Signs of Giftedness in Children Include:
an extreme need for constant mental stimulation. an ability to learn and process complex information rapidly. a need to explore subjects in surprising depth. an insatiable curiosity, as demonstrated by endless questions and inquiries.
For reasons not fully understood, prodigies tend to cluster in "rules-based" fields like mathematics, music, chess and art. One expert who studied prodigies estimated that they are as rare as one in five or 10 million.
Early Language Development
While most children say their first word at around 1 year of age, gifted children may begin speaking when they are 9 months old. 2 Some parents report that their children said their first word even earlier than that, as early as 6 months of age.
Some of these signs include a strong desire for learning, excellent problem-solving skills, and the ability to think outside the box. Highly intelligent individuals are often curious and have a great capacity for absorbing and processing information quickly and effectively.
You may have also heard that smart children talk a lot — it's a common “gifted” trait. While early reading can point to a high probability that a child is smart, some very smart children don't talk early or talk much.
Although you can test your kid as early as 2 years and 6 months of age, you can not achieve accurate results at this age. Between the ages of 5 and 8 is the best time to understand your child's giftedness. That's why it can be useful to analyze your kids with the best apps for 6 year olds and older.
The research shows that while children are born with the potential to be gifted, the environment and nurture plays an important role in developing those innate abilities. In fact, researchers estimate conservatively that environmental influences can add 20-40 points on measured intelligence.
Giftedness falls into one or more of the following areas: intellectual, academic, creative, artistic and leadership. A student may be intellectually (cognitively) gifted if he or she uses advanced vocabulary, readily comprehends new ideas, thinks about information in complex ways, or likes to solve puzzles or problems.
People who have genius traits tend to think about problems and concepts in a much more dynamic way. As a result, they are unlikely to accept information and facts on face value. Instead, they will want to defy and test conventional thinking.
Using a standard IQ test with a score of 100 as the "norm," those children who earn 130 or above are considered gifted; 145 is profoundly gifted. In other instances, assessment may be based on a combination of intelligence test scores, creativity, and ability to focus on a task.
Countless child prodigies lose interest in their area of talent and drop out; others become experts in their area as adults. Only a tiny few become creative adult “geniuses.” It is impossible to predict which course a life will take.
Common Characteristics of Gifted Children:
Ability to comprehend material several grade levels above their age peers. Surprising emotional depth and sensitivity at a young age. Strong sense of curiosity. Enthusiastic about unique interests and topics.
Development. Some researchers believe that prodigious talent tends to arise as a result of the innate talent of the child, and the energetic and emotional investment that the child ventures. Others believe that the environment plays the dominant role, many times in obvious ways.
Gifted children are challenging to parent in many ways. The more gifted the child, the more often it seems the more the parent is frustrated with the discrepancy of someone able to do school several levels above age level but unable to remember to take their finished work to school.
And they might also make your gifted child feel they're special only because of their gifts and not because of all their other special and lovable qualities. Being gifted runs in families. If your gifted child has brothers or sisters, there's a bigger chance that they might be gifted too.
... Some researchers have suggested that gifted/talented individuals may be happier than their peers with average development due to their capacity to achieve their goals better/more easily (Diener & Fujita, 1995).
Gifted students learn differently than their peers. They master new material and remember it more easily, understand relationships between abstract and concrete concepts, and tend to be more focused and passionate about topics of interest.
Gifted and talented children might behave in challenging ways because they question rules, feel frustrated or lack learning opportunities. You can tailor strategies to support children's behaviour, social and emotional needs.
While some gifted children may have a flair for the dramatic, that does not diminish the intensity of their emotions. These children may be experiencing what psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski called an emotional overexcitability. 2 That means that they actually do experience emotions more intensely than others.
About 70% of autistic people have an intellectual disability, which means they have an IQ lower than 70. The remaining 30% have intelligence that ranges from average to gifted. Autism and intelligence are two separate characteristics. A person can be autistic with any level of intelligence.
A gifted child can lose interest because she is not challenged or motivated. Gifted children can be difficult to match with an appropriate class because, although they are cognitively ahead, they may be socially younger than their age peers, which can result in behavior problems.