How Knowing Our DNA Can Create Better Parent-Child Relationships

Successfully raising a child and having a great relationship at the same time is becoming more challenging. Parents are finding their credibility and power dropping as the Internet takes more powerful roles in our children’s lives. The old rules aren’t working, and the new ones are confusing.

There is a new technology breakthrough that can dramatically improve the parent-child dialogue. It is our ability to identify “good” genes that contribute to a child’s behavior, personality, athletic ability, learning, sexual behavior, weight control, and creative expression. This new scientific information helps parents identify their child’s natural potentials. This knowledge provides insight into the things that a child might naturally be good at, and what they may have to work harder at to be good at.

The product is called MyGene DaVinci. It tags over 100 different genetic markers for 50 different everyday life areas. How can this information change your life, and how you relate to your children? Let me share two examples.

Do you know any children who had trouble learning to read? I do, including my two sons, who are now adults. If you’re familiar with what happens to those children, you can predict that their self esteem took some major blows. More than once their peers and even their teachers said – or had the thought – that they were dumb. What a terrific message for a child! And can you imagine the frustration my wife and I felt. Should we go over to the school and tell the teachers that they’re not doing their job? After all, my kids aren’t stupid. Yep, we actually had to have the older one tested to make sure he had the brain power. And naturally he scored really well. Do we ride herd over the boys, forcing them to sit down and read, read, read no matter what. Making it a form of punishment! How effective will that be? And doesn’t that make the situation worse? Of course!

Last year, however, some researchers in England measured reading levels in 6,000 children in the six to nine year old age group. They discovered that some of those children had a unique version of one particular gene, and those same children had greater difficulty in learning to read. More important, they found that this gene – that impaired reading skills – did not have any impact on intelligence. In other words, a smart kid with this gene has trouble learning to read. But is still smart. If I had been armed with this information, I could have gone over to the school and had a useful discussion with the teacher. Without blaming either the teacher, the school or my sons. Instead, I would have shown them that this genetic impact is creates a learning challenge that is no different than anything else, like needing glasses to see the board. It would have translated into better, more appropriate strategies to make learning to read a win-win.

Another example of genetic contributions to everyday life was discovered by Israeli researchers who studied serious dancers, high-end athletes and college couch potatoes. The dancers danced at least 10 hours a week, and the athletes were high performers. The researchers found that the dancers possessed a different genetic makeup in two different genes than both the athletes and the couch potatoes, who were the same for those two genes. The authors concluded that the two genes seemed to relate to the creative side of athletic excellence, which dancers manifest.
How can this be useful? Well I’m affiliated with a performing arts school that teaches dance. Naturally, not everyone has equal ability, either physically or mentally. The key starting point is: does the child enjoy dance? Does the child enjoy learning to dance? Because if the answer is yes, then the genetic profile can help set the child’s (and the parents’) expectations. If she has the dance genes, it may be easier for her to learn and to excel. If she doesn’t have the dance genes, she can still learn and excel. But it may take a bit more time and/or work. The key is that she needn’t become depressed because it takes her longer. Nor should the more gifted one be allowed to gloat.

Having a gift is a blessing. Knowing your child has a gift empowers both of you to build on strengths, and work on weaknesses. This is what MyGene DaVinci is all about. It can help parents get a better handle on what their children might naturally be good at. MyGene DaVinci can parents attain a deeper, more meaningful and understanding relationship with their children. Whether its weight loss, athletics or other important life areas, if you want your child to perform their best, be their best, and have more control over their life, MyGene DaVinci can make a positive difference.

I have a weekly radio broadcast that discusses how GOOD genes can empower each of us. You can find it each Monday evening at 7:30 pm EST at www.blogtalkradio.com/GoodGenes.
Fredric Abramson