Proper parental involvement, schooling and diet can help in improving a child's intelligence, researchers say.
To analyze the factors that influence a child's healthy brain development, John Protzko and colleagues reviewed previous studies that looked at children from their birth to the age of kindergarten.
"The larger goal here is to understand the nature of intelligence, and if and how it can be nurtured at every stage of development," Joshua Aronson from the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, said in a new release. "This is just a first step in a long process of understanding. It is by no means the last word. In fact, one of the main conclusions is how little high quality research exists in the field and how much more needs to be done."
They found that proper intervention and a diet rich in certain nutrients is successful in boosting a child's IQ. Children who received omega 3 fatty acids through diet while in their mother's womb and after birth were found having 3.5 points higher IQ than others. Fish oils, squid oil, algal oil and plant oils (echium and flaxseed oil) are some sources rich in omega 3 fatty acids.
However, due to insufficient data, the researchers couldn't determine whether supplements like iron, zinc, niacin, thiamine and riboflavin help in this regard.
Apart from that, an early education intervention was found boosting an economically disadvantaged child's IQ by more than four points, by exposing them to complex environments.
Engaging in interactive reading from an early stage was proved to be most effective by boosting the child's IQ by six points. Exposure to a preschool environment (four points), and preschools focusing on language development (seven points) were other factors that play an important role in making a child smart.
"Our current findings strengthen earlier conclusions that complex environments build intelligence, but do cast doubt on others, including evidence that earlier interventions are always most effective," Protzko said. "Overall, identifying the link between essential fatty acids and intelligence gives rise to tantalizing new questions for future research and we look forward to exploring this finding."
The results of the study have been published in Perspectives on Psychological Science.
