Contrary to certain social and cultural ways of thinking, kids are actually pretty smart. No matter how you spin it.

You see, the concept of intelligence is not defined by how much you know, but rather it’s a general ability to process stuff in a given context.

Processing information promotes learning, understanding, reasoning, and problem-solving, thus affecting everyday behaviors in many ways.

And, sure, you can put intelligence on a scale and measure it, figuratively speaking. But, in virtually all cases, intelligence is a scale that can be tipped for the better, and there’s more ways than one.

Intelligence can be affected by both hereditary and environmental factors. For over 80% of people’s brain smarts, hereditary factors take the credit.

However, each generation seems to be scoring higher and higher on IQ tests, which is a win for the environmental factors at play.

Turns out, genes and the environment are more closely related than some might think. It’s the genes, after all, that do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to processing the environment.

If you take a smart kid, one who was born in an intelligently-stimulating family and was raised in an intelligently-simulated environment, and then put him into a place where education is of poorer quality, you will likely see a drag on their IQ.

So, it’s a mix of both born with it and raised in it. But you can also live with it and by that I mean train your brain to do brain things better.

For one, eating healthy is a good way of boosting brain power. And all that starts with the womb and continues with breastfeeding.

And once the kid starts transitioning away from breast milk, it’s on to fostering healthy habits by teaching them to like good foods.

This includes everything from fruits and vegetables to whole grains to meat and fish, as well as milk. It goes without saying that portion sizes have to be appropriate so that the kid doesn’t grow overweight. Vitamins are also in order.

Another way of keeping the brain healthy is by stimulating it. Pique the kid’s interests and curiosity with various activities. Kids up to preschool age who grow up in households with a lot of listening, reading and talking tend to have higher IQs and do better in school. Bonding with a child over playtime is good too as it enhances mental growth and bonding is just good in general between parents and kids.

Sports, music and other activities that demand attention and discipline also stimulate mental development. However, it’s important to note that what parents like doesn’t mean that the kid should do too, so practicing listening is key.

Every kid’s interests and approaches to learning are different, but parents should also be a guiding force in learning how to learn. Things like ambition, courage and conscientiousness shouldn’t be disregarded in those situations.

In turn, fostering learning and providing them with the tools they need to be able to understand their potential and to make use of their minds to the best of their ability is an important step to take.

In other words, invest yourself into your kid. Because kids left alone at the TV screen won’t do well as they will miss out on active learning and the upside of exchanging ideas.

So, what are your thoughts on any of this? Feel like you gotta step up your game in light of kids coming up with better ideas? Why not start your brain exercises in the comment section.

Or don’t. You can go read about more genius kids in another Bored Panda article then.