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How to identify a gifted child

Giftedness is the result of a complex interaction of heredity, upbringing and self-development. In 50% of cases, the special abilities of the child are manifested by the age of 5–6 and are fully revealed by 8.

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To date, there is no single method that would allow you to accurately determine whether a child is gifted or not. As a rule, a complex of different tests is used. For example, the Stanford Achievement Test is used to assess the level of intellectual development, and the Torrens test is used to identify creative inclinations.

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At home, a child's giftedness can be revealed only by observing how he spends time and what topics make him fire in his eyes, as well as helping him find himself in various activities.

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Here are some factors that can indicate a child's giftedness. These criteria are not mandatory, but may appear from time to time:

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• Early development. Gifted children often learn to speak, read and write before others.
• Good concentration and memory. If a child easily memorizes poems, lyrics and facts of interest to him, he may be gifted.
• Developed speech. The vocabulary of gifted children, as a rule, is wider than that of their peers. They easily introduce new words into the lexicon and use them skillfully.
• Mobile thinking. Gifted children learn hypothetical and abstract thinking early. They tend to improve games and find tricky ways to solve problems.
• Rich fantasy. By the way and what a child plays, one can also judge his giftedness. Talented children tend to invent entire worlds, plots with unbanal twists and selflessly transform into characters of their fantasies.
• Cognitive interest. Gifted children may be interested in deeper topics than their peers. If a child shows interest in a particular topic or activity for a long time and persistently, is not satisfied with simple answers and longs to get to the bottom of it, this may be a sign of talent.

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Identification of giftedness in a child should not be an end in itself, but it can help to reveal the child's potential. To do this, you need to encourage his hobbies, even if they do not seem to be something worthwhile. A child who loves to invent non-existent words may become an outstanding linguist in the future, and a young lover of drawing patterns in school notebooks has a chance to grow up to be a popular designer.

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The world always makes higher demands on those who are not up to standard. The society reacts actively: competitions, olympiads, expectations of relatives and teachers, envy of peers. Failure and competition create tension that makes it difficult to focus. Therefore, it is important for gifted children to seek psychological counseling - to anticipate problems so as not to solve them later.

Elena Petrusenko, psychologist at Foxford Home School

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Schools for Gifted Children

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Gifted children need a special approach based on several principles:

• Reliance on motivation. Learning should nurture the child's innate cognitive interest.
• Freedom of choice. The school should give students the right to receive knowledge, and not force them to study what they do not like.
• Individualization. The child should be able to devote more time to subjects that interest him.
• Respect for independence. It is important for gifted children to find answers themselves, “chewing” the material kills the motivation to learn.
• Freedom of expression. Gifted kids have their own point of view on almost everything. It is important that they can express it without problems.
• Project activities. Designing projects that involve children's different abilities develops them and awakens their interest.
• Group work. Many gifted children are introverts and individualists. Working in small groups allows them to develop communication skills.
• Tolerance. Some gifted kids find it hard to follow school rules, especially if they don't see the point in them. Teachers should treat their peculiarities with understanding.
• Teacher training. Teachers should know how to work with gifted children. Teachers are required to have sensitivity, developed empathy, a broad outlook, and a creative outlook.

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There are few schools in Russia that meet these conditions. Most are located in major cities. Here are the most famous of them:

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• Boarding school of Moscow State University M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow)
• Higher School of Economics Lyceum (Moscow)
• Intellectual Boarding School (Moscow)
• Letovo School (Moscow)
• Sirius Educational Center (Sochi)
• N.N. Dubinin (Vladivostok)
• Governor's Svetlensky Lyceum (Tomsk)

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One of the options for educating young talents is family education. Parents can choose the right program for their child and create comfortable conditions for classes. Family education allows you to devote more time to additional activities, combine studies with tours, sports competitions, or complete the program faster than peers.

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Tips for parents of gifted children

Together with psychologist Elena Petrusenko, we have prepared some tips for raising gifted children.

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Advice 1. Contact a specialist

If you notice that your child is showing unusual abilities, contact a specialist. A psychologist will help determine the type of giftedness, and a tutor will help you choose a suitable development program.

