Myths and Facts About Gifted Children

Gifted children have unique abilities. Their needs, strengths and weaknesses are different from normal children. Gifted children are quite often misunderstood by people due to prevalent myths about them. Get to know more about the myths and facts about gifted children. Gifted children have unique abilities like excellent memory, language ability or attention span. Such children often have exceptional imagination and curiosity. They have a special interest and ability in fields like music or the arts. However just like normal children these kids too have widely different needs, strengths, and weaknesses. They normally find it difficult to adjust in a group and engage in activities which their peers find interesting. Unless intellectually challenged gifted children get bored very easily in a typical classroom. Hence they are misunderstood by their own teachers and classmates. In this articleMyths About Gifted ChildrenReal Facts About Gifted Children Gifted Children - Facts and Myths Here are some common myths and facts about gifted children. Myths About Gifted Children Gifted kids have the ability to do everything that they want to. Once they make up their minds they can do just about anything that they desire.Gifted children have exceptional skills and abilities. Hence they do not need any extra time or attention of their parents. Gifted children are always toppers in their class- they do not need to work as hard as their peers for getting good grades.Gifted children do not need any help with their school studies. Being born intelligent they have the ability to cope with the school curriculum on their own. Real Facts About Gifted Children Gifted children normally aim for total perfection in whatever they do. This often leads to fear of not doing well and interfering with their academic achievements. Although gifted children are far more intellectually developed as compared to their peers they may lag behind in social and emotional development. Gifted children are far superior in terms of their intellectual ability and well versed with their school curriculum even before the school starts. The school does not excite gifted children and they get bored easily. Boredom is said to be one of the prime reasons for gifted children getting low grades in school. Gifted kids who do well in school find it difficult to accept failure. Gifted children continuously aim for perfection and achieve to be toppers. Winning becomes an obsession with such children. By the time they reach adolescence such children become reluctant to try out anything where they are not certain of guaranteed success. Gifted children prefer playing it safe and undertake tasks which they can do with perfection again and again. Gifted children need not necessarily go through school with their own age mates. Although, it is essential that the gifted child interact socially with children of her own age group she need not learn with them. There are gifted children who may have a chronological age of seven and a mental age of 12. Such a child may have started reading and learning from the time she turned two. It would be unfair to put such a child in elementary reading class with other seven year olds. Such a child needs to learn with older children engaged in advanced studies. Raising a gifted child is by no means an easy task. Such children require parents who are open, encouraging and flexible in their thinking and ideas. Gifted children find it difficult to fit into social groups comprising of children of the same age. Hence their parents must accept this fact and not force the child to fit in. In the majority of cases the child may have already got hints about her being a misfit from her classmates, friends and other acquaintances. Gifted children must be aware that their parents are proud of their uniqueness and love them for what they are.

Gifted children have unique abilities. Their needs, strengths and weaknesses are different from normal children. Gifted children are quite often misunderstood by people due to prevalent myths about them. Get to know more about the myths and facts about gifted children.

Gifted children have unique abilities like excellent memory, language ability or attention span. Such children often have exceptional imagination and curiosity. They have a special interest and ability in fields like music or the arts. However just like normal children these kids too have widely different needs, strengths, and weaknesses. They normally find it difficult to adjust in a group and engage in activities which their peers find interesting. Unless intellectually challenged gifted children get bored very easily in a typical classroom. Hence they are misunderstood by their own teachers and classmates.

Gifted Children - Facts and Myths

Here are some common myths and facts about gifted children.

Myths About Gifted Children

1. Gifted kids have the ability to do everything that they want to. Once they make up their minds they can do just about anything that they desire.
2. Gifted children have exceptional skills and abilities. Hence they do not need any extra time or attention of their parents.
3. Gifted children are always toppers in their class- they do not need to work as hard as their peers for getting good grades.
4. Gifted children do not need any help with their school studies. Being born intelligent they have the ability to cope with the school curriculum on their own.

Real Facts About Gifted Children

1. Gifted children normally aim for total perfection in whatever they do. This often leads to fear of not doing well and interfering with their academic achievements.

2. Although gifted children are far more intellectually developed as compared to their peers they may lag behind in social and emotional development.

3. Gifted children are far superior in terms of their intellectual ability and well versed with their school curriculum even before the school starts.

4. The school does not excite gifted children and they get bored easily. Boredom is said to be one of the prime reasons for gifted children getting low grades in school.

5. Gifted kids who do well in school find it difficult to accept failure.

6. Gifted children continuously aim for perfection and achieve to be toppers. Winning becomes an obsession with such children.

7. By the time they reach adolescence such children become reluctant to try out anything where they are not certain of guaranteed success.

8. Gifted children prefer playing it safe and undertake tasks which they can do with perfection again and again.

9. Gifted children need not necessarily go through school with their own age mates. Although, it is essential that the gifted child interact socially with children of her own age group she need not learn with them.

There are gifted children who may have a chronological age of seven and a mental age of 12. Such a child may have started reading and learning from the time she turned two. It would be unfair to put such a child in elementary reading class with other seven year olds. Such a child needs to learn with older children engaged in advanced studies.

Raising a gifted child is by no means an easy task. Such children require parents who are open, encouraging and flexible in their thinking and ideas. Gifted children find it difficult to fit into social groups comprising of children of the same age. Hence their parents must accept this fact and not force the child to fit in. In the majority of cases the child may have already got hints about her being a misfit from her classmates, friends and other acquaintances. Gifted children must be aware that their parents are proud of their uniqueness and love them for what they are.