Have you ever wondered what is the key to enhancing a child’s chances for success? Early parent intervention!
Key points:
1. Early parent intervention is crucial for a child’s care but also for optimal development, especially in the first two years of life.
2. Encouraging parents to engage in quality interactions and play with their children has a profound and long-lasting positive impact on their development, including higher IQ scores and improved non-cognitive skills.
The experiences during the first two years of life have the power to alter a child’s future. This window of opportunity is critical. Several things can be done to enhance a child’s chances for success –high-quality education, motivating teachers, opportunities, access to good mental health services, etc.
A parenting strategy is not going to define a kid’s future. But learning about your baby’s psychological development will help you improve your parenting skills. The key is to reach a higher audience so parents all over the world can engage in effective quality interactions. Media technology is an effective way to deliver information on a grand scale and greatly intervene in people’s lives.
What science says about parent intervention
There is a study that confirms the huge benefits that come along with parent intervention. In 1986, in a few of the poorest neighborhoods in Kingston, Jamaica, a team of researchers conducted an experiment aiming to change the way people think about the impact of motivating children to achieve success, especially those that lived in poverty. Its take-home message was the following: “Help children by supporting and coaching their parents about their baby’s development”.
The research divided families of 129 infants and toddlers into groups. The first group received one-hour home visits once a week from trained researchers who motivated and coached parents to spend more time actively playing with their children. These activities ranged from reading books and singing, to playing Peek-a-boo. The second group received a kilogram of milk-based nutritional supplement weekly. The control group of children did not receive anything. The study lasted two years, but the researchers have followed the children ever since.
Not surprisingly, the intervention that most impacted the children’s lives was the first: encouraging parents to actively play with their kids. What were these marvelous effects? The children did better throughout childhood, on IQ tests, showed less aggressive behaviors, and more self-control. As adults, these children earned an average of 25 percent more per year than those children whose parents didn’t receive any home visits. The impact of parent coaching can be powerful on many levels.
Quality interactions for children’s better future
If we want to improve children’s opportunities for success, the most compelling influence for change is through the behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes of the adults who interact with them and surround them every day. Supportive and personalized coaching aids in identifying and reinforcing these small interactions. Critical face-to-face exchanges, otherwise known as “serve and return” interactions, further encourage attachment, warmth, and trust between a child and a caregiver. Not only does this provide higher rates of secure attachment, but the child’s ability to process stress also improves.
Kinedu’s main focus is to improve parenting skills, providing parents with activities and specific insight on their baby’s development. Parents can reflect on their baby’s past achievements and set goals for their next milestones. Caregivers are then able to turn everyday moments into effective brain-building ones. When parents learn all these amazing facts about their baby’s psychological development, it can drastically transform the way they see them. Offering parents knowledge about what their babies can or cannot do will make them more attuned to their child’s specific needs.
These positive influences in children’s early lives have profound effects on the development of “non-cognitive skills”. These skills include deep-rooted character, grit, and fortitude; three key elements for success. These skills enable children to navigate life effectively, inside and outside of school, they give them the ability to understand and follow directions, to focus on a single activity for a longer period, to interact calmly with other students, and, ultimately, to cope with life experiences.
To help children succeed, the best strategy is parent intervention. Although these long-term impacts seem intangible, every dollar invested in quality learning and care has a return on investment of at least 4 times more! As Jane D. Hull once stated: “The most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents”.
