How to know if my child is gifted

Giftedness is an intellectual skill well above the average that only have two children out of 100. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) is considered that a child is gifted when his IQ is equal to or greater than 130 points, being 100 the average. If the characteristics of a gifted are known, it is possible to identify it even before reaching the first year of age. And is that gifted children show their high intellectual capacity from the beginning of their development, growth and learning process. If you notice that your child learns faster than normal, does improper things of his age or is talented to perform any activity or subject without problems, keep reading this article and discover how to know if your child is gifted.

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The truth is that there are no specific premises that help us to know with certainty if a child is gifted or not. But if there is a series of common characteristics that can facilitate the identification or suspect that our son / daughter has an intellectual capacity above the average.

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Before talking about the general characteristics of gifted children to know if your child is, it is important to clarify some concepts that can be confusing for parents. Gifted is not equal to talented, precocious, prodigy or genius .

• A talented child is one who excels in a particular subject or has developed a specific skill, for example, having a talent for mathematics.
• The prodigy refers to all those children who have the ability to perform a certain activity inappropriate for their age, as in the case of Mozart and music.
• The precocious ones are those that manifest an early development in a specific area, such as language, but their IQ is within the average.
• And, when a child has an IQ equal to or higher than 160 points is considered genius.

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Characteristics of gifted children

To know if your child is gifted or not, you should look at if it meets the following characteristics:

• They are very observant and curious children, they ask questions of all kinds and complex
• They have an immense desire to learn, they always want to be expanding their knowledge and discovering new things
• They have an excellent memory and great attention span
• His reasoning ability is higher and more fluid than that of other children of the same age, as is his thinking, which is also elaborated and original
• They are very creative and imaginative children
• They relate ideas to objects or facts very quickly
• They learn very fast, without needing a previous explanation or much practice
• Self- learning is another common feature in these children
• They tend to be perfectionist, energetic and have a more developed sense of humor, due to their high capacity for reasoning and thinking
• They usually relate to adults or children older than themselves, since their age seems boring to them
• His vocabulary is much wider than normal
• On many occasions, they have a sleep disorder or may even suffer from insomnia
• They are usually children with a very high critical and evaluative capacity
• They excel in almost all subjects, activities or areas and present special talents in most fields

Although these are the most common characteristics of gifted children, your child may not have them all or have any more. If you have not identified the giftedness of your child in time, it can manifest in bad academic behavior, emotional disorders, such as depression, conduct or even attention, due to the lack of motivation and creation of knowledge that these children need.

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Characteristics of gifted babies or young children

Although the usual thing is to start noticing that your child is gifted between 5 and 8 years of age, they can identify themselves even when they are babies.

• They learn to talk and walk much earlier than usual
• Sometimes they learn to speak at a normal age but, when they do, they build sentences and use a vocabulary from an older child
• They are very curious, they feel a strong desire to explore and investigate every corner of the house or the environment in which they find themselves.
• They master the skill of the game before normal, so they usually play their own games of more advanced ages
• They are very energetic, creative and imaginative
• They show a clear interest in new things, since the old ones are boring
• Whether they are babies or young children, they sleep less than usual because they need less sleep time
• They learn to differentiate reality from the imaginary very soon

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If you have strong suspicions that your child is gifted, you should go to a specialist to perform an IQ test and determine whether or not you are right. Only then you can receive the necessary guidance in case your child is gifted and know what to do, what school to take it and how to educate it properly so that its development is consistent with their abilities and needs. Remember that not providing the education you need will result in inadequate development.

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The documentation of the parents is fundamental for the proper development of the gifted child. Only informing about the giftedness, requesting guidance from experts and interested in the quality of your child is possible to give you everything you need.