Gifted Children, How To Recognize Them?
It is a wonder that children have an innate disposition to knowledge and the development of talents, but how, as parents, can we know when we are dealing with gifted children, how can we recognize them?
At present the concept “gifted” begins to be replaced by children with “high capacity” because, beyond highlight their natural abilities for science, math, literature or the arts, above his companions, the idea tends to opt for nurturing the development of these capacities and putting them at the command of others.
The gifted child is a diamond that requires the attention, recognition and love of his parents. It is known that academic and life success is not infallible in children with these characteristics. On the contrary, there are examples of children with high capacities who, because they did not receive the correct orientation and stimulation and early attention for the development of their potentialities, were left on the margins of society or did not manage to shine as it was anticipated that they would.
Intelligence, that set of knowledge and attitude goes beyond the well-known mathematical and linguistic competences. Today there is talk of multiple intelligences, a thesis coined by Harvard University professor Howard Gardner in the 1980s.
If you consider that your child has any of these abilities and excels in academic tasks, you may have a gifted child. However, how to recognize them? There are particular characteristics, but there are a number of aspects that may well encompass their behavior.
Gifted children, how to recognize them?
Limitless imagination
They turn problems around, look at them from another perspective, and come up with imaginative and innovative solutions. Gifted children have limitless imaginations. They recreate adult games in detail and also create parallel worlds in which they immerse themselves to play for hours.
They study science, astronomy, and natural phenomena creatively and enjoy solving puzzles.
Tips: Reading, magic tricks, educational science and logic games are ideal to feed your imagination. Give your room a particular decoration, worthy of a mini-genius.
Cartesian doubt
Doubt precedes knowledge, it stimulates it, and gifted children question everything, they love to challenge authority with questions about the why of their actions or instructions. They question aspects that other children take for granted and always see reality with glasses tinged with a certain disbelief that allow them to detail everyday things from other perspectives. Parents and teachers are often exhausted with so many questions.
Tips: Do not censor his attitude and let him freely ask the questions he considered, this will help him to develop his own arguments and positions in the face of reality.
Speed of learning
Gifted children are easily bored by repetitive or very simple tasks. For this reason, they sometimes show poor school performance, despite showing interest – almost obsessive – in subjects as complex as history. This is because they have an innate ability to learn and what takes others hours to internalize, they quickly grasp and put into practice.
Tips: In the discipline or talent that stands out, give them challenges to face, a gifted child loves challenges and puts all of himself to achieve his goal.
Early Readers
If your child shows an interest in reading at an early age – 3 or 4 years old – you may be dealing with a genius kid. This is a characteristic that can clothe all gifted children, the love of reading and fictional stories, reasons of their unlimited imagination.
Tips: Give him books that contribute to his training, appropriate to his age and build a home library with him / her. Go to book fairs, bookstores together, and talk with the bookseller about new purchases. This stimulating world of letters will fill you with curiosity.
Great memory
I once knew a boy of barely three years old who knew the capitals of the world by heart. It was unbelievable! However, over time he was losing this ability. Children with outstanding intelligence tend to have great memories. However, this attribute like all the previous ones must be exercised and put into practice, otherwise, over time it will be lost.
Tips: Establish memorization games with your child that allow him to develop this skill.
Additional tips:
- The gifted child, like all children, requires a healthy and adequate environment so that their natural abilities can develop without hindrance.
- Remember to ask for help from specialists in education and psychology and consult groups and parents with children with similar characteristics.
- Avoid, in the same way, treating him exceptionally and keep in mind that his abilities will have a greater value if they are used to help others and act from kindness and humility.
- The “know-it-all” pose is never recommended.
- Support him and be aware of the bullying he may suffer.
