Help Your Gifted Child Early
Everyone wants the best for their children, so if want to improve your life and the life of your child then OlyLife recommends that you help your gifted child as early as possible. Here are three steps we think you should take if you suspect that your child is gifted.
Three Steps To Take If You Think Your Child Is Gifted
1. Have Your Child Tested – If your child shows signs of being gifted then you should nurture their gifts and confirm your suspicions with testing. Testing will help identify where your child excels and the experts can recommend ways to help your child’s advanced development. There are excellent centers that specialize in identifying early indications of giftedness and it is important to understand where your child falls on the spectrum so that you are nurturing as opposed to pushing their development.
2. Feed Your Childs Talents But Don’t Push – Encourage your child to use their gifts whether they be in math, reading, music, art, computers etc. Be careful not to force them or they may shy away from using or expanding their talents. Seek expert advice from folks such as Linda Silverman of Denver’s Gifted Development Center.
3. Remember The Whole Child – Some folks make the mistake of spending all of the time and resources developing one gift, but children still need to grow in many areas. Don’t sacrifice helping your son or daughter’s growth as a whole person by placing all of the effort in one area. A strength over done can become a weakness. Teach your child to have humility and not to be arrogant regarding their God given talents. Remember all children should be loved with an irrational amount of love, regardless of their abilities.
Keep Learning About How to Help Your Gifted Child
Each child is unique and your job is to help them develop their heart, mind, soul, passions and talents. The sooner you start the journey on educating yourself about how to help your gifted child the greater success you and your child will have. Remember, the schools are too busy to identify all of the kids who have special gifts and the programs are not tailored enough for each child – that’s where you come in. Read about how to help your gifted child, learn about the programs for gifted youth from Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY), Northwestern’s Midwest Academic Talent Search, Duke’s Talent Identification Program and so on. If you do, you will be making the most of your one and only life – That’s OlyLife!
In addition to our Education section, here are some excellent resources to help you raise your gifted child. So read on and improve your one and OlyLife!
Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students: Helping Kids Cope With Explosive Feelings
Parenting Gifted Children: The Authoritative Guide From the National Association for Gifted Children
Academic Advocacy for Gifted Children: A Parent’s Complete Guide
