A gifted child is a child who stands out for his brilliant, obvious, sometimes outstanding achievements (or has internal prerequisites for such achievements) in one or another type of activity.
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Gifted children are unique in the social world. As many teachers point out, gifted children differ not only in their good abilities for certain types of activities, but mainly in terms of their psychological characteristics that stand out among their peers. The most important problem in the progress of society is the preservation and development of giftedness.
It would seem that a child who is ahead of his peers in terms of intelligence, shining with mental abilities, will have a happier childhood than others, it will be especially easy for him to learn. Actually, this is not so. Children with early mental prosperity have their own systematic difficulties in family and school, their own dramas about age development.
Children with an accelerated pace of development, with a very high mental activity are difficult to teach and difficult to educate. They are often impatient and impulsive, more sharply than others, react to the environment. They, the most curious, often get bored in the classroom.
Difficulties may begin with the fact that a child who is ahead of his peers tends to constantly attract attention. The quick fulfillment of homework, the willingness to correctly answer the teacher's question: for him, a welcome mental game, competition, and approaches others, cheerful, anticipating approval.
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A child with an early mental flowering has specific difficulties in relationships with fellow practitioners. Often, classmates, especially towards the beginning of adolescence, actively reject such students of themselves and give them offensive nicknames.
This leads to the fact that the gifted child begins to strive to be "like everyone else", avoids revealing himself as the most informed or even more diligent. Not only because some fellow practitioners are aggressive, but also because he wants to be with others.
Many of the additional experiences fall on the fate of such a child, if for some reason he is not given physical education. Other types may have weaknesses in this regard, but they do not attract as much attention as the student who stands out with his intellect. His physical ineptitude shyness becomes an occasion for ridicule, bullying. Frictions with fellow practitioners are also associated with favorite games: young intellectuals are attracted to various puns, to chess in those years when their peers are addicted to mobile and gaming.
There are other difficulties for a child with unusual mental abilities. Both parents and teachers expect and demand that you be an exemplary student, an excellent student. But brands, often established not only for knowledge, but also for behavior and handwriting. A student with advanced skills gets much more than others for incomplete homework because of a statement not provided by the subject in the lesson, for the careless design of written work. In some families, a decline in grades is considered a drama.
The strengths and weaknesses of the child with signs of mental talent are interconnected, transmitted to each other. For example, the whims, stubbornness, in one way or another inherent in many children, with a higher level of intelligence are more acute, more noticeable. This also applies to manifestations of reluctance, inability to overcome everyday learning difficulties.
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Improved skills are often accompanied by the habit of learning "go on the go." Then, the progress of the partners can lead to arrogance and vanity. Mental independence, the attitude towards cognition can become your own will, opposing others. Even the apparently obvious advantage of the child, who is given all the subjects with the same ease, has its own dark side: at the time of adolescence, such a student may begin to feel overwhelmed by the fact that he does not know.
It turns out that the absence of restrictions such as relative incapacity for any type of occupation can lead to excessive dispersion of interests and prevent self-determination.
The nature of the personality problems of a gifted child is largely determined by the characteristics of emerging self-esteem. There is an opinion that the personal difficulties of gifted children are even more complicated in cases where they form a low inadequate self-esteem of their abilities in various fields of activity, including communication.
Studies of mentally prominent children have shown that many of them are very critical of themselves. By possessing inadequate low self-esteem, they often not only cannot realize their potential abilities, but also become poor students. It is also observed that gifted children are very vulnerable, sensitive to everything that affects their "self." Already at an early age, they show greater sensitivity to attempts to hurt their feelings of self-esteem, tend to establish tasks that they cannot achieve and are in trouble for failure.
A person's self-esteem significantly affects the manifestations and development of a child's abilities. At the same time, self-perception has two aspects: knowledge of oneself and attitude towards oneself. Self-esteem is the most important factor in determining a child's behavior, it largely determines the direction of his activity, especially communication with other people.
In the field of accelerated development of cognition, the following is observed:
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- children can do several things at once;
- have increased curiosity;
- able to track cause and effect relationships and draw appropriate conclusions;
- have excellent memory based on early speech and abstract thinking;
- able to classify and categorize information and experience;
- they are able to use accumulated knowledge widely;
- they like to collect;
- have an extensive vocabulary;
- use complex syntactic constructions in speech and can ask questions;
- prefer games that require more mental activity;
- easily deal with cognitive uncertainty;
- Does not like prepared answers;
- with pleasure they perceive complex and long-term tasks;
- have a high concentration of attention,
In the sphere of psychosocial development, gifted and talented children have the following characteristics:
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- a developed sense of justice;
- extensive personality value systems;
- vivid imagination;
- developed sense of humor;
- constantly trying to solve problems that are still "too difficult";
- exaggerated fears are characteristic;
- susceptibility to nonverbal manifestations of feelings for others.
In terms of physical development
A high level of energy and a short duration of sleep are noted. Its motor coordination often goes hand in hand with cognitive abilities.
He's a leader
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- The child adapts easily to new situations;
- Other children prefer to choose him as a partner in games and activities;
- surrounded by strangers retains self-confidence;
- tends to direct the games or activities of other children;
- communicates with other children and adults easily;
- generates ideas and solutions to problems;
- take the initiative in communicating with their peers;
- assumes responsibility beyond the limits of his age;
- Other children often turn to him for advice and help.
Gifted children are unique in the social world. As many teachers point out, gifted children differ not only in their good abilities for certain types of activities, but mainly in terms of their psychological characteristics that stand out among their peers. The most important problem in the progress of society is the preservation and development of giftedness.
Source for information:
https://www.hacerfamilia.com/educacion/noticia-guia-motivacion-ninos-altas-capacidades-20160901124031.html
https://www.bekiapadres.com/articulos/maneras-saber-hijo-superdotado/