Just today in the New York Times there was an opinion piece by Paul Tough entitled, To Help Children, Coach Their Parents, about research on young children who were at high risk for developmental and behavioral problems in Jamaica. 

What did they coach the parents to do? Promote more educational activities? Nope. 

Use techniques to help children improve their behavior? Guess again. 

Play more? Yes! 

Parents in one arm of the research study were coached to spend time enjoying being with their child in a fun and interactive way with long term positive impacts on I.Q., less aggressive behavior and better self control.