Early Stimulation
Studies of the effect of environmental stimulation on an individual 's development in either general or specific ability conclude that some specific stimulation should be introduced at an early age while a child is still malleable. An intense, persistent, and regular tutorial approach within the family encourages the development of a special talent or ability and develops learning sets useful in the future. A child must learn the specialized symbolic language of the area in which he is being trained, such as in music or mathematics. Studies have shown that persons who excel in one field may show very little competence in others. General ability is present but concentration in the symbolic language and work production in one specific area is reflected in less learning in other areas. Similarly, if a family or school environment encourages young children to respond to certain stimulation which directs their energies and time in a particular way, these same children may do less well on IQ tests measuring general ability but very well on tests of specific abilities. How much training in certain symbolic languages and concepts is transferred to general cognitive functioning is as yet unknown. Environmental stimulation is a means of developing the greatest potential abilities in any individual.
Ex. A true situation from Don Buhrmeister I made the decision to err on the side of safety. I figured that if there was even a slight chance that my son could learn early on, I would give him the benefit of the doubt. What did I have to lose? In all the research that I did, never once did I come across someone saying that it would do harm to my child to start teaching him too early.
As a child, all of his toys and games were bought with cognitive development in mind. All the toys we got for him were educational toys that were geared toward developing his mind, whether it was to develop his hand-eye coordination, depth perception