Grandparents Help Develop Their Grandchildrens' Abilities

Grandparents are much more than just their grandchildrens' heroes. In fact, they often boost their grandchildrens' abilities by teaching them to develop their natural talents.

Written and verified by the psychologist Valeria Sabater.

Last update: 15 November, 2021

Grandparents help develop their grandchildrens’ abilities. In fact, according to recent research, they’re often exceptional agents in enhancing the creativity and intelligence of their young relatives. Grandparents usually possess endless patience, affection, and love. Furthermore, they can often act as a driving force in the progress of their grandchildren’s intellectual and neurological progress.

You usually really appreciate the great benefits of having grandparents close by when you raise your children. In fact, you only have to look back to your own childhood to remember how valuable your own were. To this day, you may well owe a part of who you are to your grandfather or grandmother who taught you so much. They left you the kind of knowledge that you don’t always find in books. Yet, it changed your life.

Nowadays, science supports something that, without a doubt, you knew already. The fact that older adults play a very influential role in the development of their grandchildren. Let’s take a closer look.

Ways in which grandparents help develop their grandchildrens’ abilities

By the time you become a grandparent, you’ve usually overcome many of your life stages and challenges. Indeed, when you take your child’s first baby in your arms, you’re no longer the same person you were twenty or thirty years ago. You’re usually calmer and more serene. Yet, at the same time, possessing a patient and positive outlook.

Grandparents are often active, dynamic, and passionate people who don’t hesitate to take an active role in the lives of their grandchildren. In fact, they often take on the tasks of caring for the little ones which prove to be highly enriching.

The University of Adventus (Romania) conducted a study that claimed the harmonious relationship between grandparents and grandchildren enhances the development of their emotional intelligence and creativity. These two are connected. However, emotional intelligence allows them to regulate their frustrations, raise their motivation and self-confidence levels so they can innovate, create, test, and experiment, etc.

It seems that we should certainly be more aware of the benefits of grandparents helping develop their grandchildrens’ abilities. Let’s take a look at the mechanisms that make it easier for them to achieve this extremely positive goal.

Active listening and presence

Grandparents know how to be present. Maybe it’s because they no longer have as many responsibilities as their children. It could also be because they’re not as interested in new technologies. Indeed, when they’re with their grandchildren, they’re not constantly checking screens for messages. In fact, they pay attention to their grandchildren with all five of their senses.

• They listen with patience and great interest. This has a powerful effect on their grandchildren. It makes them feel safe and improves their self-confidence.
• If the grandparents insist on how well they do this or that, the child may work even harder to make more progress. Perceiving themselves as cared for, listened to, and validated nourishes their self-esteem and self-efficacy.

They foster wonder

Wonder is the most sophisticated and powerful technique for learning. It induces you to discover things through emotion, surprise, and the ability to connect with things due to curiosity and enthusiasm… As a matter of fact, without wonder, there’s no emotional impact. Therefore, knowledge doesn’t become assimilated and integrated.

Grandparents know how to amaze their children. Furthermore, they guide them when it comes to knowing new things…

Education in perseverance and patience

Another key that explains why grandparents help develop the talents of their grandchildren is perseverance. Indeed, if there’s one thing that the older adult has learned, it’s that the most rewarding things take time and dedication.

There’s nobody like a grandparent to guide children in their daily life. They teach them patience, how to keep learning and progressing day by day, and how to maintain their dreams.

From the ordinary to the extraordinary

For a grandfather, their grandson is the most important person in the world. A grandson trusts his grandad. A grandad reinforces their security, their self-esteem, and their identity. He gives his grandson wings to explore and guides him along the way. In fact, to go from the ordinary to the extraordinary only requires knowing how to excite and encourage a child.

All these dimensions build the foundations of what we know as crystallized intelligence. This is acquired knowledge due to education, previous experience, and the modeling of behavior, etc.

Each of these elements makes talent, intelligence and creativity germinate. Indeed, there are surely few things that can be as enriching as growing up with your grandparents.