Bringing up kids in Singapore is no easy feat. Not only do most parents struggle with the high cost of education, the educational structure in Singapore may have created a competitive environment that causes parents to worry about how their kids are performing in school.
The pressure begins when you focus on getting your pre-schooler ready for primary school.
Ideally, he/she should be able to catch up with the lessons in K1 and K2 – before moving on to handle the deluge of academic subjects in primary school .Typically, your child’s ability to perform well academically is linked to his/her IQ and EQ level.
A concerned mum shared on one of the parenting forums a few years ago about her child’s preschool teacher commenting that her little girl is slow in completing her work in class. “Her teacher said that if she doesn’t speed up, she will be left behind in primary school.”
Needless to say, this comment served as a cold wake up call for the mum, who was shocked to realise that at just 5 years old, her child was beginning to “experience the rat race.”
But do kids with high IQ also boast of superior EQ levels, which enable them to take charge of their emotions and relationships with the people around them?
IQ and EQ: What’s the difference?
IQ (also known as Intelligence Quotient) measures a person’s abilities in areas such as logical reasoning, word comprehension and math skills. People with high IQ are more likely to learn things faster and are able to make connections between ideas that others miss.
In today's day and age, when several million kilobytes of information is easily available to anyone with an internet connection, it has become important to develop a child’s fluid intelligence. Fluid intelligence is one's ability to reason and use the information available to arrive at creative solutions to existing problems. Fortunately, this important life-skill can be developed early on.
It is clear that children who possess a high IQ will have good ability to problem-solve. However, if the same child does not possess a high degree of EQ (emotional intelligence), her or might feel nervous, discouraged or even angry when they are faced with a tough problem. EQ is a measure of a person’s ability to perceive, control, evaluate and express their emotions.
Often, emotions can hijack the thinking part of your child’s brain. This is why many children do not perform as well in school as they should; they lack the ability to cope with many emotions, especially anxiety. Developing one's EQ skills leads to higher levels of self-esteem, improved social and communications skills, ability to control anger or anxiety and be able to practice delayed gratification, etc.
Despite the differences in IQ and EQ, experts in the fields of psychology and gifted education think that finding a balance between IQ and EQ will help children grow up to be well-rounded, successful adults. Psychologist Daniel Goleman suggests that there is a correlation between IQ and EQ, and that kids will not be able to unleash their intellectual potential without having a healthy emotional state of mind.
So what can we, as parents, do to help our kids strike a great balance between IQ and EQ?
You probably already know that a combination of good nutrition and plenty of stimulating playtime and exercise can go a long way to nurture your child’s IQ. On top of that, you can help them boost their EQ by teaching them to manage and recognise their emotions and form thriving relationships with their peers.
If you’re looking for a fun and structured way to help your child develop a great balance between IQ and EQ, you may want to check out the programme offered at People Impact.
Enrichment Centres
People Impact, a market leader in providing intelligence training to children for over ten years, recognises that the best way to nurture a smart and happy child is to fully develop his or her IQ and EQ. With this belief, People Impact® developed the “IQEQ programme” which aims to develop children’s whole brain and shape their personality through enhancing their self-esteem, communication skills, emotion management and other transferrable skills. All IQ and EQ programmes offered at People Impact use the ‘play-based’ learning methodology to make lesson time fun and engaging for children.
Under the programme, your child will also develop his or her verbal intelligence, time management, arithmetic and linguistics reasoning, creativity and critical thinking skills.
IQEQ Programme for kids
The award-winning IQEQ programme for kids at People Impact is an all-in-one personality and brain development programme that helps to enhance your child’s academic skills and shape him/her to be an all-rounded learner.
Through the programme, your kids will work on improving his/her self-esteem and communication skills, as well as to pick up important life skills such as how to keep their stress levels and emotions under control in various situations.
4+1 methodology
The IQEQ programme focuses on the “4+1” methodology (see image above) which comprises 4 Core Development Areas (CDA):
- Academic Intelligence
- Sensory and Motor Intelligence
- Metacognitive Intelligence
- Social and Personal Intelligence
Core Development Area Assessment
Under the IQEQ programme, the certified trainers from People Impact assess your kids and identify Core Development Areas (CDA). The CDAs will include the child’s strength, gaps or “hidden potential”.
With the CDAs, a specially designed learning programme will be recommended to help the child work on his/her strengths and abilities. The teaching team at People Impact believes that an IQEQ enrichment programme will only be effective if it is tailored to the specific needs of each child.
1-on-1 consultation sessions with parents
Through the IQEQ programme, People Impact strives to work closely with parents to help them develop their kids’ potential. Regular 1-on-1 consultation sessions with be conducted by the training experts at People Impact where they will share their observations of each child’s performance and behaviour during the programme.
The trainers will offer advice on what parents can do at home with their kids to help them work on their potential. Parents are also encouraged to share their concerns regarding their kids’ learning abilities, and the trainers will recommend tips and activities to improve on those areas.
Over the years, many parents have found that the People Impact's IQEQ programme has had a positive impact on their children:
“Kayden joined People Impact in 2013. At that time, his visual spatial skills were accessed with a score of 70. He showed no interest in visual games like lego or puzzles. Since then, People Impact has helped him to develop this particular skill. The IQEQ programme not only helped Kayden to improve in areas that he is weak in, it has also helped him enhance his strength. After only 16 months in the programme, we have seen a huge change in Kayden. He is able to control his emotion and visual spatial skills has improved from 70 percentile in 2013 to 99.8 percentile in April 2015. We, as Kayden’s parents are very grateful to People Impact.” - Ms. Linda Tay (mother of Kayden Chan)
“People Impact offers experiential learning and two way open feedback system (parents and teachers) which I find is the most effective program so far. Nathinee has been in the program for almost a year now and she always come out of class full of energy, joy and smile. Not only does the program provides her with a learning platform but also ability to enhance her skills outside of the classroom, as the teachers provide debrief and one on one with parents to highlight how and what areas to work on. She is now more confident in “shown and tell”, has developed value system via various activities and is highly motivated in what she does. Thanks People Impact!” - Mr. Thanadet, father of Nathinee Wangwanchot
Find out more about the People Impact Open House on the next page.
Want to know more about People Impact?
Here’s your chance to register your kids for a single session class and let them experience the fun and unique People Impact Programme.
For just S$15, children can experience a single session of People Impact’s regular classes at any of their five centres. Parents can also take this opportunity to understand more about the award winning IQEQ programme from the People Impact staff.
Seats are limited for these trial classes, so be sure to register via www.people-impact.com.sg
References:
https://psychology.about.com/od/intelligence/fl/IQ-or-EQ-Which-One-Is-More-Important.htm
https://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-the-difference-between-eq-and-iq.htm
https://www.examiner.com/article/gifted-101-is-eq-more-important-than-iq