- List of genius children throughout history
- 1- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the prodigy musician
- 2- Pablo Picasso, the premature painter
- 3- William James Sidis, the most intelligent person in history
- 4- Akrit Jaswal, the precocious surgeon
- 5- Bobby Fischer, the best chess player in the world
- 6- Kim Ung Yong, the young man who worked at NASA
- 7- Sufiah Yusof, from Oxford to prostitute
- 8- Albert Einstein, one of the most intelligent minds in history
- 9- Michael Kearney, the young man with the most university degrees in the world
- 10- Kathleen Holtz, the youngest lawyer in the United States
- 11- Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel Prize in Literature
- 12- Gregory Smith, the boy nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
- 13- Colin Carlson, ecologist prodigy boy
- 14- Shakuntala Devi, the human computer
- 15- Jacob Barnett, the astrophysicist who stands up to Einstein
- 16- Saffron Pledger
- 17- Bill Gates, the master of computer science and business
- 18- Theodore Kaczynski, the teacher who became a terrorist
- 19- William Rowan Hamilton, the boy who spoke thirteen languages
- 20- Juan Caramuel, the ecclesiastical philosopher and mathematician
- How to identify a genius child?
The geniuses children are characterized by outstanding individuals have some traits, behaviors and intellectual quotient much more developed than the average, being also doubly surprising because not usually exceed fifteen when his potential is extraordinary.
They stand out above the rest, drawing the attention of those around them thanks to their intellect. Arts such as music or painting and science such as mathematics are some of the skills that these highly gifted individuals master.
List of genius children throughout history
1- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the prodigy musician
Probably the most famous boy genius in all of history, Mozart was already capable of playing the harpsichord when he was only four years old. At the age of six he knew how to compose, which led to his first symphony at eight and opera at twelve.
His concerts in front of the powerful of the time quickly made him known throughout the continent, performing for Prince Maximilian III of Austria or at the imperial court of Jose II of Habsburg in Vienna and Prague.
His memory and improvisation were totally prodigious, being able to read music at sight.
2- Pablo Picasso, the premature painter
The greatest exponent of the surrealist and cubist movement was also considered a talented boy genius. At the age of fourteen he was already able to paint his first great work: The First Communion, exhibited in Barcelona.
A year later, another of his paintings, Ciencia y Claridad, won a gold medal in Malaga and received the honorable mention at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Madrid.
3- William James Sidis, the most intelligent person in history
Considered by many to be the smartest person ever seen, William (1898-1944) set the world record at the time as the youngest person to have entered college at the young age of eleven.
Furthermore, at the age of 8 he was already able to speak eight languages, in addition to having managed to develop a table of logarithms based on the number twelve on which he gave a lecture at Harvard.
His IQ was estimated at between 250 and 300, something totally exorbitant for a human brain.
4- Akrit Jaswal, the precocious surgeon
Image via: oprah.com
Akrit Jaswal is considered one of the brightest minds in all of India. Its coefficient is 146, the highest in the country.
At the age of four he was reading Shakespeare (something he claimed on the Oprah Winfrey show) and at the age of eleven he enrolled at the Imperial University of London. Akrit would be able to become a surgeon in no time.
The boy has already stated that his priorities are to find a cure for both cancer and AIDS.
5- Bobby Fischer, the best chess player in the world
Robert James Fischer was capable of playing chess at a high level at the age of six. His learning was developed through reading the explanatory brochures that came with the game.
His IQ was 184, surpassing even that of Albert Einstein himself. At the age of twelve he decided not to go to school anymore. Fischer himself claimed that he would rather be the best chess player in the world than one of many with any career.
At the time, he managed to break the record of the youngest person to achieve the title of Grandmaster at the age of fifteen.
6- Kim Ung Yong, the young man who worked at NASA
Kim Ung Yong was a showman in Korea. With just one year he was already capable of fluent conversations, with three years he could read both Korean and Japanese, German and English, and with four he could solve integral and differential calculations.
This helped him to demonstrate his skills in a Japanese television program, which led him to be, at just seven years old, invited to study in the United States. He would get a doctorate in physics before he was sixteen and signed a job contract as a researcher at NASA.
Today he dedicates his time to the publication of articles and is considered one of the smartest men on earth.
7- Sufiah Yusof, from Oxford to prostitute
Image via: telegraph.co.uk
One of the earliest women to enter Oxford. However, Sufiah had a rough childhood as her father was obsessed with having gifted children.
To do this, he subjected them to sub-zero temperatures so that the brain received stimuli that promoted learning outside the normal.
At just thirteen years old, and thanks to his skill with numbers, he got a place at the prestigious UK university. Disgruntled, she decided to escape and find a position in an internet café, which led to her working as a prostitute.
8- Albert Einstein, one of the most intelligent minds in history
Considered one of the most intelligent people in history, her past as a genius child does not go unnoticed.
Intelligent and technical, his grades were out of the ordinary and his boredom in class - especially in math - was palpable. However, this led him to opt for his own ideas and studies, becoming one of the most important physicists in history.
9- Michael Kearney, the young man with the most university degrees in the world
Michael Kearney is the young man with the most college degrees in the world. His gifts were already seen to come from a very young age, since with 10 months he was able to read and with six years he graduated from high school.
At the age of ten, he obtained a degree from the University of Alabama (USA) and at the age of seventeen he obtained a new degree from Vanderbilt University (USA). At the age of 21 he already had four university degrees and at 22 he obtained a doctorate.
