Most expectant parents dream of having a prodigy child, the next little overachiever to become a Nobel laureate. The gift of extraordinary intelligence, however, is not always purely a blessing. There are pitfalls with regard to the social and emotional development of kids who are beyond their years. A high IQ at an early age means that individuality is also attained earlier, and with that, a feeling of exclusion. It is arguably a small price to pay to nurture special abilities that could lead to great achievements in the future.
Take American whizz-kid Michael Kearney, for example. He finished high school at six. At ten he had an undergraduate degree in Geology and by 17 he was a college professor. Similarly, Kim Ung-yong, the Korean prodigy who is said to have the world's highest IQ, was absorbing differential calculus at age five. He speaks at least eight languages. Ung-yong too had breezed through higher education by age 15. Then there is the real life Doogie Howser. Eighteen-year-old Indian brainiac Akrit Jaswal performed surgery when he was seven years old.
Lost childhood?
What do these kids have in common aside from their incredible brains? As we have seen with child stars such as Michael Jackson, their talents came at the expense of a normal childhood, or by some perspectives, a childhood at all. Sometimes the young Picassos and Mozarts are unable to fit in even if their parents encourage normalcy. By cakewalking through school in a fraction of the time, they aren't exposed to the same forms of social growth as the average child. They are deprived to an extent of the innocence of childhood — the ignorance, the friendships, the mischief and awkwardness of their teenage years. Intelligent kids tend to be more mature and relate better to adults. The role of the parent then becomes central in managing this delicate pattern of development.
Devika Singh is a psychologist based in Dubai who points out that prodigies are still children though it may seem otherwise and can be just as vulnerable to how they are brought up. "Some gifted children get treated as adults because they can often sound like adults, but conceptual thinking and emotional reasoning can be at opposite ends of the spectrum in gifted children," she says. "This makes it exceptionally important to allow children to behave and emote in ways consistent with their developmental level, even if they present with gifted abilities."
Singh says that gifted children have also been known to have problems with their peers. "For example, their advanced verbal proficiency make them articulate, but on the other hand it could mean they dominate the conversation or that other children don't understand what they really mean," she says. "A child who is gifted with heightened self-awareness may feel confident and see the potential of being unique but at the same time can feel self-conscious and isolated."
Singh continues with a discussion on the degree to which parents should get involved. "Some gifted children present with asynchronous development, or uneven development where they may excel in one area and fall significantly below average in others," she says. "They may not be mature enough for independent work or with emotional intelligence skills. They may present as being either much more sensitive or far less sensitive to others' feelings."
Parental direction
"Gifted children may also be energetic to the point of distraction," says Singh. "These differences are individual to the child and can't always be generalised, usually by applying a combination of directive versus non-directive activities. For example, if a musically gifted child asks to learn to play the violin and you arrange this for her you are nurturing a skill that she has directed you towards. At the same time it is critical to try to expose gifted students to a variety of options to try out in case they feel a strong interest which can then be nurtured. Sometimes a child will lead you to it. Other times you have to present them with an array of activities and interests for them to then respond to."
Singh concludes by highlighting the importance of assessing the type and level of giftedness in a child as it might sometimes go unnoticed. Often there are genetic factors to their abilities. But some definitive habits can also nurture little geniuses. Therein lies the capability of parents to raise a virtuoso though he or she may not be born one. Well known are the effects of introducing musical instruments and new languages at an early age in jogging the intellectual capacity of a child. A number of academic studies attest to the same and much more.
A 2010 publication by John Medina called Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five claims that kids who are able to delay gratification 15 times as much as their peers score on average over 200 points higher on their SATs. Interestingly, impulse control is a telling indicator of executive function. >
The same book also revealed that aerobic exercise increases executive functioning abilities by 100 per cent. Other studies claim that children born to younger fathers score higher on IQ tests, as do those who are breast-fed. Learning to juggle can apparently increase the volume of grey matter in children's brains by 3 per cent, according to a paper by Jeremy Gray and Paul Thompson titled Neurobiology of Intelligence: Science and Ethics. reschool attendance also seems to have a significant impact. Kids who went to preschool are more than 50 per cent more likely to graduate high school, according to the study Lifetime Effects: The HighScope Perry Preschool StudyThrough Age 40 by L.J. Schweinhart.
Early sparks
Delia Egdemal is a teacher at one such institution, Kidzworld, a creative learning centre in Dubai for kids aged two to four. She suggests that it is quite easy to pinpoint gifted kids even as early as preschool based on how they participate in activities. "A lot of our activities are geared towards building cognitive ability in children. What I've found is that some kids who are easily distracted are just as sharp as those who are very involved and participatory. The common denominator in smart children is that they keep busy and have an appetite to learn. How they go about it varies from child to child because they are clear individuals even from this age. There is not always a connection between social and intellectual development — they seem to be two separate forms of intelligence. I think parents also tend to pass on these traits to their children. Parents of smart kids also appear to be smart themselves. It makes sense because they are likely to read more to their kids, for example — something that makes a big difference."
The new generation of parents has an abundance of tools to nurture children's cognitive development. With innovative educational methods, we have the ability to produce baby Einsteins more than ever.