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Tip 2. Try different things

Develop your child's talents by attending clubs and sections. There he will not only be able to learn more about his favorite business, but also meet like-minded people.

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Advice 3. Don't push

It happens that a child does not want to do what he has a predisposition to. For example, having absolute pitch, he hates to sing and loves hockey. He has a right to it.

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You should not demand unconditional success from a child in everything he does. This leads to the development of an excellent student syndrome, which can have sad consequences.

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Tip 4: Praise but don't overpraise

No matter how impressive the ability, you should not constantly emphasize the exclusivity of the child. Belief in his own superiority is unlikely to help him join any team. And if, with age, the child ceases to be ahead of others in development, he may suffer severe disappointment.

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Advice 5. Balance development

If a child is an intellectual, he still needs to move a lot and be in the fresh air regularly. For a young athlete, in turn, it is important not to forget about mathematics, spelling and other disciplines.

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Tip 6. Look for like-minded people

Precocious children often have difficulty communicating. Peers shun them, or they themselves avoid contact with other children. It is important to help the child find a company in which he will become his own. It does not have to be peers, perhaps it will be more interesting for him with older guys. The main thing is that they understand his way of thinking and share his interests.

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Tip 7: Be sensitive

Don't let your child's giftedness become a barrier between you. If his hobbies are not close to you and you don’t even understand what he is talking about, look for other points of contact and keep in touch. No matter how developed a child is, he is still a child, and he needs your love, support and approval.

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Advice 8. Love the child as he is

If the child's abilities become average with age, don't be discouraged. Half of the gifted children by the age of 15 cease to stand out among their peers, and only a few grow into real geniuses.

Giftedness in childhood does not guarantee success in adulthood. In turn, not all talented adults in childhood showed giftedness.

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The presence or absence of any talents in a child should in no way affect your attitude towards him. Love him for who he is, let him be himself. After all, the main thing is not to raise a genius, but a mentally healthy and happy person.

how to find the key to success

What is gifted? Giftedness is too general a term. Before developing talents, you need to understand how the abilities of a young talent are manifested. A child can sing, dance, draw well, show a craving for the exact sciences, information technology.

How to do it? The development of gifted children is the responsibility of parents. Giftedness in itself does not guarantee stunning success in the future, if you do not deal with the child, do not direct his activity in the right direction.

The article tells:

1. Who are gifted children
2. Revealing talent in gifted children
3. Problems in the development of gifted children: what parents may face
4. Proper upbringing and development of gifted children
5. Development of gifted children in the field of information technology
6. GeekBrains training is the best way to develop gifted children

7. Take the test and find out which field suits you:
   IT, design or marketing.

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Who are gifted children? The outstanding educational psychologist J. Renzulli explained giftedness as a combination of potentially high intelligence with perseverance in achieving goals and creative thinking.

The problem of the development of gifted children worried people in ancient times, when philosophers thought about the meaning of the terms "genius", "talent", "giftedness". Later, from the German “miracle child”, another name appeared for extraordinary children - a child prodigy. All these concepts should be distinguished.

Prodigies are young talents who differ from their peers from an early age and make phenomenal cultural or scientific achievements. There are many examples in history that still amaze mankind. In particular, the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote plays when he was still five years old, and by the age of nine he had created a symphony.

Pablo Picasso was already called an established artist by the age of 12, and at sixteen he opened his first exhibition. The now famous mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote a scientific treatise at the age of nine.

The birth of a child prodigy is a unique case, while two out of a hundred children can be gifted. However, the potential that is born in them from an early age may not even be noticed, but it can also be developed into talent. If a child is clearly succeeding in some kind of activity, this does not mean at all that only this direction needs to be worked out.

They say that talented people are talented in everything. That is, parents need to comprehensively enrich the little personality, focusing on special abilities.