Kearney has entered the Guinness Book of Records as the young man with the most college degrees. In 2006 he managed to win a million dollars in the television contest Gold Rush and 25,000 in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
10- Kathleen Holtz, the youngest lawyer in the United States
A native of Los Angeles, California, Kathleen began her studies at the university at the age of ten, graduating in philosophy at fifteen.
After that, she would begin a law career to become the youngest lawyer in the United States at eighteen years old, when the average age in the country is thirty.
11- Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel Prize in Literature
Indian literary man who can claim to have been the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Thanks to his intelligence, he was able to write his first poem when he was only eight years old. At sixteen he had already published his first short story and several dramatic works.
He also devoted himself to other types of arts such as painting or music.
12- Gregory Smith, the boy nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
Graduated in mathematics thanks to a scholarship received at age ten and valued at more than seventy thousand dollars.
Gregory Smith always had a pacifist temperament and has been considered a key person in the peace process between the US and the USSR during the Cold War.
Later, he would be nominated up to three times to get the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work in places like Sao Paulo, Rwanda or Kenya.
13- Colin Carlson, ecologist prodigy boy
Graduated from Stanford University (USA) at the age of eleven, this young man achieved a double degree with honors in ecology and evolutionary environmental biology.
His passion for ecology has led him to fight around the world to try to save the environment and try to raise awareness about the problems that are currently occurring.
14- Shakuntala Devi, the human computer
At the age of three, and thanks to the card games she played with her parents, this Indian woman began to develop a gifted mathematical ability. It was dubbed the "human-computer."
At the age of six he made mathematical presentations at different universities. His greatest feat was managing to multiply the number 7,686,369,774,870 x 2,465,099,745,779 in 28 head seconds.
15- Jacob Barnett, the astrophysicist who stands up to Einstein
Self-taught, Jacob Barnett suffers from Asperger syndrome. One of his first feats was to learn algebra, geometry and trigonometry in just one week. He also managed to memorize a road map of his entire state, reciting the roads from memory.
At the age of eight he dropped out of high school and attended Indiana University (USA) to teach advanced classes in astrophysics.
Young Jacob rose to fame because he is doing an expanded version of Einstein's theory of relativity.
16- Saffron Pledger
One of the genius children who is giving the most talk. At just three years old, Saffron Pledge already had an IQ of 140, being able to formulate complex sentences and recite the entire alphabet.
Saffron is forty points above the American national average and belongs to Mensa, the club for genius kids.
17- Bill Gates, the master of computer science and business
He had barely stopped crawling and his curiosity about computers led him to become one of the richest people in the world while still a young man.
The reason for his success has been due to his ability from a very early age for business and marketing, being a very innovative person and with the ability to recycle.
18- Theodore Kaczynski, the teacher who became a terrorist
Theodore Kaczynski can boast of having become the youngest professor at the University of California (USA) at the age of twenty-five.
His IQ is 167 points, something that helped him get admitted to Harvard at the age of sixteen.
Unfortunately, his attacks were known all over the world: he sent more than fifteen bombs to different universities and airlines, killing three people and injuring twenty-three others.
To this day, this philosopher and mathematician is serving a life sentence.
19- William Rowan Hamilton, the boy who spoke thirteen languages
Considered one of the most important mathematicians in Ireland. His abilities were for the language were totally innate, and it is that at the young age of five years, the Dubliner was already able to speak fluently Latin, Greek and Hebrew, in addition to his mother tongue.
At the age of thirteen, the number of mastered languages rose to thirteen, among which was Persian, Italian or Sanskrit.
Later, he would be appointed as Professor of Astronomy, Director of the Dunsink Observatory and the Astronomer Royal of Ireland, all while still a student!
20- Juan Caramuel, the ecclesiastical philosopher and mathematician
This Spaniard from the seventeenth century was one of the most important minds of his time.
Since he was little he was already pointing out ways and his ingenuity was astonishing. His precocity helped him to solve various mathematical problems and even be able to publish astronomical tables when he was only ten years old.
How to identify a genius child?
Next I am going to present you a series of indications to identify gifted children.
- At birth, they tend to get angry if you stand in front of them for long periods of time. You will also notice that, even as babies, they seem to be alert at all times.
- They learn to walk and speak much faster than other children their age. Typically, they achieve "milestones" more easily than an ordinary boy.
- Their vocabulary and language is quite complex and they can create complex sentences without any problem.
- They have a strong tireless desire to explore, investigate and understand the environment around them.
- When they are interested in something and understand it, they quickly hate it to try to find other types of goals: they get bored and need new information to learn.
- The subjects they are most concerned about are letters and numbers, opting for active reading or problem solving.
- They distinguish with great ease what is the difference between reality and fantasy, something that is very difficult to observe in ordinary children who are in mediocrity.
- Another of the qualities, and one of the most curious is school failure. In Spain, gifted or genius children with school failure are dated at 50%. The reason is due to different problems of motivation (it is easy for them to perform tasks), self-esteem or low resistance to frustration (when something goes wrong, it is difficult for them to compose themselves and move on).
These characteristics are the most common, although not the definitive ones. It should be noted that the true diagnoses begin to be made after five or six years. There are exceptions, since there have been documented cases of gifted children who take longer to develop their capacities or find it difficult to relate to the environment.