Surely this sort of testing is done for private schools (who gain funding based on the quality of their students and their performance), specialized academic training programs (camps and extracurricular programs targeting children who show high proficiency for learning, who struggle to learn, children with specific learning disabilities, special ed, and children seeking fun during the summer time), or some countries who place high importance on the quality of education (Japan for instance).
Then of course there are scientific groups who test large groups of children over decades for their own purposes, and later release that information in Case Studies or make their findings available to various sources in the world of academia. It is likely that data like this has been religiously collected since the early 1900’s. Have you put any time into searching for such information?
- The group who shows a natural interest in Go will have a genuine relationship with the hobby, based on interest or passion. I don’t think their general IQ will be affected any differently than any other group though. Unless you are trying to draw a correlation between how IQ is more strongly affected when somebody focuses and cares about an activity, versus when they aren’t focused because they do not care. Showcasing the benefits of practice versus deliberate practice.
The more closely you pay attention, the greater your returns. 30 minutes of deliberate practice on a musical instrument, each day, will yield far greater results in one year than 2 to 6 hours of practice a day. This principle seems universal. I doubt Go is the exception to this law of learning.
- The second group, who is motivated for prizes but is not actually interested or passionate about Go, is still taking part because they want to. They are likely to be the more competitive group, since winning is all they care about. Their relationship with Go may be healthy or unhealthy, but it is likely that they take the game even more seriously than those who have a genuine interest.
I say this because genuine interest, like mine in Go, leads to an exploration of the hobby. The person is likely to wander from topic to topic, as their heart desires and their personal interests dictate. I, for example, have taken a particular interest in the rules and history of Go. I enjoy teaching new players and talking about Go as much as I enjoy playing the game. I go from interest to interest, within the sphere of Go, and am quite happy to do so. I am exploring and it is a natural process, that has evolved organically.
But those who come to win, those who have a singular focus and purpose, are likely to excel much faster. Because they have no interest in Go itself. Go is merely a means to an end. The vehicle that will take then where they wish to go on a path that must be traveled to reach their goal. Sounds like this group is far more likely to practice deliberately. It makes sense, that if their motivation is true, this group will have the highest general IQ increase, as a result of pursuing Go.
- This group sounds like kids in Korea and China, less so in Japan, that forgo a standard education in school and instead attend Go school from an early age. Surely there have been studies related to this group of students, considering how common this practice is in these countries. I’m sure there are folks who have questioned if these individuals are being robbed of a bright future because their parents wanted to raise professional Go players instead. Have you tried looking into this at all?
- As I mentioned in my response to your first quote in this post, private schools and science and case studies are already available that have this information. You just need to look for it.
There was a smaller study that tested ADHD children using Go? Is this something you’ve heard about or did you read it? If you read it, do you know if it was recent? I’d like to try and track this down myself. It sounds very interesting 
Learning, researching, and teaching are my passions in life. I homeschool six children and they are all different ages. I have such a passion for this and I have yet to meet a student that I could not reach. Based on your description, I cannot discern exactly what your personal situation is, relating to Go and students. Could you please tell me more? I am very interested in your story.
I began teaching three of my own children Go recently. I have one child I figured would be interested in Go naturally, because he enjoys abstract games. I figured that my other two children would be more of a challenge, based on their personalities and likes/dislikes in life so far; and things did turn out that way.
The key point in teaching anybody anything, is first gaining their interest. If you can show them why something is worth their time, their interest, and cultivate a desire within them to experience and pursue something, then they will become self led. The key to this is passion. For individuals particularly adverse to something, you must find a way to make this thing (like Go) appeal to them.
You cannot teach someone who believes they already know something. Because their mind will be closed to the possibility of learning more or learning something new. And to the same effect, a person will be unable to make a genuine connection with a hobby if they have already made up their mind that the hobby is not for them. They have preconceptions, personal bias, and opinions.
It is your job to find a way to shatter their notions and open the floodgates of possibility. Effective teaching can do this. Though to be effective, you must first know your audience. With my own children, since I know my audience, getting them interested in Go was possible. It wasn’t too hard either. My 14 son had the mindset that other activities were worth his time more. But he can be competitive. So I made sure to engage my interested son in a family area regularly, speaking of the competition and having a loud and fun time.
It was only a matter of time before he gave it a shot. That was my “foot in the door”, my chance to take a shot at changing his mind, and I watched him closely. Whatever he showed the slightest interest in, whatever he reacted well too, I made sure our games highlighted that. I made sure his games included moments like that. I engineered the situation and a natural interest sparked.
Now he can’t put Go down and loves playing in Tournaments on this site as often as he can. I created a Tournament group here on OGS so that he has access to endless competition. He is a very happy convert, with genuine passion. My other son is 9 and he isn’t competitive at all. After four months he is still 25k and struggles to grasp how to play well at Go. In the beginning I tried to teach him what I was learning, but he just didn’t have the interest yet. On top of that, he was afraid of losing. And just like my 14 year old, there were other things that he wanted to do more.
