accurate test we can give him to see if he is truly gifted? Thanks in advance!

A: It is not clear what the issues in your son's preschool are. It has to be really serious for you to have him out of the preschool. As parents are the best predictors of childhood advanced abilities, you may be right in determining what may suit him better and what may bore him further.

There is no single test that indicates giftedness accurately, and the numbers are just a guide for parents and educators to find strengths and weaknesses in a child. Generally, IQ tests measure a specific functioning ability and may not accurately assess a person's talents or future potential....See Dr. Sandhu's complete answer on IQ Test for Preschoolers

Q3: My son (who is in 2nd grade, age 7) earlier this year was asked to test for the gifted program by his teacher because he was misbehaving in class and she thought that he may be bored. He tested and missed the IQ portion of it just slightly, but is in the talented program for Math.

He just received his Terra Nova results back, which shows his national scores are 89th percent for Reading, 85th% for Language, 99th% for Math and a total score of 97th%. Does this constitute him being in the complete gifted program? Should I contact the teacher? Thank you.

A: See Dr. Sandhu's complete answer on Gifted Programme

Q4: I had my son privately tested when he was in first grade. He scored a 137 on the WISC-IV. His school administered the Test of Cognitive Skills when he was in third grade and he received a score of 124. He said his teacher didn't tell him what that test was for (entry into his school's gifted program) and that it wasn't important; just do it. Could this have affected his score? Which test more accurately shows my child's true abilities?

A: Read Dr. Sandhu's answer on Difference in IQ Scores

Super Kids: 8 Ways to Boost Your Baby's Brain Power
ABC30.com Dec 24, 2006

Yes, genes and environment both play an important role in determining your child's intelligence. But science is proving there are other ways you can boost your child's brain power, and they start early.

Pregnancy intake of fish oil pills improves child's cognitive skills: study
EarthTimes Dec 21, 2006

Taking fish oil supplements during pregnancy can enhance the eye-hand coordination of the babies subsequently born, a study by Australian researchers has found. The study checked the effects of fish oil supplements and olive oil supplements on a group of 98 pregnant women and found that those who took fish oil supplements improved many of their children's cognitive skills.

Toys beat food as IQ boosters
IndiaTimes Jan 6, 2007

Giving pre-school children toys to play with boosts their mental development even if they suffer from malnutrition, a UK medical report said on Friday.

Newborns could benefit from time away from home, rodent study suggests
Newswire Rockefeller Dec 21, 2006

New research from neurobiologists at Rockefeller University, suggesting that a child's brain may benefit from the stimulation provided by out-of-home childcare. The results suggest that children who receive childcare outside of their home environments might achieve better social and cognitive development.

Acting Out Could Be Sign of Stress
Education-World.com Jan 3, 2007

Children who bully others or act out in class may be reacting to trauma rather than a lack of self-discipline, according to Barbara E. Oehlberg, an Ohio-based education and child trauma consultant. Youngsters today are growing up with more stress and uncertainty than in the past, and if they have no other outlet for their anxiety, they tend to misbehave, according to Oehlberg. Not only that, but stress and anxiety prevent these students from doing well in school.

Kids not actually dumb IQ levels have reached their zenith
Daily India Dec 18, 2006

Psychologist James Flynn, has made another observation: intelligence test scores have stopped rising. Far from indicating that now we really are getting dumber, this may suggest that certain of our cognitive functions have reached, or nearly reached the upper limits of what they will ever achieve, Professor Flynn believes. In other words, we can't get much better at the mental tasks we are good at, no matter how hard we try.

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