Current neuroscience research suggests that most newborn infants are born with the potential to achieve in many cognitive areas. There will be some genetic predispositions, but the child's brain is extraordinarily malleable and “teachable”.
Also, is intelligence more of a genetic or environmental trait? If a person with a high IQ marries someone with a lower IQ, their kids could have most any IQ. The same is true for two high IQ parents (although their kids will tend to have higher IQs).
A child was born smart or not, and little could be done to change that. More recent research has upended that notion, and shown that encouraging parents to adopt a so-called growth mindset leads to better educational outcomes for their children.
It's common to think of intelligence as something that you're simply born with. Some people, after all, make being smart look effortless. Intelligence isn't a set trait, though. It's a changeable, flexible ability to learn and stimulate your brain that can improve over time.
According to this new study, children with the highest IQs start out with a thinner cortex, which undergoes rapid growth, peaking at around age 12, instead of age 8 or 9 for children who got average scores on IQ tests.
Researchers have previously shown that a person's IQ is highly influenced by genetic factors, and have even identified certain genes that play a role. They've also shown that performance in school has genetic factors. But it's been unclear whether the same genes that influence IQ also influence grades and test scores.
Early twin studies of adult individuals have found a heritability of IQ between 57% and 73%, with some recent studies showing heritability for IQ as high as 80%. IQ goes from being weakly correlated with genetics for children, to being strongly correlated with genetics for late teens and adults.
First-born children's thinking skills outperform their siblings because they receive more mental stimulation from their parents in their early years, research suggests. First borns score higher than their siblings in IQ tests as early as age one, the study has found.
The potential for giftedness or a high level of intellectual development begins very early in a child's life. Studies since the early 1970s consistently show that such development is the result of an interaction between the child's genetic endowment and a rich and appropriate environment in which the child grows.
There is a difference between a child who is smart or bright and one that is gifted. All gifted children can and are considered to be bright, but not all bright children can be considered gifted.
If you're the youngest or middle child in your family, get ready for some unwelcome news: Your eldest sibling is likely right when they brag about being the oldest and the wisest.
Those born in September are, apparently, the smartest out of the entire year. According to Marie Claire, a study published in the National Bureau of Economic Research found that there's a clear correlation between the month during which you were born and how smart you are.
The Gifted Child's Struggle
Giftedness can create problems and conflicts; being a gifted child can also mean difficulty socializing with age peers, thinking styles that don't always mesh well with the demands from the environment, even children who see themselves as little adults, challenging teachers and parents.
Parental education is one of the best predictors of child school achievement. Higher parental education is not only associated with higher child intelligence, but children from highly educated parents also perform better in school due to other family related factors.
It sounds strange but it's true – studies show there is a correlation between a child's birth weight and their intelligence. Researchers discovered that higher birth weights equated with slightly higher IQ throughout life. You can read the full Pediatrics study here.
A University of Edinburgh study shows first-born children have higher IQs and better thinking skills than their siblings. The study says that shows first-born kids get more mental stimulation than their brothers and sisters.
First-born kids tend to be leaders, like CEOS and founders, and are more likely to achieve traditional success. Middle-born children often embody a mix of the traits of older and younger siblings, and they're very relationship-focused.
We inherit a set of 23 chromosomes from our mothers and another set of 23 from our fathers. One of those pairs are the chromosomes that determine the biological sex of a child – girls have an XX pair and boys have an XY pair, with very rare exceptions in certain disorders.
Although science is on the fence about whether you can raise your IQ or not, research does seem to suggest that it's possible to raise your intelligence through certain brain-training activities. Training your memory, executive control, and visuospatial reasoning can help to boost your intelligence levels.
The IQ scores of most people are represented in the middle of the bell, between 85 and 115. Overall, about 98 percent of people have a score below 130. If you're among the 2 percent with a higher score, you're an outlier.
An individual's IQ does not change with age. In other words: if you did an IQ test now and then another one in 10 years' time, your IQ score will probably be very similar. This is because IQ is always measured relative to other people your age.
All men inherit a Y chromosome from their father, which means all traits that are only found on the Y chromosome come from dad, not mom. The Supporting Evidence: Y-linked traits follow a clear paternal lineage.
Genetics as an intelligence determiner
Several studies with twins2 and studies with fraternal siblings have identified intelligence as one of the highest heritable traits. In other words, just as someone with tall parents is likely to be tall as well, someone with smart parents is also likely to be more intelligent.