WHAT DO ARISTOTLE, da Vinci, Darwin, Gates and Old Doc Lester (here I am using poetic licence) have in common? Brainpower. Using intelligence to excel. There isn’t a parent who does not wish this for their kids. When considering the stimulation of your child’s brain, keep in mind that most brain growth occurs during early childhood. Total brain growth is 50 per cent by one year, 80 per cent by five years, and 100 per cent by 20 years. Therefore the first years are critical and offer a narrow window of opportunity to stimulate the child’s to his or her full potential.

How can parents help their children reach this potential? To develop brainpower, a parent must provide a child with enriched experiences. Constant encouragement of the use of imagination and curiosity fuels the developing young mind. Learning must be fun. It cannot and should not be forced on a child just to meet a parent’s agenda.

Learning is also done in different ways. First there is the type of learning that has no content, no reference points. For example, ask a child to subtract two from three. This type of learning requires memorization and continued reinforcement to be retained. Another type of learning is called authentic or experiential learning. These are lessons taught in context and born out of real experience.

Consider the following, in keeping with the first example: A child may be asked, ‘If you have three apples and you give one to Mommy and one to Daddy, how many apples do you have for yourself?’ Here the learning experience is more real, has more meaning and therefore is more likely to be retained, especially since it is more fun.

A young child at a summer cottage looks into a calm lake and is fascinated by the dancing shadows of a tree’s leaves. This is a perfect opportunity to teach about shadows and reflection and may even shape the course of the child’s interests in the future. This is authentic learning at its best.

While such moments can lead to positive brain development, there are also many factors that can certainly impede brain power. Smoking, consumption of alcohol and stress while pregnant can have adverse effects on proper brain development.
After a birth, chronic iron deficient anemia and malnutrition have negative effects on intellectual development in children. Social isolation and lack of stimulation also prevent children from reaching their full potential.

Everyone has an upper limit to their brainpower. It is up to parents to ensure that each child has the opportunity to reach that potential fully. Every child should also be given the opportunity for a head start. Preschool education is one way to prime your child, socially and intellectually, for learning.

That said, remember that superior brainpower is nice, but it’s not everything. I would rather have a happy, well-rounded, emotionally stable, average child than an unhappy genius.

Post City Magazines’ kids’ health columnist, Dr. Mickey Lester, has been a pediatrician for more than 30 years and is the former chief of pediatrics at Trillium Health Centre

In stark contrast to the waiting rooms with flat-screen television sets at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, is the waiting area of the HIV clinic where Dr. Adrienne Chan also works in Malawi, Africa.

“Sometimes it’s so busy that people are housed on the floor,” Chan says, “with the rats and the bugs and the dirt.”

As the medical co-ordinator for Dignitas International — a medical-humanitarian group that is dedicated to improving access to HIV and AIDS drugs and preventative care for people in the developing world — Chan spends 10 months of the year residing in Malawi and the other two in Toronto as a physician specializing in infectious diseases.

“I love that about coming back,” she says. “I get to see the best of what medicine has to offer and what we can aspire to. Everybody deserves to have the best.”

Chan has been working for Dignitas since 2007. She provides access to life-extending antiretroviral drugs, which help prevent HIV from developing into AIDS.

“Those drugs have revolutionized HIV treatment in Africa,” she says. “Since Dignitas has been there, since 2004, last week we put our 10,000th patient on those drugs.”

Around 70,000 people live in the district that Chan serves, which has one of the lowest doctor-to-patient ratios in the world. According to Chan, an astonishing 18 per cent of the adult population is HIV positive.

The organization also provides HIV testing, counselling, support, pediatric care and interventions. Chan decided to get involved in international health in 2005, after a life-changing visit to Zimbabwe. “I was going to be an academic physician, focusing on clinical work,” she says. “I came back from Zimbabwe and basically said, ‘Now I want to go and work in Africa.’”

She spent the next year planning the most effective way to make that happen. While at Harvard University, she attended a lecture by Dr. James Orbinski, one of the cofounders of Dignitas. After the lecture, Chan introduced herself to the man who, coincidentally, had also spoken at her University of Toronto convocation.

