Do you think your child learns very fast? Do you think your child is very intelligent but gets bored in class? It could be that your child is a gifted child.

The first thing we need to know If we think our child could be a child prodigy is to know what that means. The High Intellectual Capacities as a concept include being intellectually gifted, talented, and having intellectual precocity.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) children that have an IQ (intelligence quotient) equal to or higher than 130 are gifted children. However, even though this concept might seem easy to understand, it includes different meanings because a person can have a high score in a specific ability (simple talent) or in more talents combined (complex talent). So, you can very good or be talented in Maths or Sports but you may have a little capacity for Arts or for Human Studies.

A kid with high capacities normally has complex talent, because their level of learning and holding information is superior to the average. And although the opinions of experts are very different to define what being a gifted child means, as parents when we observe that our child may have some different capacities from other children, it is normal that we want to adopt the emotional and academic education to their skills.

Experts say, that if the child doesn’t receive the right education that could become a case of school failure, because the child could get bored or discouraged at school. That’s why it is important to be able to recognize if our child is a gifted child. For this to happen, the best thing we can do is to go to a specialist, because depending on their age a baby, a child or teenager can show different symptoms indicating these high capacities.

According to different studies, it is estimated that 2.2% of children are born being child prodigies, and these high capacities can be detected in boys and girls up until 20 years old.

If your kid shows some of these behaviors it could be that your kid is a child prodigy

• After finishing an exam to test their intelligence, their intelligence quotient is the same or superior to the average. (Around 130)
• Your teenager is creative, vivid, fast in learning the different subjects, has a strong motivation to learn and stands out in different topics in regards to kids from their age.
• Since they were babies they did things faster than others: learning to talk, to follow you with their eyes, to walk or to stand up.
• They like games or cognitive games like puzzles, alphabet soup…
• They have a lot of capacity for memorizing anything and important events.
• They have a large and precise vocabulary for their age.
• They show they want to learn: the number of questions they ask about different topics. Sometimes, they might even focus on just some questions and might want to know more answers in a deep way.
• They have a huge creative capacity and they are worried about existential subjects.
• They have problems with authority or following rules, especially if no one explains them. Teaching them only to obey rules can cause problems.
• They are self-critical, perfectionist, and competitive children.
• They have a great memory, short or long term. And they show a lot of capacity to remember photos, sounds, and objects with a level of detail very precise.
• Learning to read and write early, almost being self-educated.
• They are normally very sensitive children to the needs and feelings of people and are very emphatic.
• They are independent, like to work by themselves, and are thoughtful kids.

The best thing you can do is to go to a professional if you think your child could be a gifted child. You need to have in mind that in some cases being a gifted child can bring bad behavior or lack of attention, besides emotional problems.

Not every child is the same, so they might be shy and also very observant. In conclusion, the most important thing is that they feel integrated, comfortable, and loved, that way having high capacities won’t be a problem for their development.

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