Want your child to be a high achiever? Have more conversations with them

Very interesting.

As a parent we always want our children to do well in life but it's not always clear what tools we need to provide them with, but talking with them could be the place to start. Studies have found that children from homes were they are conversed with on a regular basis do better academically and that there are certain types of conversations that help them better than others. Over the years research has shown that children with wider vocabularies score higher in examinations so is the answer to get them to learn every word in the dictionary? No. According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists when it comes to helping our children it's a matter of quality over quantity. Getting them to memorise a ton of words won't necessarily help them later on in life but having regular discussions with them and helping them to understand as many words as possible will. This can be done by using Mechanistic language. While term Mechanistic language might sound overly scientific it's probably something you're already doing everyday. Mechanistic language is simply the process of giving our children details and explanation when they ask a question. For example if your child asks why is it bright during the day rather than just saying 'because of the sun' you could explain exactly how the sun and it's rotations work. This helps their brains to develop and nature their curiosity meaning they will ask more questions in the future gaining more knowledge. Likewise if they ask a question that you're not 100 per cent sure of yourself rather than saying 'I don't know' tell them that it's a very good question and that you'll help them look up the answer. Interaction is key when it comes to the brain development of children which includes story time. Part of the research conducted by MIT found using MRI scans that the more interactive story time was, the more activity there was in the child's brain regions. I know with my kids they never stop asking questions and if your children are the same be happy because it actually means that they want to soak up as much knowledge as possible. Children's brains are like sponges so the more language rich you can make their environment the more likely they are to become the world's next brilliant brainiac.