In psychology there is a conditional division of types of giftedness:

• Intellectual . Such giftedness is endowed with children who are able to analyze and classify information, think critically and are able to concentrate on one action for a long time. They are observant, have a high level of intelligence and make special progress in the study of a particular subject, and then a certain area.
• Academic . This talent is characteristic of children with excellent memory. Knowledge comes easily to them. Academically gifted students receive positive emotions from the learning process and can independently master any material, and are often able to master the program of the current academic year much faster than their peers.

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• Creative . The propensity for any kind of creation is characteristic of children who are creatively gifted. It is their special thinking and developed imagination that help them achieve success in creative activities. Such children are noted for musical, dancing, writing, acting or artistic talent.
• Social . A characteristic feature of socially gifted children is a set of qualities that help them quickly adapt to any social environment. An increased level of emotional intelligence and innate intuition give them self-confidence when dealing with people of any age and position. These are attractive individuals with stable leadership inclinations and leadership abilities.
• Psychomotor . Such children are ahead of their peers in general physical development. Their body has outstanding physical reserves, due to which they easily succeed in sports.

Revealing talent in gifted children

It is known that talent is not just some outstanding ability. For the formation and consolidation of talent in a person, several qualities must be combined at once:

• enthusiasm;
• character warehouse;
• desire to train a skill.

Even if all these qualities are inherent in a child, sometimes without proper training and upbringing, talent can gradually fade away. Therefore, maintaining a keen interest in one's extraordinary abilities is perhaps one of the important conditions for the development of gifted children.

There are cases when a child, not having a natural predisposition to any business, is so carried away by it that later, with the support of parents and teachers, he develops his abilities to the stage of giftedness.

In Flexible Mind, Stanford University professor Carol Dweck explains why people with flexible minds (with a growth mindset) believe that qualities can be developed by systematically working on themselves, and the initial level of intelligence and talent is just a starting point . And the encouraging position of an adult always contributes to the desire to develop abilities.

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There is a simple test for parents: you need to remember and write down 10 talents of the child. Most often, moms and dads notice the most obvious abilities and write down about 5 points. First of all, bright talents are noted: the child sings great, makes progress in the exact sciences, or is able to compose poetry. But giftedness can also be based on ordinary features that are not immediately evident.

For example, the child starts talking early, shows the ability to analyze information and classify objects, carefully reads dictionaries and encyclopedias, or likes to organize peers during play.

It happens that a child's features are annoying: he is hyperactive and overly curious, or, on the contrary, lazy and in no hurry. In this case, it is necessary to try to find out the reasons for such behavior and help the child turn them in the right direction, consolidating the strengths of a gifted child.

Problems in the development of gifted children: what parents may face

Stereotyped thinking and behavior are not characteristic of gifted children. Therefore, if you want to develop and support the giftedness of a child, you should not force him to be like everyone else, to adjust to the standards of the education system, not paying attention to individual characteristics. How are gifted children different from classmates?

• Unique thinking . Gifted children show the ability to make independent judgments early, do not hesitate to express their own opinion and stick to their own plan of action.
• Different speed of information perception . Sometimes gifted children can solve several problems at once, processing a huge amount of information at the same time. Sometimes they immerse themselves in one topic for a long time, carefully analyzing and studying every detail.
• Obsession . Such children can often concentrate too deeply on the study of the issue of interest to them. Immerse yourself in its study, neglecting all other matters.
• Communication difficulties . Although outwardly gifted children may be no different from their peers, they often do not find a common language with them, as they feel their exclusivity and even superiority. Due to difficulties in communicating with peers, gifted children may be drawn to friendship with older people. However, hierarchically, a child cannot be a leader in a circle of adults, which can make him lose interest in communication in principle and withdraw into himself.
• Request for attention from adults . Increased intellectual activity makes gifted children constantly explore and analyze something. Naturally, they ask endless questions of the adults around them. Teachers and parents must stock up on remarkable patience, raising such a child.
• Protest . Sometimes adults do not give free rein to a hyperactive child, preventing them from realizing their desire to learn new things and suppressing leadership qualities. Gifted children can react defiantly and even aggressively to such injustice towards themselves.
• Motor skills lag behind mental activity . Rapid intellectual activity, flexibility of thinking and disinhibition of mental processes sometimes prevent gifted children from concentrating on boring activities. For example, they are often in a hurry to write down everything they think, but they think at lightning speed. As a result, the hand does not keep up with the brain, and illegible handwriting becomes the result of such a discrepancy. In protest, the child may simply refuse to do written assignments.

