PARENTING : LET'S ENABLE OUR CHILDREN TO BE SMARTER.

Byline: Greg Steckler and Gerald Deskin

Psychologists have known for some time that IQs among children are rising. We also know that children are maturing earlier, becoming taller and showing their brightness by exploring areas that didn't exist when their parents were younger.

Our society has provided new and exciting means of learning. Children learn new skills through playing such electronic games as Nintendo. They learn about the world around them through television and movies. They learn about what is happening in the world not only from books, magazines and newspapers but from computers.

There are different kinds of intelligence, such as fluid intelligence - the knowledge of how to do something - or crystallized intelligence, which is knowing facts and information about something. We learn through our senses. Some children have better auditory or visual intelligence, others have better kinesthetic intelligence.

This does not mean basic education is not important. Our children need a base of being able to read, write, spell and learn their mathematics skills. This basic education that we provide in school is no longer the end of learning but the beginning of learning complex new skills. As society becomes more complex, every generation of children will have to learn new skills to fill the jobs that open up.

Parents can help their children develop their intelligence by providing them with the tools to begin to think in new ways. When your child asks for new electronic games to play, it is not only fun, but it allows the child to learn new skills. When a child learns to surf the Web, there is a wealth of new information to learn. We older adults could only look up information in an encyclopedia. Our children can contact most major libraries around the world if they have access to a computer and the Web. Fortunately, computers have come down in price so that more parents are able to afford them. Computers have changed from being expensive and only for a few, to cheaper and essential for every child's development. Most colleges either require, or assume that every student has a computer available to them.

The amount of information that we are exposed to every day with movies, TV and computers as well as magazines, books and newspapers has risen dramatically. All of these tools contribute to your child's intellectual development and result in smarter children who are better prepared to deal with the new jobs that continually develop in our society.

Suggestions for parents: 1. Provide your child with the best you can in basic education. 2. Remember that movies and TV are not only entertainment, but educational. 4. A computer is an essential tool for learning for today's children, not just a toy.