Human intelligence is largely determined by its genes. Children of families with a high IQ are very likely to have a high IQ as well. However there will always be the constant debate and known dispute: "nature vs. Nurture". It is important that even if we can not influence our own genes, we seek what we have inherited, to develop it further.
Human intelligence is already beginning to show in the neonatal and maybe even during intrauterine development. Since birth, we perceive our surroundings and gradually find relations between cause and effect. Learning to manipulate objects and to exploit the possibilities of their surroundings. Also, social intelligence is developed very early - even newborns recognize their loved ones and smile at people already since the second week of their life. Even such a complex phenomenon, as mother tongue, the child learns extremely quickly and without any systematic teaching. All these processes seem to be quite natural and automatic, however, if there's a lack of sufficient incentives in the environment, the development is influenced negatively.
Education and IQ
Education plays an important role in the development of human intelligence. The fact that parents talk with children and read to them, contributes to the improvement of verbal intelligence. People who were not in the first years of their life exposed to contact with other people (so-called "wolf children), are experiencing a lot of problems to learn human speech or other social habits.
Intelligence of every human being is a specific and individual skill, which is actually sometimes very unevenly distributed. Some intelligence components are more influenced by the environment - such as vocabulary and use of language. On the other side, solving of numerical or spatial tasks that you can see in IQ tests depend more on individual innate abilities.
It is therefore important to know the time in which we are good, and where not. Children should undergo an IQ test at primary school (or before entering it) so their parents can find out where their strengths lie and start helping their children develop as soon as possible. Younger school age is the most appropriate time for this, because children are in a rapid intelligence development and learn really fast.
Furthermore, IQ testing is also appropriate for high school students who are thinking about their future profession or university subjects. In the adult and old age there is a loss of neurons in the brain and changes in various components of intelligence. It is good to monitor these changes, or discuss with your doctor. Even dementia (fairly common disease in elderly patients manifesting some loss of intellectual abilities) can be mitigated in the early stages of training. Apart from the tests administered by psychologists in their offices, you can find an IQ test to measure your IQ on the internet as well.
Keep in mind that although intelligence is innate, it's also being developed in the course of life. We should take the responsibility for the state of our intelligence and try to learn and develop our strength areas - and remember to train also the less developed ones.
Jaro Podhradsky is a very savvy person in the area of IQ tests and intelligence, as it has been his favorite playground since his childhood. He's been constantly developing his intelligence through hundreds of IQ tests and you can find his own crafted IQ test at www.quickiqtest.net