The clever child.

A little past his second birthday and my friend's grandchild did not even bother to answer to his grandpa's call. He was intent on the cartoon on the screen of their television.

The doting grandpa was not perturbed in any way despite the ignoring of his calls. In fact his next words confirmed the pride he had in his little grandson.
"Look at the little fellow, so engrossed in the cartoons. He learns a lot from the programmes, you know. And he is so clever; after the programme he would come and call you with a sweet little smile to amke you happy with him," he told me.

Yes, I agreed with him that his grandson was clever. What I did not voice to him were my thought that every child, with the exception of those unfortunate enough to have mental retardation or damage, is clever. The only difference lies in the attention and the understanding of the parents that all children need to be given the basic language skills and knowledge to put them on the road to more knowledge and mental development.

Parents ought to spend more quality time with their children. When we say quality time, we do not mean just being around our children. We introduce the world around them with names of things and ways we talk about those things, asking questions, giving descriptions of those things and thus introducing even more vocabulary.

Knowledge ought to start from their crib, then their room, moving on to the hall, the whole house, the garden and the neighbourhood before moving forward into any part of the world available to them. In our present time, it is not so much affordability but available time for exploring. Thus, we go from the known to the unknown, gradually adding knowledge each day.

When it comes to reception of the knowledge, there are so many methods available in our world. Take a few most suitable to our children. More important, whatever method we employ, make learning fun. That would spur them further to wanting more learning. Once that is instilled in them, there is nothing they cannot learn and with such knowledge and understanding behind them, maturity and the level of mental development achieved will certainly see them to 'the sky is the limit' in development.

So, parental role is the most important. How this world is going to develop or gprogress depends upon the parents whose child will think of greater possiblities for all mankind.