For him, he didn’t enjoy playing the family that much. He took his losses hard and it affected his self esteem. I wasn’t sure how to handle this, as loss is a big part of Go. I myself struggled with Go affecting my self esteem, as I was struggling to win more than he was. Since I was still learning Go and my knowledge of Go was extremely shallow, I backed off and stopped inviting him to games. I chose to watch him instead and gave him his space.
Over the next two months he watched the three of us playing matches together. Unlike my 14 year old, this made him feel isolated from the group in a way that led to to further distance himself from Go. He would play a game here and there, but again he was taking the losses to heart to such a degree. It frustrates me now, looking back, that I didn’t realize how much losing affected him during that entire time.
I too had struggled with losing, although I had started to seek knowledge on how to progress. I searched forums and kept a look out for advice. I researched losing itself, looking for how to see it in a positive light. And when my relationship with losing had changed, I was able to sit down with him and began coaching him about his losses. Talked to him about how losing didn’t matter. Coached him a little bit on his games and mistakes he was making.
And this is when things turned around. He became okay with losing, understanding that he was learning each time that he lost. It stopped being a negative for him and he quit caring about his rank. I continued to coach him on losing and the more that I did this, the more open minded and interested he became towards Go. I got him started in the forum here and he began seeing different facets of Go culture.
It was becoming more than a game you simply played. There were other aspects of Go that were interesting too. Simply being exposed to different conversations here on the forum was a step forward. Now he understood more of what was possible. He started enjoying Tsumego, began joining tournaments in our group, took a couple new players under his wing for basic teaching and socializing about Go, and began taking part in our ongoing family conversations about Go. Slowly his knowledge of Go accumulated and as a result his interest grew. Now his interest in Go has became genuine. And the block for him was his relationship with losing, not the game of Go itself.
Go is now an activity and a hobby that we all share and partake of with each other. Each person has struggled in their own ways to find a way to make the hobby their own. Each person has found different aspects of Go that they enjoy and all of us are approaching the hobby from a unique perspective. We share camaraderie together and have recently expanded into watching Hikaru No Go and reading 81 Little Lions. The boys want to build our own Go board at home and that is an ongoing project now.
Many children respond wonderfully to the social aspect that Go can provide, if you can but show it to them. Children also have interests in different areas of information. If the game itself is not interesting enough to draw them in, perhaps there are other angles of the hobby which will interest them. I cannot stress enough how your own energy, interest, excitement, and relationship with the game will color your explanation of Go, when teaching others. If you want to interest children in the hobby, you need to have a good pitch. You need to be prepared and you need to be ready.
Many people simply cannot comprehend the possibilities that you see, cannot understand what is possible. You must show them. Just about every person needs to be sold on why they should consider giving up their precious free time and attention in pursuit of any hobby or new experience. You could be holding the worlds greatest food, toy, experience, book, vacation, etc… in your hands and all you need to do is tell people about it. Only to find that nobody cares because nobody understands why they should care or why it is important. As teachers it is our job to sell people on the benefits of learning. The how’s and why’s matter.
Concerning prizes, the size of the prize doesn’t matter. Knowing your audience and creating effective incentives does. For example, look at a business like a Carnival or Chucky Cheeses. Places where you spend money and are slowly rewarded tickets, which can be exchanged for cheap stuffed animals and cheap little toys that usually cost $0.25 to $1.00 each.
Kids see the prizes and see a game and they go wild. The very idea of winning a prize is exciting, even if the prize is trivial. You don’t need a trip to Disneyland to be effective. You need to be creative in coming up with prizes and solutions you can regularly offer to them. In my home I limit electronics usage, exchanging access for hard work and for showing responsibility.
When I can, I offer my free time and share special activities with them. When I was potty training, I offered ice cream and little candies. When I need physical labor done, depending on the size of the job, I have enticed them with comic books, movies, a pizza party, playing other board games of their choosing, Jeopardy with food rewards for correct answers, one on one time with me when I run errands, and whatever else I thought might interest them personally.
The value of something is always determined by the eye of the beholder. For something to be special, one merely must believe that it is special. Based on the examples of what you are offering as prizes to the children, or theoretically asking them what they would prefer as prizes, I think you are simply aiming too high.
Try to lower the bar, offer things you can provide for free or with very little financial investment. Rather than asking the kids what they want, thinking up a bunch of ideas that you can deliver. Then start trying different things out. Over time you will find options that children enjoy; things that work and that you can deliver without breaking the bank or getting parental consent forms for.
Can you tell me more about how you are approaching your students or the children in question, when attempting to get them involved with Go?
I agree completely. General Intelligence does raise the more that people gain experience and receive education. We are all blank slates when we are born. We all have a natural ability to survive and to adapt. However, those can be exponentially boosted through experience, knowledge, targeted training, and deliberate practice.
When you say that you are focused on average players, what exactly are you hoping to discover? A direct correlation between the usage of Go and a raise in general IQ? Or that Go can somehow facilitate greater general success in life (like learning a disciplined martial art)? If so, and you were able to prove this somehow, what would you do with that information? That is, how does knowing this affect you? Is it just a personal curiosity or? I’m very curious 
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I am a word nerd and this made me swoon. Well said ckersch88 
I think you make a very good assessment here. And I agree wholeheartedly. By the way, what does TPK stand for?