How can we identify a child with special abilities?
The concept of having special gifts or talents is controversial.
On the one hand, neuroscientists as well as neuropsychologists say that only children with above-average levels of IQ are exceptionally gifted.
Meanwhile, pedagogy experts and sports coaches say there are many types of exceptional giving.
Therefore, there are children who have high skills in different job categories.
The expert discussions continue.
However, children who test above the 97th percentile on IQ tests agree that they are exceptionally gifted.
IQ- is a measure of special giftedness.
Theo Costa Ribeiro, a gifted six-year-old boy from São Paulo, Brazil. The baby had his first words at six months of age and was able to form sentences at 18 months.
By this time he had started pre-formal education.The child’s father, Igor Ribro, said: “Tio saw a word and asked us to explain it one by one, but it was not an easy question.
Ribiron says his family did not force him to do anything, nor did they limit his desire to learn new things.
During the worst of the coronavirus outbreak, children were practicing learning the alphabet.
The baby, Theo, was three years old at the time and had learned to read and to add and subtract numbers.
In 2021, as soon as the child returned to school, the child’s family was invited to a meeting.
It was then suggested to the family that their child would outperform the other children and take tests that would prove he or she had special abilities or skills.
A child who matured before his age
The doctor told the family that at the age of five, Theo had the abilities of 14- and 15-year-olds.
This child plays like other children, likes sports, likes to make friends, and wants to learn about dinosaurs so he opened YouTube.
“The six-year-old watches cartoons, plays video games, but sometimes he talks about dinosaurs like a 15-year-old,” his father said.
His father said, ‘Theon is a mixture of child and youth. In January 2023, Tion joined Mensa International, a young but high-IQ Brazilian.
Now the child is studying football and music in addition to his schooling.
The child’s father, Igor Ribron, is seeking a court order for his son to attend primary school.
If the leaders of educational institutions exclude such a child from education, it will prevent the child from moving to the next level, Igor said.
The Brazilian Ministry of Education did not respond to the issue. How can we identify a child with special abilities?
The assessments are conducted by psychologists, neuropsychologists, pedagogical experts and experts in the field.
A person’s special gifts are proven by testing. There are a few characteristics, however, that point to a person possessing a special gift.
They are:-
Being sharp, quick to learn or understand Ease of learning and great learning ability
Use strong words that are not appropriate for their age
☑️Quickly make excuses
☑️Leadership skills and self-confidence
☑️They have a great memory
☑️They have the ability to be creative
☑️They have the ability to direct and change ideas to some extent.
☑️Understand and observe
☑️They stick to the goal they want to reach
Children whose gifts are not identified may lose interest in learning and may develop behavioral problems.
“There are many gifted people who do not get good grades due to lack of motivation.
“Sometimes the boring and routine teaching and learning environment can irritate highly gifted children and they don’t develop their skills,” said Dr Fabiano Di Abrihu, a neuroscientist.
In other countries, including Brazil, there is no system for identifying people with special gifts.
Children with special needs are specially selected by their family, school or friends.
Researchers think the number of children with such special gifts is now smaller than is thought.
However, the issue of having special gifts is controversial.
“There is no agreed upon scientific literature in any form, and for me the controversial issue is that special gifts are related only to the ability to understand things,” he said.
What makes you a special gifted child?
According to experts, gifted children have an extensive gray area of the brain.
This is what makes the synapses work faster.
This part of the brain is affected by the cortex, which is located in the front of the brain and the structures of the brain that are involved in thinking.
The minds of gifted people are different from those of others, with the ability to think.
These people have large, strong neurons of the necessary length, says Dr Fabiano De Abrihu.
“We went to a neuropsychologist and he was tested, and the woman who assessed his abilities said Theon had special gifts,” Ribro said.