“I felt inspired by the mission of Dignitas and their philosophical approach to doing international work and development work,” she says.

Chan is currently the only Canadian and the only doctor working in the HIV clinic. Most of the staff are Malawian, which she finds inspiring.

“When you are confronted with the huge inequity between Malawi and Canada, it inspires a whole bunch of different feelings — it inspires rage, it inspires sadness,” Chan says. “You really want to try to do something to change the system that has allowed such inequity to happen. Chan says, when she’s back in Toronto for those two months of the year, she likes to de-stress by visiting her family in the same North York home that she was raised in and by taking advantage of local food luxuries, like drinking Tim Hortons coffee and going to Terroni for a mushroom salad.

But Africa always calls her back.

“I have all these skills, I have all this training,” she says. “I’m at a place in my life where I can leave my comfort zone and move to a place that needs me more.”

Post City salutes Dr. Adrienne Chan and all Dignitas workers for helping bring HIV-AIDs drugs, prevention and education to people in Malawi.
 

WHEN MY SON was five, he preferred play to work. Educators suggest early childhood development is all about learning through play. They believe a preschooler’s future success is largely dependent on being well socialized. When we were kids, finding friends was easy. The neighborhood streets were filled with kids just hanging out.

Socialization happened naturally. These days our kids live in safe bubbles; they can’t even stand on the front porch without parental patrolling. So this yummy mummy had to go on a playmate prowl for Josh.

The first place I expected to find a friend for my son was at his preschool. However the principal refused to allow a class list to be created, citing privacy concerns for some parents. I was extremely disappointed. With many moms and dads working and drop-off and pickup schedules erratic, catching the parents of my child’s school friends was next to impossible.

Josh had a special girlfriend at this school. With his teacher’s help, I managed to connect with this little girl’s mom and invited her daughter to come play. When she arrived, she was carrying a dozen roses. It was clear her mother was as overjoyed as I was to finally connect with another family outside of school.

My son also attended a French immersion public school. I was thrilled to receive a request for contact information for a class list. I’m sure I was the first mom to sign up. Within a month, a mom of one of the students phoned me to set up a time for our boys to cavort.

The first date her son came to our place. Unfortunately, it ended earlier than expected with our guest in tears, sobbing that he missed his mother. So, we tried again a few weeks later. This time the boys played at his house. When I arrived to pick up Josh, I had to pry him from the arms of his friend who wanted to continue wrestling all night. Social success!

Once I dropped Josh off with his nanny at an indoor play area. When I picked them up, Josh ran to me yelling he had made a new friend. I felt a burst of joy, grabbed a business card and made a 40-yard dash to find the mom of my son’s new pal. I think she was a bit surprised when I ran to her, out of breath, pushing my business card into her hand, saying, “I would LOVE it if we can get our boys together sometime.” Sadly, they were visiting from Barrie but would call if they came into town again.

My son’s social life began to perk up after several pieces fell into place. Two other children his age were attending the same two schools as he was, so I formed a car pool with their moms. This new alliance enabled our kids to bond daily in our minivans and formed a triumvirate of yummy mummies. Within a month, the play dates began. It’s no coincidence that I’m noticing a change in my son. His confidence is growing. He’s showing signs of a sense of humour. He’s even nicer to his little sister! And, most importantly, he’s learning how to be a friend.

Teaching your child to play properly can be hard work, but it’s also very rewarding. One way of connecting your child with like-minded kids is through after-school programs. High-energy boys and girls will love Just Bounce (www.justbounce.ca), the largest trampoline school in Ontario. My son had a blast in semi-private lessons with his car pool buddies.

Coach Jeff, a high level trampoline competitor, was amazing with the kids. With eight trampolines to choose from, they bounced for close to an hour. More impressive was the way Coach Jeff kept the kids howling with laughter as he entertained them with gravity-defying jumps, flips and twists.

And remember, yummy mummies need to play, too! If you’re struggling with a lack of adult stimulation, try inviting other parents to your play dates. While kids romp, moms can talk. It’s like meeting new school friends, once again.

Post City Magazines’ parenting columnist, Erica Ehm is the voice of yummy mummies with her playful website yummymummyclub.ca. After all, mommies need to play, too.