How to bring out the potential of gifted children
A child is considered to be the gift of god. It is on parents to shape them into brilliant human beings. But in some cases, the child himself is immensely gifted and such unusually strong talent demands more from parents. In this article let's learn more about parenting a gifted child.
How to parent a gifted child
Parents love their children unconditionally. They raise them, nurture them and do everything possible for their children. Answering child's curiosity is one of the task which parents have to handle daily. Kids need to explore themselves and their curiosity need to be attended and answered. It may look like a demanding task but parents need to do that. We see many parents complaining about this issue. What one needs to do is consider those parents who have to do such task for their gifted children. This task of answering and satisfying their gifted child's curiosity may be far too challenging than other parents. Raising or parenting a gifted child can be far more demanding task for parents. Such kids have unusual curiosity and heightened intensity which may become complex issues for parents. What is a gifted child
Gifted child is a term referred to a particular child who has outstanding abilities and is capable enough of high performances. Now these outstanding abilities may refer to anything from outstanding academic performance, intellectual ability, exceptional talent in arts or music, over the top creativity or even athletic skills. Such kids exhibit high concentration levels and amazing memory power. Characteristics of gifted child
Gifted child has various characteristics which may or may not be common in every child, but one or the other out of the following can definitely be recognized. Here are few of the characteristics mostly found in a gifted child:
- High level of curiosity
- Always full of questions
- Amazing vocabulary
- Confident in expressing thoughts
- Good memory
- Unique way of solving problems
- Very observant
- Restless
- Fast learners
- Creative
- Enjoy performing challenging task
- Good Readers
Let's discuss about various ways on how to parent a gifted child.Recognize your child's talent
Parents need to recognize their child's talent and potential. If a parent finds any of the above characteristics in their child, they can be sure that the child is gifted. Such children appear completely different than the rest of the kids of their age. Those children have some unbelievable potential which parents can help develop further. Its parent's duty to see that such potential of their gifted child doesn't get wasted. Parents can take the initiative of enriching their child's potential by careful observation and thus exploring their child to greater heights. This can be done only by careful observation. If a particular child solves his sums easily in Maths, then the parent should explore him to more complicated Math problems or those of higher level problems other than allowing the kid to continue with the same easy problems. This way the child gets to explore his abilities and he /she is introduced to more challenging tasks, which could get interesting for them.Learn to deal with your kid's never ending question series
Parents do answer their kid's questions and doubts, but when the doubts and questions look like a never ending series, parents either refuse to answer or ignore their child's questions. In any of these situations, children often wait for answers as they aren't satisfied. But when they don't get any response from the parents, kids often get discouraged. Hence parents need to learn to deal with the never ending questions of their kids. It may seem to be a tedious task but still they should learn to handle their gifted kids in such a way, that the kids are at least happy with the fact that their parents are making an effort to answer the question other than rejecting them. Parents may find it difficult to answer kids every now and then. Parents may try postponing the answer or help kids look out for the answers with the help of various sources like internet or books. Few questions may seem to be unanswerable and parents should hesitate in informing the kids that they really don't know the answer. In such cases parents may actively involve with the kids to find answers for the questions that they don't know.Establish inner strengths of kids
A gifted child may still need to establish their inner strength and here parents can play a major role. Kids really don't understand whether they are gifted or not and hence end up in confusions. They wonder why they perform well or in a different manner other than their class mates and hence end up in confusion. The parents have to play a special part and help them to understand what is about the kids that make them special. Children need to be explained about how they can nurture their talents and how they can further establish their inner strength.An IQ test may help
An IQ test helps in many cases. Parents can help their kids undergo an IQ test which allows understanding the Intelligent Quotient of a child. Such tests are conducted in many Health care facilities and Child care institutions. An IQ test helps identify the kid's actual potential and thus helps to enhance your kid's potential. IQ test also helps to measure a child's brain power and cognitive ability. A high IQ score indicates that your child is immensely gifted and thus parents can think further about how they can help the child with that. There is no exact age described for taking an IQ test, but kids above 3 years of age can definitely undergo an IQ test.Give kids their own sweet time
Parents are known to push their child too hard, once they recognize their unusual talent. It is wrong on the parent's part to behave in such a manner. Kids need to be encouraged but not pushed. A child needs his own sweet time to establish his talents and to enhance them further. Parents should not force the kids to exhibit their talents every often which may exhaust the kid and push him away.Encourage your kid's talents
Even though a child scores fairly in IQ test, not exceptionally enough but fairly; yet that may not be the end of the road. Try and find out the hidden talents of your child and nurture them. Encourage the child to identify his hidden talents and develop them. This talent may relate to anything from artistic talent in field of arts, music or anything else. If such strong talent which is yet to be recognized is left hidden and not nurtured, then your child may be forced to lay down even though he could have possibly done better the other way. Hence it is very important to encourage your kid's talent and to enhance it further.Top 5 tips for parents with a gifted child
Here are top 5 tips for parents about raising a gifted child:
1. Help the gifted kids to learn handful use of a library.
2. Explore your kid to various activities which they particularly enjoy and are interested. For example solving problems, gardening, painting, music, dancing etc.
3. A gifted child may get tired of the usual or latest toys quickly. Hence parents should prefer buying or gifting some challenging toys to such kids which may seem interesting to them. For example Construction set, Robot making set.
4. Accept your gifted child the way he is and love him unconditionally.
5. Though your child is gifted, still don't forget that a gifted child of an age group 4 – 9 is very young and hence he/she needs proper guidance and supervision from their parents.
Parenting itself is a challenging task, whereas parenting a gifted child is much more challenging. Yet, all of us can make it extremely enjoyable with these simple tips, thus making your kid one in millions.