GIFTED CHILDREN: 9 SYMPTOMS TO RECOGNIZE THEM - ECONOMÍA

You can detect gifted children if you know the characteristics and symptoms they normally show, whether they are 3, 5 years old or teenagers. In this article I will show you the most important signs and keys that you have to observe.

Françoys Gagné, PhD in Psychology from the University of Montréal, explains: “Gifted children are those students whose potentials differ from the average in one or more of the following domains: intellectual, creative, social and physical ability”.

For Gagné the key word is potential. It gives more importance to environmental factors than to innate intelligence; a child needs to be stimulated so that he can reach his potential.

In other words, without adequate stimulation from your environment, innate intelligence may not develop.

Are intelligence tests useful to detect gifted children?

Tests that calculate intelligence quotient (IQ) are often not accurate and adequate enough to detect gifted children. With what these children can obtain an average score in these tests.

The reasons can be diverse. Sometimes the levels of anxiety that they may present when taking the test interfere with their score.

Another interfering factor is that these tests often have timed subtests in which the highest scores are obtained by those who have taken the test more quickly.

Thus, those children who are very perfectionists and respond more slowly because they seek precision in their answers, will obtain a lower score in the total IQ.

A child with great activity may also have greater difficulty concentrating on more structured tasks such as those that these tests usually incorporate.

As we can see, the tests that evaluate the IQ are limited when it comes to identifying children with special abilities, therefore, the tests must be interpreted as one more piece of the puzzle.

9 Symptoms to Watch for in Gifted Children

If you suspect that your child may be gifted, it is important that you are informed so that you can detect it as soon as possible. These keys can help you in the process:

Have adult, science, or literature interests

The best way to recognize gifted children is through observation by teachers and, above all, parents. They should be on the lookout for any signs that seem out of the ordinary.

If we fail to identify gifted children we can run two risks:

First, that the child feels socially maladjusted, since he feels different from other children and does not understand why.

For example, Javi is an 8-year-old boy who likes to read about the universe in his free time. When several families get together with other children his age, Javi tries to play with them but soon after he gets bored and goes to where the parents are.

This example shows us a typical behavior of a gifted child.

What we see happening with children like Javi, is that other children his age see him as the strange child and they let him know. This makes them feel that they are strange and different from others, which negatively affects their self-esteem.

The second mistake we make when not identifying gifted children is losing the special abilities that a child with these characteristics can bring to society.

It should be clear that a gifted child does not project it onto school grades or test results.

Therefore, it is not a relevant factor to take into account when recognizing a gifted child. You have to take a look that goes beyond the academic results.

What can parents do to enhance and take advantage of their abilities?

Focus on reading
Play games like Scrabble, Rummikub, Boggle…
Assign personal tutors
Travel

Advanced language skills

While most children develop the ability to articulate sentences and understand complex language by the age of two, gifted children usually develop it at an earlier age.

The characteristics of language to take into account when identifying whether a child is gifted are the following:

A high development of vocabulary as well as easier to learn new words.
Tendency to speak fast.
They learn to read at an earlier age than children their own age. A large number of gifted children learn to read before even starting school.
They continually ask the why of what they see and what they hear hoping to get an answer or an explanation.
They have the ability to adapt their language depending on the situation in which they find themselves. For example, they are able to speak in a more complex and organized way when speaking to adults, and instead adapt their language to a simpler and more careless way when speaking to younger children.
They are capable and tend to enter adult conversations. They have a knack for understanding subliminal or ulterior messages, so be careful what you say!
Unlike normal children of the same age, gifted children are able to understand and carry out commands that involve multiple tasks, such as: make the bed, put the teddy bear in the closet, put your suitcase in the car and then take out the trash.

Developed cognitive abilities

All children have an urgent need to know and investigate the world around them. What distinguishes gifted children is the way they do it.