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• Negative attitude towards the school . Often the information that teachers offer in school lessons is already familiar to a gifted child. Then the template education, designed for ordinary students, becomes uninteresting to him, which means that the school itself is not attractive in any way.

Proper upbringing and development of gifted children

Having discovered a certain feature of mental development in a child, it is important to help him maintain and develop outstanding abilities. This mission primarily belongs to the parents of the baby. A gifted child can achieve exceptional results in the type of activity that interests him if his relatives follow a series of simple tips:

• You need to enlist the support of a psychologist who will help you better understand the characteristics of the child . The help of a mentor-teacher will also be useful in determining a plan for the development of a small talent.
• It should be remembered that a talented child should not get hung up on one type of activity . Contribute to the all-round development of the baby. It is necessary to help him develop intellectually, physically, socially and emotionally.
• Do not dominate by making excessive demands on the child . Do not just look at the child's abilities, but also listen to his desires. A talented person is talented in everything. And, for example, a child who is clearly prone to drawing may dream of becoming a football player and, in a business that gives him pleasure, will achieve greater success.
• It is important to understand that it can be difficult for gifted children to find a common language with their peers . We must try to help the child find friends who are passionate about similar interests and close to his level of development.
• It should be explained to a gifted child that one should not be too self-critical, because everything does not always work out the first time . Everyone can make mistakes, and you should not reproach yourself for mistakes.
• It is necessary to praise the young talent, but at the same time to feel the measure . To be able to see the good, emphasizing individuality, and constantly overpraise, convincing of exclusivity - these are different things.

Competent upbringing of gifted children must be carried out with pedagogical and psychological support. Such children do not fit into the standard school system, and therefore require a special approach. Stereotyping and stereotyping of kindergarten and school can cause rejection of learning in children with extraordinary abilities.

Adults need to consider the needs and personality of a gifted child. Help in this:

• individualization and differentiation of education;
• various extracurricular activities;
• emotional support for a young genius;
• creation of conditions for independent work of a gifted student;
• an objective assessment of his own achievements without comparison with other, less talented children;
• free choice of additional educational services;
• small group work;
• project activities that involve different abilities of children, arouse interest, develop;
• respect for the personality of the little smart guy and tolerance towards him.

Despite his independence and striving for independence, a gifted child needs the support of adults: parents, teachers, and older comrades. Extraordinary abilities need to be developed, “fertilized”, directed in the right direction. At the same time, it is important for parents of a young talent to love their child as he is. Even if, with age, the little genius loses its originality and turns into an ordinary person.

Development of gifted children in the field of information technology

Today, the classification of giftedness has been replenished with another type of IT-gifted children. Moreover, to determine the level of abilities in this area, it is not enough to compare gifted children with their peers, because most teenagers do not write computer programs and are content with an average knowledge of the basics of computer science.

When identifying gifted children in the field of information technology, they are rather compared with adult professionals in this field. And the prerequisites for IT-giftedness can be determined by the level of abstract thinking, the presence of mathematical logic and the craving for programming.

Giftedness in computer science often leads a child to a weakening of communication skills. Difficulties in interacting with peers are common to almost all gifted children, and children who are passionate about computer science can be more isolated than others, spending a lot of time alone with a computer. Often children with extraordinary abilities in the field of IT are faced with the problem of Internet addiction.

Meanwhile, they have pronounced creative abilities and high IQ. In the upbringing and education of gifted children in the field of IT, it is necessary to take into account the degree of influence of informatization on their psyche, trying to avoid the negative consequences of being carried away by computer technologies.

Complementary individual training programs will help smooth out such negative factors. It is very important to give a gifted child access to the resource that interests him the most. Programming courses can become such a place for studying information technology.

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• Improve academic performance . The child, relying on current knowledge, broadens his horizons and begins to be more interested in school subjects.
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