All parents believe that their children are special in one way or another, but many wonder if their child possesses a giftedness in one area or another. While a very small percentage of children are truly gifted, it is possible that your child is one of them. Below you will find tips on how to determine if this is true in your child’s case.
Giftedness: Signs To Look For
- One clue to recognize a gifted child is if they seem to lack interest at school. Sometimes this can be mistaken for laziness or a learning disability. This occurs because the child thinks at a higher level than his or her peers and becomes bored with what is being presented in the classroom. A huge sign is that your child does extremely well on standardized testing, yet the grades they receive do not reflect this.
- Another sign is that your child has a high, working understanding of a specific field or topic. For example, a child may be able to complex math in their head that they have not yet learned in school by using logic.
- Another example of a gifted child is one that has a strong passion for a topic, such as the military, and can spout of facts from strategy and weapons that rival that of educated adults.
- Another thing that sets a gifted child apart is their ability to grasp ideas in a very short time-frame. Gifted children tend to only need to be presented with an idea or process once or twice before they are able to apply the information for themselves. If this is something that you have noticed or have been told about your child, they very well may be gifted.
Giftedness is something that has been hard to define, but has become a topic that educators are taking more seriously these days. If you have any reason to believe that your have a gifted child you should have the child tested and evaluated so that it can be definitively decided as to whether or not that is the case. A gifted child benefits greatly from specialized educational programs that allow them to be challenged at the level that they are at, instead of being bored and unmotivated in the standard classroom setting.
As you read above, there are a number of signs that your child may be gifted. If you have noticed any of them you should look into it. There is no shame if they are not, but their future can be greatly altered if it is determined that they are.