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Intelligence
Intelligence and the childMythsGeneticsStudy of intelligenceNature of giftednessCreativityFAQIdentificationPsychology testsIQ scoreIdentifying talentscharacteristicsExceptional qualitiesObservationsLists and limitationNurture
Protegy and childhoodSecret of successGenius factoryObjectionsAssembly lineGrowthCultivating talentsProblemsPlay and explorationSelf conceptFamily relationshipKindergartenUnderachieversPre-schoolPrenatal developmentInfanthoodStimulation|
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| How geniuses are manufactured |
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| The genius factory |
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| Working with profoundly brain-damaged children, a physical therapist and much decorated war hero named Glenn Doman became aware early of what is now quite familiar, the capacity of the brain to adapt and re-learn lost skills - to be reprogrammed. Reprogramming by developing new pathways in the brain of a brain-damaged child is a strenuous, twenty four-hour effort. The stimulation required to effect improvements in such children would take months and years of intensely hard work by parents, but it was possible. He subsequently adapted such routines to normal healthy children - reprogramming for genius. Doman discovered these children could perform amazing feats. Call it teaching, hot housing or systematic brainwashing ( the technique is not dissimilar), tiny children (under three) could be trained or persuaded to read, do maths, perform well athletically and learn foreign languages. He later established the now world-famous Institute For the Achievement of Human Potential in Philadelphia. Throughout the nearly 40 years, it has won support from the public, from Jacqueline Onassis to Dwight D. Eisenhower, and funding from large corporations such as Sony and US Steel Corporation. It would really be unfair to distill his prodigious output in a brief description, but in a nutshell, Doman's system for making a better baby depends mainly on an extensive program of stimulation. He claimed that the aim is not to manufacture Nobel prize winners or Olympic stars, but simply to giving children options. Just as muscle grows with exercise, he believes that the brain can grow simply by being used. Conversely, lack of use will cause it to lose its capacity. Little things are in great danger - little squirrels, little rabbits - because they don't know enough yet, and so nature has made their brains capable of taking in staggering facts so they can survive. He believes that while the brain grows phenomenally between birth and six years, after six, its ability to take in information without effort virtually disappears, although most of this capacity is already gone by age three. (There are proponents of the 'Three is too late' concept) The clearest example of this was that there is no more difficult an act for an adult of an intellectual nature than to learn a foreign tongue. To a child born in, say, Hong Kong tonight, Cantonese is a foreign tongue, no more, no less foreign than English, Swahili or Spanish. He is taught at random by multiple amateur linguists all at once, each with a different lesson or demand; and speaking at different tone and nuance; and learning highly meaningful sentences such as 'dim chung chung, chung chung fay' or 'sic mum mum'. And then, a miracle happens - he learns his language! If he lives in a bilingual household where two languages or three dialects are spoken, he still manages them without any apparent effort anyway! He will never be able to do that again without great effort. As a first step towards creating a super-baby, Glenn Doman prescribed stimulation from immediately after birth such as by shining lights on and off in to the baby's eyes, making noises behind his head, even putting mustard on his tongue. The baby must then be familiarized with shapes by putting cards between the light and its eyes. Being biologically programmed to scan and explore the environment, babies prefer to look at whatever they see well. Very young infants prefers to look at high-contrast patterns with many sharp boundaries between light and dark areas, moderately complex rather than simpler patterns, curved rather than straight lines, and moving objects. Maths begins with red spots on cards, growing smaller and more numerous, so the baby learned by 'instant instinctual arithmetic'; a fascinating and well documented phenomenon (there are cases noted of people capable of 'counting' large numbers - in the hundreds - instinctively be recognition). Doman's children are encouraged to crawl a mile each day in order to improve the 'cross referencing' ability of the brain while it is still growing. He believes that creeping helps to accelerate reading and thinking skills - one of the reasons why his hot house teaching usually takes place on the floor. Children are encouraged to swing hand-over-hand on a climbing frame between lessons, giving a good impression of small chimpanzees. They are encouraged to repeat this many times each day for better neurological development. Behind this practice lies a theory developed by Doman from his work with brain-damaged children. He believes that lost abilities can sometimes be found again by establishing new pathways in the brain - literally rewiring the brain - and this swinging and crawling can enhance the neurological development of the brain and encourage the 'cross-referencing abilities' which are thought to correlate with reading skills. (Children who skip the crawling phase are believed by some experts to stand a statistically greater chance of developing reading difficulties including dyslexia.) The Institutes teaches children by giving them visual, auditory and tactile stimulation with increased frequency, intensity and duration. The children are taught intensively - played with, shown flashcards, words, games puzzles, numbers and patterns of objects, given simple exercises in association - from dawn to dusk. They have little 'free time' but even the babies appear to enjoy it, and bask in undivided adult attention. With great love and affection, they are taught in an honest and factual way all there is to learn. The people who work hardest of all are the parents. They are re-educated to learn how to present material to their children, how to sustain interest and, where necessary, how to keep one step ahead of their budding geniuses. It's important just to foster those things that children are interested in and enjoy doing. Learning must be made easy and attractive. Standard flashcards in big block letters on bright paper are used. Stories and music are constantly employed. The parents use every opportunity to teach their children something, pointing out things and talking to them a lot. |
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