So yet another intelligence myth has been squashed: breastfeeding, whatever its other benefits, does not increase your baby's IQ. In the largest study on the subject ever conducted, scientists at the University of Edinburgh announced this week that the reason breastfed babies are cleverer than average is because, er, mothers who breastfeed are cleverer than average, and much of intelligence is hereditary. So what will actually improve a person's IQ? Well, the first thing to be clear about is that we can only work with what we're given. The current understanding is that each individual is probably born with a maximum attainable IQ, as determined by their DNA. As long as we and our parents do everything right throughout our life, we will reach our optimum intelligence. Simple.
When it comes to your child's IQ, therefore, it is only a matter of how much you fail. According to Dr George Erdos, senior lecturer in psychology at Newcastle University, the most important thing parents can do to help their child grow up to be as clever as possible is "provide an intellectually stimulating environment. That means sounds, texture, all the normal things."
When the child is too young to move about, this involves putting interesting things within reach. Later, it means giving them a safe area to explore and plenty of toys to play with. The key ingredient to remember is variety - lots of different and new things all the time. "Whether it's coloured wooden blocks, soft toys or books, it doesn't matter," says Erdos. "Interesting, diversified stimulus has to be provided rapidly." If your child gets bored quickly, so much the better. "The lower the boredom threshold, the more likely it is that the child is intelligent," Erdos explains.
This pattern continues as children get older. The intellectual stimulation provided by school helps make your children cleverer, as do the games they play, including computer games and football. "Anything that stimulates development - problem solving, conceptual thinking, categorisation - will have a beneficial effect," says Erdos.
Diet is important, too, but not in the way many think. There is no reason to suppose that fish oils make you cleverer, for instance; a deficiency in fish oils, though, may make you more stupid. As might a deficiency in trace elements, vitamins, and the other components of a balanced diet. In practice, this means eating plenty of fish, fruit and nuts, and not too much Fruit & Nut. "But," warns Erdos, "once you reach the optimal diet, it is unlikely that additional supplements are going to be any good. Once you've taken the daily vitamin C required by your body, the rest is being basically washed out, and tomorrow you'll have to take new vitamin C."
But if good parenting and diet seem too onerous, there is another method you might prefer: just wait. The average IQ of all human beings has been observed to be increasing by around three points per decade, a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect. Do nothing, then, and the prevailing trend should give you cleverer children anyway.
