Kids

Characteristics and Challenges Of Gifted Children

Characteristics and Challenges Of Gifted Children

Parents are very admired and proud of how their children are progressing in life. In the early stages of life, there may be times where your child seems to be a lot more talented or smarter than his age’s children or seems to understand things very quickly and discover things you wouldn’t even dream of quite easily. Recognizing the right signs and knowing whether or not the child is gifted is key to ensuring that the right approach is taken. Scroll down to know the characteristics and challenges of gifted children.

What is a Gifted Child?

It becomes necessary to define them first before recognizing gifted children. A gifted child has a high degree of mental skill or is exceptionally good in a particular area of knowledge. Many countries consider a child to be intelligent if his or her IQ score is 130 or above. However, in various areas, such as verbal, mathematical, visual, art, musical, or even interpersonal communication, a gifted child might be great.

Characteristics of Gifted Children

A gifted child has certain common traits that can easily help you know if your child is one.

1. Talks early in life confidently with good vocabulary

The child is much less afraid to speak or to share his or her opinions and can speak with the correct words and sentence structure.

2. Curious and a Very Strong Memory

Your child is usually curious about a lot of things and seems to instantly recall from memory many things.

3. Enjoy Solving Problems

Brain teasers and challenges light up your child’s eyes and he ends up resolving them in very unusual ways.

4. High Levels of Concentration

It does not seem difficult for your child to sit for long periods of time and concentrate on a single problem or a book.

5. Unusual Imagination

Your child tells tales and talks in great detail about amazing worlds or inventions.

6. Strong Opinions and Beliefs Strongly in Justice

It is like your child is naturally fair with everyone, and does not have the feeling of fear to take the stand.

7. Learns Rapidly 

Your child can learn new things more quickly than others and can understand clearly and concisely every aspect of learning.

Challenges Of Gifted Children

As special as they may be, there are gifted problems in child behavior that parents need to be aware of and carefully handle.

1. Problems of attention and organization

Gifted children tend to think about things in abstract ways and abstract ideas, and become quite easily bored with normalcy. This causes them to encounter problems with paying attention or coordinating stuff.

2. Difficulty with making friends

This is one of the biggest problems facing gifted children. On the outside, when it comes to social interaction, they may seem incredibly mature, but internally they feel lonely and sad among their friends. They may not find anything in common with their peers or may find it difficult to pursue group activities. This could be primarily due to their tendency to do things better than others, which results in them being perceived as arrogant.

3. Unrealistic Expectations

Gifted kids expect highly from their own selves. If they have regularly received good grades, they can be broken from within by a single low grade, and also be a surprise to the parents. They tend to set themselves, extremely high expectations and are immediately distracted when they fail to meet them.

4. Problems Regarding Control

Most gifted kids are fond of doing things their own way. You may have seen that kids, when parents intervene, insist on doing things themselves and hate it. Over time, this practice of doing things in a particular way can cause others to view it as being stubborn or bossy, which could also lead them to fear risk-taking.

5. Feeling Guilty

Yes, gifted children feel guilty because they are gifted. They acknowledge their own strengths and may have a desire to give it back or share it somehow with others. This may show in good social behavior, where they are helping others and contributing to causes, but when motivated by remorse, they may go the extra mile and also benefit from it.

6. Problems of regarding self-esteem

At times, this gift can make children feel isolated and unlike their friends and classmates. Gifted kids end up sometimes being bullied, or even having to fight depression. Several studies have shown that gifted children struggle a great deal with social struggles and feelings of sorrow. They tend to talk down and be negative towards their own behavior, leading to swings in mood and erratic habits.

These are some of the characteristics and challenges of gifted children.

Tips To help gifted children

Parenting a gifted child is no less than a challenge. It not only comes with a child’s normal struggles, but it also has the extra responsibility of securing and caring for the joy they carry.

  • Give them the chance to take risks and struggle in non-threatening ways.
  • Find other talented kids and try to make them part of the group
  • Ask your child’s teacher to spend more time with your child specifically to care for his needs.
  • Give them experiences that teach them the need to balance urgent work and one that requires deep thinking.
  • Provide them with a questioning process that is structured for their higher-order thinking to be implemented.
  • Take them on a range of learning techniques and teaching.
  • Try to reduce repeated work and substitute for activities that enrich what you learn.
  • Help them to understand the distinction between different activities and strategies.
  • Give them time and space for themselves to work out things.
  • Help them and provide them with the emotional support that children usually require.

Gifted children are uncommon. One child of them is bound to make your life a ride along with the roller coaster. Give them the time and help they need and allow them to flourish for themselves.

Also Read: Benefits Of Teaching Mindfulness To Kids

 

 

 

Share post: facebook twitter pinterest whatsapp