Accelerate
Once a gifted child
grasps a concept, move on! The drill and repetition used to reinforce learning
for most students will only frustrate a gifted kid.
Broaden
Encourage your student
to make mental connections and draw conclusions by using broad, guiding questions.
You might ask, “What is friendship, and why do we value it?” after watching The
Lion King. A walk in the woods might be a great time for questions like, “What
role does a dead tree play in its ecosystem?” Teachers use this technique to
encourage class discussions, but you can also apply it to spark lively
conversations about books, movies, local or national news, family events, and
more!
Curiosity and Creativity
Often gifted children
generate a seemingly endless stream of questions. While this behavior can be
exhausting to an overworked parent, try to encourage the curiosity and
creativity behind it. Don’t feel that you must always
have all the answers—that’s more pressure than any parent deserves!
Instead, coach your child on finding his or her own answers in books and on
Internet sites you’ve found to be child-safe. Or, the next time your child
asks, “What would happen if…” encourage your budding da Vinci (or Picasso) to
show you what he or she imagines!
Deepen
When a subject
captures your talented student’s fancy, let him or her dig in! If your young
mathematician is fascinated by infinite possibilities of pi, let the calculations
begin! Or if your future historian is fascinated by George Washington, suggest
a biography to read, researching the clothing, food, and lifestyle of his era,
or tracing his genealogy.
Encouragement and Exploration
While parents of
gifted children dread the science experiment gone awry—or even scarier, a kid
who can outwit them!—it’s important to keep that fear hidden. Your encouragement and support of your gifted and
talent child’s explorations of the world are critical to his or her confidence
and future success.
Free Time
Although signing up
your shining star for nonstop enrichment activities may seem like the right
course of action, resist the temptation to over-schedule! While your child’s
brain may be years ahead, remind yourself that your scholar is still young emotionally, socially,
and physically. So provide a healthy dose of mental stimulation, but
be sure to allow time for your child to play, goof off, make friends, and just
be a kid.
