Daniel Willingham--Science & Education
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How to Make a Young Child Smarter

2/4/2013

 
If the title of this blog struck you as brash, I came by it honestly: it's the title of a terrific new paper by three NYU researchers (Protzko, Aronson & Blair, 2013). The authors sought to review all interventions meant to boost intelligence, and they cast a wide net, seeking any intervention for typically-developing children from birth to kindergarten age that used a standard IQ test as the outcome measure, and that was evaluated in a random control trial (RCT) experiment.

A feature of the paper I especially like is that none of the authors publish in the exact areas they review. Blair mostly studies self-regulation, and Aronson, gaps due to race, ethnicity or gender. (Protzko is a graduate student studying with Aronson.) So the paper is written by people with a lot of expertise, but who don't begin their review with a position they are trying to defend. They don't much care which way the data come out.

So what did they find? The paper is well worth reading in its entirety--they review a lot in just 15 pages--but there are four marquee findings.
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First, the authors conclude that infant formula supplemented with long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids boosts intelligence by about 3.5 points, compared to formula without. They conclude that the same boost is observed if pregnant mothers receive the supplement. There are not sufficient data to conclude that other supplements--riboflavin, thiamine, niacin, zinc, and B-complex vitamins--have much impact, although the authors suggest (with extreme caution) that B-complex vitamins may prove helpful.

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Second, interactive reading with a child raises IQ by about 6 points. The interactive aspect is key; interventions that simply encouraged reading or provided books had little impact. Effective interventions provided information about how to read to children: asking open-ended questions, answering questions children posed, following children's interests, and so on.

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Third, the authors report that sending a child to preschool raises his or her IQ by a little more than 4 points. Preschools that include a specific language development component raise IQ scores by more than 7 points. There were not enough studies to differentiate what made some preschools more effective than others.

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Fourth, the authors report on interventions that they describe as "intensive," meaning they involved more than preschool alone. The researchers sought to significantly alter the child's environment to make it more educationally enriching. All of these studies involved low-SES children (following the well-established finding that low-SES kids have lower IQs than their better-off counterparts due to differences in opportunity. I review that literature here.)  Such interventions led to a 4 point IQ gain, and a 7 point gain if the intervention included a center-based component. The authors note the interventions have too many features to enable them to pinpoint the cause, but they suggest that the data are consistent with the hypothesis that the cognitive complexity of the environment may be critical. They were able to confidently conclude (to their and my surprise) that earlier interventions helped no more than those starting later.

Those are the four interventions with the best track record. (Some others fared less well. Training working memory in young children "has yielded disappointing results." )

The data are mostly unsurprising, but I still find the article a valuable contribution. A reliable, easy-to-undertand review on an important topic.

Even better, this looks like the beginning of what the authors hope will be a longer-term effort they are calling the Database on Raising Intelligence--a compendium of RCTs based on interventions meant to boost IQ. That may not be everything we need to know about how to raise kids, but it's a darn important piece, and such a Database will be a welcome tool.

Mike G
2/4/2013 12:53:28 am

Could the +4 for pre-school be read as a defense of Head Start?

Rosamund Taylor
2/4/2013 01:34:58 am

Might it be worth pointing out that breastmilk also contains polyunsaturated fatty acids? Parents might otherwise think it is inadequate compared to a supplemented formula milk. I don't know if the authors make this point in the paper: I can read the abstract via the link.

Douglas Hainline
2/4/2013 02:07:24 am

I wondered about the Head Start question myself. I taught on a Head Start program in Harlem in the mid 60s, and was very disappointed later to read that, apparently, the effects wore off after a few years.

But I suspect that if we could maintain the right educational environment, they would not.

Tom Sundstrom link
2/4/2013 09:43:43 am

Thanks for taking the time to summarize this interesting paper in a very informative blog post. Without your work, I never would have known about these effects.

Dan
2/5/2013 03:15:58 am

Is the "reading to your child" finding, which is pretty well established, correlational and not causative? There's a lot of good research that shows that parents with high IQs have babies with high IQs and who, as a result, read a lot to their kids.

Jenn link
2/5/2013 05:57:15 am

I second Dan's question. I always wonder about the sample in these types of studies, too. How many subjects were high SES or low SES? How many started with an average IQ vs. a low average IQ vs. a high average IQ? Do these interventions help all children, or just those who are low SES?

I do love the database idea, though! There's so much charlatanism in this department (Baby Einstein, anyone?), that I'm glad someone is trying to keep track of what actually works.

Dan Willingham
2/6/2013 03:45:13 am

Right, that's doubtless a contributor, but all the studies in the article were randomized control trials, so we're not just looking at correlational effects.

Farrah
2/5/2013 06:43:48 pm

Actually, this summary of research regarding formula is misleading, professionally irresponsible, and perpetuates the thought that formula can be the same or better than breastmilk with right ingredients added. A picture of mother feeding a bottle to a baby with the title "How to Make a Child Smarter" is disturbing at best given the well-documented benefits of breastfeeding specifically regarding IQ. I truly hope this article does not influence any parents to feed formula instead of breastmilk. Did you know that breastmilk has long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids?

Dan Willingham
2/6/2013 03:47:42 am

@Mike, @Douglas First, worth noting that quality of headstart programs is uneven. but even more, I think these data are consistent with the "fadeout" you see with headstart effects. seems to indicate that intelligence is plastic, and sensitive to env. so the advantage conferred by headstart is lost when this enriched environment is replaced by one that's less challenging.

Dan Willingham
2/6/2013 03:50:20 am

@Rosamund @Farrah you're right, i should have mentioned that. the article didn't, I'm not sure why. but note it's an article in a technical journal not one that was designed for advice to parents. This blog could be taken as such, so I should have added that. thanks for your comments!


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