5 Tips – Parents of young advanced/gifted children

Five tips for parents of young advanced/gifted children to recognise or identify about their children

1. Identifying advanced development/ability/giftedness in your child is not dependent on having an IQ score – there are other ways to identify.
2. Advanced development/giftedness can be observed very early in some children but not in all cases. Some children may not be easily identifiable till after, they start school. In addition, some early learning might be readily identifiable such as early reading and number skills, while other signs of advanced development maybe more abstract:

• sophisticated speech,
• a focus on abstract ideas, such as ‘what is God?’
• mature understanding of cause and effect. (see Born To Soar list ‘Indicators of Giftedness’.)

3. Advanced development can be observed in a range of developmental areas from intellectual behaviours such as exceptional memory and vocabulary, to very skilful social skills for the child’s age, to a noticeable emotional maturity. Physical skills are most likely to be age-typical.
4. Advanced or gifted children are individual in their development just like all other children, so no two gifted children will be identical in their exceptional skill or learning.
5. Accepting that your child is advanced or gifted does not automatically imply that you categorise your child as more important or worthwhile than other children. On one hand it is essential for your child’s healthy sense-of-self that you acknowledge to your child and other family members that there are some areas of their learning which are advanced. While on the other hand, it is important to express the attitude that all individuals no matter what their level of learning are worthwhile in their own right.

Dr Anne Grant