How to raise a child prodigy?

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

All parents want their child to be the smartest and most capable, maybe even a child prodigy. But how to achieve this, and even more so, how to raise a prodigy correctly?

Before we give you the basics about how to raise a prodigy correctly, we will tell the instructive story of the life of Misha K.

From early childhood, the boy showed a penchant for music, those around him prophesied a new Paganini in him. Parents surrounded him with an atmosphere of admiration, exclusivity, protected him from worries, duties, work. Due to good results in public speaking, adults stopped training as a musician. Failures began to appear more and more often, which he was taught to perceive as the result of misunderstanding, envy, ill will. His abilities were not developed, and remained "potential". Conclusion from this story: education and training play a leading role in the development of giftedness. And it is with the help of this weapon that it is worth fighting against the lack of innate abilities. But still, how to determine whether a child is gifted or not?

Often gifted people from an early age show great success in any activity. Mozart composed musical works from the age of three, Raphael painted from the age of eight, Pushkin wrote poems from the age of nine. If the child does not demonstrate obvious success in any field, this does not mean at all that "nature has rested on him." There are some signs that a child is gifted. First of all, it is curiosity: from infancy, the child grabs various objects, feels them and examines them from all sides. Later he tries to comprehend what this or that thing is for, how it works, asks a lot of questions. Talented children empathize with other people's problems: they emotionally connect to the fate of the heroes of the fairy tales they have heard. They are disposed to independent thinking, show originality and imagination. Gifted children can spend a long time alone, working on their projects, while the attitudes of adults bore and annoy them.

How to raise a child prodigy? here are some tips:

1. You definitely need to communicate a lot with your child. In the United States, research has been conducted on the importance of interacting with children. In one of the orphanages, there were babies who were considered mentally retarded, and they were left alone in their cribs all day long. At the same time, they were separated from each other by high curtains, and since there were not enough educators, all their mental stimulation was reduced to a few contacts with nannies during care and feeding. A group of children was taken from this boarding house and placed in an institution for mentally disabled women, where the children were cradled and caressed. The children soon developed speech, their intelligence reached the norm. Many of them later received higher education and started a family.

2. It is known that we learn more and better if we teach someone ourselves. Therefore, it is helpful to ask the child to explain something to his younger brother, sister, or friend.

3. Do not extinguish the child's natural interest in any activity. What would have happened if Mozart had been forced to study physics?

4. Never tell a child that he is not capable. He can believe it.

5. Cultivate perseverance, perseverance, hard work and willpower in your child.

6. Do not suppress explosions of fantasy if they do not harm the environment.

7. Do not adjust the child to any standards and, above all, traditionally related to gender. For example, a girl should not be told that she should be "above all, a good mother and housewife" while she is interested in "topics for boys."

8. Do not be discouraged, especially in lower grades, with moderate success in science. Einstein, for example, developed very slowly, with difficulty, learned to speak late and went to school very late. And Newton at school was known as a lazy and stupid. He was taken home due to a learning disability.

9. Do not relax if your child is highly gifted from birth. If a child, studying with ordinary children, spends little time and effort on study, does not experience difficulties in completing homework, while showing success in school, it is worthwhile to be wary. Your child has rich potential but is not using it. Perseverance, hard work, will does not develop in him. Better to transfer him to another school, where it will be difficult for him to study.

10. Do not slow down, but in every possible way encourage the early inclusion of the child in public life: kindergarten, circles.

11. Don't overdo it! Do not take away childhood from a child by worrying too much about his education. The following case is known, which took place at the beginning of the nineteenth century. James Mill, an English scientist who made a contribution to many sciences, decided to make his son a child prodigy. John Stuart Mill, by the age of thirteen, had studied arithmetic, Euclidean geometry, Euler algebra, differential calculus, logic, political economy, Greek and Latin. He was familiar with the fables of Aesop, read in the original, Herodotus, Plato, Plutarch, mastered "Robinson Crusoe", "1001 nights", "Don Quixote"! The consequences of the experiment? Child's "undermined" health and deprivation of childhood. John Stewart himself did not know whether he had won or lost more. He later recalled: "I have never been a child, I have never played cricket! Better to let nature go its own way."

Good luck raising the geeks!

Alena SOZINOVA psychologist