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The Gifted Child
Is your child gifted? Find out. Also, read on for tips on raising a gifted child.
How do you know if your child is gifted? Genius often comes with irritability, carelessness and the like. So even though your child may be very talented, you may view him just as a regular, troublesome child. Here are some characteristics that every gifted child typically displays.
The gifted child is inordinately sensitive. He is acutely aware of not just his feelings, but also of your own. If you are upset or angry, he will sense it immediately. Also, if you say something to him in a slightly irritated tone, he will catch on to the irritation immediately, and feel wounded. He may show his displeasure by retreating into a shell or by rebelling.
His high level of sensitivity also makes him less emotionally stable than others. Gifted children often feel restless easily. This restlessness needs to be curtailed by providing your child with emotional security at home, as he is sensitive to undercurrents of hostility and will pick them up at once. Your child needs to see loving parents. Once he fully experiences this security his emotions will stabilize over time. If he doesn't experience security in his childhood, it is likely his restless nature will follow him into adulthood.
The restlessness is also caused by his tendency to get bored easily. Things are not often a challenge for the gifted child. Once such a child gets the hang of something, he gets bored with it and wants to try something new. Teach your gifted child the importance of focusing on a goal. Once he has started something, he should stick with it and see it through. Since he is gifted, if he focuses his energies on one goal without wavering, he is bound to succeed. So if you enroll him in tennis lessons, don't pull him out a few months later if you feel he is not showing interest. This may set a pattern for the rest of his life. Make sure he sticks with what he starts, and finishes it.
Just because your child does not do well at school does not mean that he is not intelligent. Many very intelligent children are just too lazy or too sure of themselves to bother about securing good grades at school.
A high IQ score is often a good indicator that your child is gifted, so if you feel your child is intelligent, restless, rebellious, displays excessive amounts of energy and also displays most of the characteristics listed above, you could perhaps take him for an IQ test. Once you see for yourself that your child has the ability to absorb a lot more than you are exposing him to, you can plan his activities accordingly.
Perhaps your child does not have an outstanding IQ but he displays an unusually strong talent for something. If such talent is not nurtured at the outset and if your child is forced to lay undue emphasis on other facilities, he may lose out on the opportunity to make the most of his talent and really brush it up to extraordinary proportions. So recognize your child's talents and encourage them without pushing him. You will be proud of him one day.
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