For peak performance, students should be nurtured carefully and healthily. This observation is very reasonable as very few sick students could attend school. Missing out on school work and learning are a great detriment to a child’s learning progress.

Dr. Ng has discovered that there are many less extreme cases where a child is not sick but the general well being is still very poor. These children are sent to go to school to learn but as their physical body is struggling with unease, do not expect them to perform well.

Therefore parents, educators and stakeholders should ensure that the student has adequate rest and nutrition. If parents can afford, it is encouraged that the student undergo medical examinations to find out if there is any lacking minerals or vitamins and whether supplements will help. It is a known fact that certain minerals are critical to a child’s proper development. Some parents felt that having fed the child good food, the child would be able to assimilate the good food. This is not the case as assimilation of the proper nutrients is depended on the child ability to absorb the food. There can be many reasons why a child is not able to absorb the proper nutrition. A medical doctor can be of great assistance in such cases.

Dr. Ng has also observed that in some young children, especially young boys, they seems to have accumulated a lot of mercury in their tiny bodies. A simple urine or a saliva test may be given to uncover such toxicity. The symptoms of small level of mercury poisoning can be similar to children suffering from autism spectrum disorders as well as other adverse neuro-developmental outcomes. It is best to remove these mercury as much as possible first.

Having ascertained that the child is physically well, it is strongly recommended to visit an optometrist before starting school. Many parents know the importance of taking their children to the dentists for regular check-up; but few know the importance of consulting the optometrist. As most learning in the school system requires the child to see the materials as the teacher explains the subject. Therefore the child must be able to see clearly and to track the teacher’s hand and mouth movements.

Likewise, if you suspect that your child is not able to distinguish similar sounding words properly, your child should be properly checked out by an audiologist. Having a good ear and extended hearing range is critical to language development and communication skill where intonation and nuances are part of the message. For example, to learn the Chinese language, students must be able to differentiate 4 tones such as 妈 (Mā), 麻 (Má), 马(Mǎ), 骂 (Mà) ; where each word although similar sounding albeit different intonation carries totally different meaning.  In some other languages, there are 8 intonations making such languages even more difficult for children with poor audio differentiation abilities.

The child should be able to move with rhythms and beat with the right timing. Both gross motor skills and fine motor skills should also be developed as the child matures. Crawling, walking, running, jumping, skipping, balancing, bending, turning upside down, cart-wheeling and more fun exercises should all have been taught to the child to lay the proper foundation of experiencing things in space, time and movement.