SLC S21W1 / Discovering and Fostering Talent in Children

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When I was a young child of 8 years, I'm usually called upon to read in front of the whole class. Just imagine the shame they accompanies when you can't pronounce a word and a nursery 3 pupil is called to pronounce the word for you. Public reading was not my thing.

I'm always scared and shaky when I'm called upon to read in front of the whole class. When I try to cover my face using my textbook, I'll be flogged to drop the book then and read aloud. I can remember when I was told to read in front of 50 pupils.

I urinated on my short in front of the whole class because I was afraid. Even with that, I was drilled by my teachers that I could do better. All these embarrassments made me practice and go home every day. Once I reach the house, I'll make sure I can read confidently, and I'll tell my parents and siblings to watch me read.

That was how I was able to overcome stage fright in school. I grew up to become a public speaker in secondary school. I'll be called upon to give an announcement in the whole school. There was a time I represented my class in a debate competition with another class in front of the whole school and won.

Another success story was when my school selected me to represent the school in a speech competition. Our school came in second, and I was gifted a reasonable sum of money taken by the school management team.

These efforts by my parents and teachers were to help me discover my talent. On Steemit, I've discovered talent in writing. I wasn't the kind of person who loved writing. To write essays of 450 words is usually tiring and boring talk more of creating content, which Steemit taught me. With creativity and originality embedded in me, I can write 5k-10k words.

I do write term papers and book reviews for people to show Steemit made me discover my talent in writing. So what's up with this contest? I'm to help a child discover his talent and overcome stage fright. Let's look at this scenario.

Invite a child between 4 and 12 years old to show their talent in one of the following areas: acting, singing, or dancing. Before doing the activity, show them some techniques and strategies to overcome stage fright and build self-confidence. The main idea is that both of you have fun. Record a video and take photos of the activity, and share your experience with us.

The techniques and strategies I used in helping this young boy overcome this challenge include;

• roleplay strategy

• reward learning

• Video Coverage enticement

• Practical applications on stage

Let me start with the first strategy I used. This boy is a young boy who is always by himself and doesn't like socialising much with people. He's always so reserved and walks by his mom's side always. He was given an assignment to read the Bible in the congregation but turned it down because he was afraid of doing so. I observed this young boy's behaviour and took steps to help him.

I observe he plays and feels comfortable when his mom is around him and doesn't like socialising much. I took the initiative to talk to him and try playing with him at my age. Seeing that someone bigger than him wishes to play with him and he finds it comfortable, he was moved to be with his peers.

I told him that even though his peers look down on him, he shouldn't consent but should continue having that burning happiness to do things that favour him. There's a day I played video and dancing games with him and his siblings. When I observed he was coming up small, I took another step.

I invited the boy and his parents to a party at a friend's place. The party was about my friend, who just graduated from secondary school. So everyone was to be part of this video challenge called I am not the celebrant, I'm the celebrant's friend. I made him the frontliner since he was the smallest, and he did so with joy in his heart, as shown in the video.

When it was time for dancing, I promise to give the best kid who can dance very well a toy car. That reward moved him to dance comfortably in public, not minding the laughter. I was like,So rewards can motivate someone like this.

When I saw his progress, I requested that the chairman in our bible class give him that assignment he rejected to read in the congregation. When he received the assignment, he refused to do it until I called him and asked him why.

He told me he was afraid to read in such a crowd of people. I told him I'm going to help him and that if he reads well, I'll take him out to swim and enjoy himself in a poolside, which he has been dreaming of. That's how he integrated roleplay and reward to boost his morale.

What he lacked was self-confidence that he could read such in public. So we were to work on his self-confidence. How did I do this?. I taught him the way my mother taught me, and this really helped him.

• We started by going through the assigned portion for him to read. He felt unqualified to do the reading because he felt he'd fumble in words. I told him practice makes perfect and that trying it every day will help him master it.

• I told him to view the assignment as something he can crush, as the first position he's tackling in his class. He would do everything to get that position. So we did start preparations constantly for two weeks . I started the preparations with him first and encouraged him to read with zeal and enthusiasm as if he owned the book.

• Reading multiple times makes you conversant with your book and its verses. Even though you want to maintain eye contact and your eyes slip away, that familiarity you had will help you perform well. So we tried burying heads in the bible and then maintaining eye contact while his bible was placed below his face. I told him the reason for not covering his face when reading.

• After continuous practice, he was close to perfection, as he knew he had mastered his bible and verses and could maintain eye contact. He was so happy that he could do it. I told him that I would video him for him to see what he had done. His use of gestures made the reading so sweet and mature.