Helping Your Preschooler Thrive in a Fast-Paced World

Children today live in the high-speed lane, with jam-packed schedules and difficult lessons. These can place them under a huge amount of pressure and stress. As a result, they end up feeling overwhelmed and anxious, which can hinder proper growth and learning.

But let’s face it: there’s no stopping today’s fast-paced world. All we can do as parents is to help our children adapt to it and ensure they are equipped with the knowledge and skills to always stay one step ahead, while creating a healthy and supportive environment.

Here are some strategies to help your child navigate—and thrive—in today’s demanding, fast-forward culture.

1 Push your child to be—and stay—curious. Children are naturally curious, and sometimes, their questions make adults tongue-tied and flustered. But rather than shun curiosity, parents should celebrate and encourage it.

Supporting your child’s curiosity lets him develop critical skills that will help him do complex thinking and activities. You don’t even need to spend a lot just to help satisfy your child’s desire to learn about different things and how the world around him works. Talk to your child frequently and encourage him to ask questions, no matter how silly or far-fetched. Take the time to give him your full attention when he shares his thoughts with you and be patient and logical in answering his questions. Make time for reading—and offer a wide variety of books and e-books to read.

2 Make digital your partner. Your child is growing up in a digital world. Traditional media (television, radio, print) has now been supplemented by new media that allows children instant access to huge amounts of information. New digital technologies (smartphones, tablets, social apps) have also allowed children to search for, share, and even create their own content.

According to the article Children and Adolescents and Digital Media, personal interaction remains crucial during a child’s growing up years, even with the increase in digital educational tools. Instead of completely avoiding digital, use it in your daily activities with your child to increase engagement and learning. For example, you can play along to a counting game video with your child, instead of simply leaving him to watch the video on his own.

3 Let your child have some down time. While you want your child to learn and hone a variety of skills to help him get ahead in life, you also need to be wary of exhaustion, stress, and burnout. Kids need to clock off from scheduled activities to be able to process the information, knowledge, and skills that they learned throughout the day. Allow them to have their “down time,” which they can use for free play, relaxation, and quality time with family.

Down time is not just time for your child to rest; it also teaches him how to manage his time and feelings of boredom and think over solutions to their problems. This will help your child be more prepared to deal with challenges on his own as he gets older. Try spending one free weekend with your child and let him decide what activity to do for the day to teach him how to think independently and make his own decisions.

4 Invest in a healthy diet for your kids. A healthy child is well-equipped to face any challenge. One of the best ways to ensure that your child gets ahead and stays ahead of the pack and be fully equipped to face the huge demands of today’s super-charged and fast-paced world, is by providing him with proper nutrition.

The new PROMIL GOLD^® FOUR contains ALPHA-LIPIDS, which contains the five major phospholipids, including Sphingomyelin, a unique ingredient scientifically shown to help speed up brain connections up to 100 times faster through myelination. Myelination is a critical process wherein brain connections are insulated so that messages are transmitted more quickly and efficiently.

Phospholipids are integral parts of your brain’s cell membranes, as they help protect the brain’s neurotransmitters. These phospholipids, which are found in alpha-lipids in the new PROMIL GOLD^® FOUR, help support myelination. With faster and organized brain connections, your child becomes well-equipped to face a fast-paced, hard-charging environment.

A balanced diet supplemented with PROMIL​​​​​​​ GOLD^® FOUR, paired with a healthy, supportive, and relaxing environment, will help your child develop the skills he needs to adapt to and triumph over today’s challenges.