You can't "raise" a baby to be a genius; IQ and giftedness are innate and cannot be acquired. However, your baby's talents can certainly be suppressed or fail to emerge fully if you don't provide an adequate environment for creativity and learning. Furthermore, even a child who is not a "genius" per se can be quite brilliant given the right tools. The task at hand is not really raising a genius baby, but rather, ensuring that your child is able to live up to his or her full intellectual and creative potential.

Helping Your Child Reach Maximum Potential

As somebody who was identified as highly gifted as a small child, I can tell you that a key element is the age at which your child learns to read, and the amount that your child reads during her formative years. True, not every baby will be able to read at age two; the child's intellect itself will allow her to develop this skill early. However, anychild will benefit intellectually if he reads early and reads often. Children develop their language skills at an early age, and the more you expose your child to proper grammar and language construction, the more likely it will be that your child will develop similarly proper language skills. Read aloud with your child, but also encourage your child to read silently during leisure time. Television is fine in reasonable quantities, but don't let it be a substitute for books. Make reading fun: Your child doesn't have to read encyclopedias to benefit from the written word. Expose her to classic unabridged fiction and in addition to newer children's books. Let her run free in a library or a bookstore. When I was in first and second grade some of my favorite books included Black Beauty, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, The Little Princess, The Secret Garden, and The Swiss Family Robinson. I also liked Nancy Drew novels and more recent young adult series like Encyclopedia Brown, The Babysitter's Club, and Sweet Valley Twins/High. As long as the book is of decent quality and substance, your child will benefit from reading it (but if your kids are reading only modern young-adult series, you should definitely supplement these books with some of the classics - and don't settle for abridged or simplified versions).

As for math, start your child off early with these skills as well. Incorporate math into your everyday life. Encourage your child to work problems out in her head and on paper; don't let her rely on a calculator before she is able to do the calculations herself. Make sure she understands the concepts behind the problems. Do the same for science.

Also, certain things should be obvious - make sure your child has adequate nutrition and exercises regularly. Don't let your children have too much processed sugar, which impairs cognitive functioning, and keep them away from trans fats (hydrogenated oils), which are just plain bad. If you've ever noticed that certain foods make you "zone out" a little bit while others keep you focused and energized, imagine the increased impact on a tiny developing body. Making the right food choices can mean all the world for your child.

What next?

So you've got a baby genius on your hands. What do you do now? The most important thing is to nurture your child's talents and provide challenges and outlets for creativity.

A high IQ is a nice thing to have (it makes for good small talk and can get your child into Mensa), but it means nothing without the proper education. If your child is gifted, don't take it for granted that he or she will automatically be academically successful. Academic success takes effort, regardless of skill and talent. Some people do have more innate intelligence than others, but it doesn't do anyone any good if it's wasted on mindless busy-work. Make the school system work for you. Make sure that your child's school offers some sort of challenge to your child, and if it doesn't, then provide the challenges yourself! If you can get your child involved with a program like Gifted And Talented Education (GATE), do it, but don't think that it is sufficient. An intelligent child needs all the challenges she can get; you can never learn too much. Buy some workbooks at a local education store or online, and use them as supplements to your child's curriculum - because odds are if your child is in a US public school, she is not learning what she needs to learn to be successful intellectually. Don't go overboard, but if your kid comes home with a word search, don't hesitate to add one or two pages of math to that. It's not too much. Still, keep in mind that there is such a thing as "too much" - don't make your child's entire life about academics. Well-developed children must be allowed to be children and not just students!