Their brains are constantly developing mental sponges and they are unstoppably incorporating new information and new ideas. They have a series of natural abilities such as the following:

They have a great capacity for observation and for giving meaning to what they see. They have an observation based on detail.
They quickly establish cause-and-effect relationships between things.
They tend to have an internal storage for a large number of themes and can access them quickly.
They have good ability in the analysis of complex elements, separating them into more elementary components and analyzing them systematically.
They can easily extract principles and can make generalizations about objects, people, or events.
They have a knack for picking up inconsistencies and inconsistencies. Critical ability.
They have a great ability for abstraction, conceptualization and synthesis.
They tend to enjoy intellectual activities.
They tend to be more interested in books recommended for children older than their age.
They have originality in their thoughts. They tend to make unusual and unconventional associations.
They have the ability to make relationships between objects or ideas that apparently have no relationship.
They do not feel inhibited when it comes to expressing their ideas and opinions. They often express disagreement in an emotionally intense way.
They have a flexible mentality and when faced with a problem they can see different alternatives and different ways of approaching it.

Emotional and behavioral abilities

Gifted children are often more sensitive than other children. They tend to feel a greater emotional intensity, they are empathic with the feelings of others in situations in which other children feel indifferent.

Emotional characteristics that gifted children possess can be:

Having that sensitivity, they tend to appreciate music and art. They can also be easily excited by the natural beauty of the mountains, the sunrise, the sea, or animals.
They enjoy spending time alone. Unlike other children who prefer to hang out with other children or with their family members, gifted children enjoy doing activities on their own, such as writing, painting, reading or simply delving into their thoughts.
They seem to not run out of batteries because they have a high level of activity. They are constantly moving, talking, exploring, prying.
They tend to feel that other children speak very slowly and become nervous about it. As well as feeling uneasy when they see that the person they are talking to goes around a lot and takes time to get to the important point.
They tend to have the facility to change in a new direction.
Due to their advanced abilities, they have a knack for relating to older children as well as adults.

Leadership

They manifest great leadership skills in a natural way.
They are good at stimulating the potential of other people and recognize their successes and abilities.
They have the ability to organize others in different tasks.
They are empathetic people and therefore have a great capacity to listen to others and understand their feelings. That is a fundamental aspect that makes them become leaders.
They are not authoritarian but because of their abilities they end up exercising authority but in a responsible way. Without ever abusing it.
They tend to support group members when they think it is necessary.
They are good team coordinators.
Others usually wait for a response from you when making a decision.
They recognize the successes of a group.
They understand how people feel and how groups work.
They are able to give directives in a clear and effective way.

Developed psychomotor skills

They are rhythmic.
They are athletic.
They have coordination, balance, and feel confident in physical activities.
They are original when it comes to changing the game mode and finding new variants.
They are energetic.
They are able to understand the intellectual aspect of psychomotor activities.
They show toughness and persistence in physical activities.

Artistic skills developed

Music

Good sense of rhythm.
Understand musical relationships.
Ability to discriminate sounds.
Good rhythmic coordination.
Good musical memory.
They use music to express feelings and experiences.
They make original tones.

Body expression

Shows interest and enjoys body language activities such as theater.
They immediately feel good playing the roles of other characters.
They communicate feelings with good facial, gestural, and postural expression.
They use their voices to reflect mood swings.
They like to evoke emotional responses from their listeners.

Art

They draw a wide variety of objects.
They draw with depth and good proportions.
They like to make three-dimensional figures out of clay or plasticine.
They use art to express emotions and experiences.
They treat art seriously and enjoy it.
They like to try new materials.

Other skills to watch

Unusual alertness since childhood.
Idealism, morality, and a sense of justice at a young age.
Aware of social problems and political and justice issues.
Long-lasting attention span and intense concentration.
Great memory capacity.
Absorbed in their own thoughts - dreamers.
Unusual sense of humor.
Perfectionist.
They like structure and order.

Covert skills

Not all gifted children meet these abilities in different areas. Often they show only a few of the many signs discussed above. For example, some begin to speak later than expected or are more emotionally reserved.

It is not, therefore, a matter of establishing rigid patterns but of helping parents and teachers to have a starting point. From which, the differences are obvious.

You should also bear in mind that a gifted child may have great ability in learning and emotional skills, and not have exceptional ability in cognitive abilities.

What often happens is that these children hide their abilities in order to better fit in with other children their age, or to avoid pressure to meet high expectations.

GIFTED CHILDREN: 9 SYMPTOMS TO RECOGNIZE THEM - ECONOMÍA - 2025