Parents can feed the fire of the gifted child's learning curiosity at a very early age. Teaching the child how to study systematically and approach material with a process is one method to foster learning. Here are some practical tips to keeping the child engaged in her academic pursuits.
Provide a Wide Array of Stimuli to the Gifted Child
As much as possible, as early as a parent can, is good advice with one caveat. Do not allow the child to become so overwhelmed by information and stimuli that she shuts herself off to it. The idea is to encourage both evaluative thinking and divergent production (flexibility, fluency, elaboration skills) at the same time.
Gifted children want to think for themselves, rather than to be taught. Traditional teaching techniques tend to focus on repetition, memorization and recognition. When teaching a large group of students, this certainly makes sense to incorporate the minimal ability of the group. Gifted kids would become bored and disruptive if this were the only way they were allowed to learn information.
Children have a natural propensity to explore their environment and learn by interacting with it. Encouraging her to do this from a very early age, while taking her safety into account at all times, will help set her up for spontaneous learning experiences.
Allow the Gifted Child's Interest to Dictate his Direction
Many gifted children have very strong interests and skills in one area or another. Some are fascinated with puzzles, math equations and symbols. Others are word-centered and love word play and word games. Still other gifted children show a very strong interest in music, engineering or languages.
A parent needs to encourage the child's unusual ideas or solutions to problems. Listen to his ideas and nurture thinking skills. Learning in a supportive environment is best, particularly when it is not dependent on constant evaluation, as is the case in many traditional classroom settings. Learning for the sake of and the joy of discovery should be encouraged and reinforced in the young child.
Provide Learning Opportunities Outside the Classroom on a Consistent Basis
The gifted child who can develop an appreciation for creative learning will welcome the chance to get as much of it as possible. Regardless of the child's classroom setting or even before she has a classroom, trips to the library, museums, concerts, art galleries and science centers will be her classroom.
Even without these enrichment experiences, the child will develop his own creative techniques for learning and interacting with his environment. This may take the form or fantasy, active play, experimentation with common objects, etc. Learning will find a way even without directed enrichment.
How a Parent Can Squelch Creative Learning in the Gifted Child
Insisting that there is only one correct way of doing something will be a turn-off for the creative learner. Also, discouraging creative play or making fun of the child's "pretend" world would be disruptive to her creativity.
Comparing one sibling to another in terms of interests and development is a potentially damaging act, since one child or another will be found to be less capable in some way. To the contrary, advising the child that everyone learns at a different level and in various ways as a natural part of growing up will allow her to feel good about herself and others.
In summary, helping gifted children learn naturally involves exposing them to learning stimuli early and often. Though the classroom setting is a good learning environment, other settings are superior for gifted kids in particular, who learn best by interacting with stimuli. Valuing the child's contributions, even if they come up with unusual solutions to problems or participate in fantasy as part of the learning process is important.
Being critical of the way a child comes up with ideas or discouraging variations on the "right" answer to a problem will not be indicative of promoting freedom in learning or experimenting with ideas for the gifted child.
Please also read Giifted_Children_and_Creativity for more information on this subject.
References:
Fertig, Carol, Raising a Gifted Child, TX: Profrock Press, 2009.
Torrance, E. Paul, Goff, Kathy, Fostering Academic Creativity in Gifted Kids, Journal of Creative Behavior, NY: Educational Resources Information Center, 1989.
Therese Haberman - With a MS degree and 25 years in HR mgmt, in 2005, Ms.Therese began a writing career specializing in children and HR.
Join the Conversation