Discover your kid’s talent and help him achieve his goals
What is talent?
To understand the term talent, I quote from the book ”Excellence” by American social reformer John W Gardener: ‘There are those who perform great deeds and those that make it possible for others to perform great deeds. There are pathfinders and path preservers. There are those who nurture and those who inspire. Talent is cheaper than table salt and what separates a talented individual from a successful one is a lot of hard work.’
A mother is the first child’s teacher as education starts at home and continues throughout his life. The more we know, the more we want to know because we feel that our children deserve the best. Every child is born with a gift and it is good that one starts nurturing the talent as early as possible. Venues like kindergartens expose your child to different styles of creativity as they perform a wide range of activities at the early-learning institutions.
However, parents do not always recognise their children’s talents, especially if the skills do not fit into the traditional parameters of the classroom. The beginning of the school year is a perfect time to discover and develop your child’s strengths. Make hay while the sun shines.
We know we are creative beings, yet we are also well aware that sometimes our creativity stalls, or appears to have vanished completely. The secret is identifying those talents and then using them. Successful people do what they do best every day.
Talent in children is precious. When parents hold back a child’s natural talent, this may impact on the child’s self-confidence. This may affect what the child does in future and in turn have adverse effect on the parent-child relationship. This absence of recognition for their talent may lead to an unhappy life due to resentment and latent hostility towards the parent.
From my experience, nurturing children’s talents makes them feel at ease around people and as soon
as they can talk, they love to engage in conversations to bond with others. When they become toddlers and can understand, we teach them how to be cautious of strangers to stay safe. They enjoy outdoors
activities in order to have maximum interaction with other children. We give them the freedom to do so as this nurtures their innerbeing and builds confidence.
From toddlerhood onwards, much can be done towards fostering your child’s talents. Nowadays, there are workshops, lessons, conferences, sports, field trips, camps, et cetera that mentor kids. These will provide all the enrichment a gifted and talented child would need.
Developing a child’s intellectual ability means helping him or her to develop physically, emotionally, socially, cognitively and intuitively. Make sure your gifted child has enough and planned educational activities and talent programmes. This grants the child the opportunity to explore all of these areas and ensure he or she reaches his or her full potential.
Ways to identify a gifted child
There are ways to spot a talent or gift in a child. One way is if he or she shows excellent academic performance in a particular subject in school. The teachers can also play a major role in identifying talent in a child based on the child’s performance in class tests, assignments, classroom discussions and a general observation of the child during school hours.
Talents need not always be present only in conventional fields like drawing or singing. Nurture a talent by nature; be able to raise a happy, healthy and responsible child through his or her personality type. If your child is very good at chitchat and is always able to make his point firmly while debating or arguing on a subject, your child has qualities that can make a good lawyer.
Another way is paying attention to the kind of programmes he or she likes to watch on television, which can help in spotting interests. For example, if they enjoy games like solving puzzles, number games which challenge the brain and enjoy playing with other toys or games, which involve use of the intellect.
Children who begin to speak at a very early age demonstrate an ability to grasp languages and vocabulary, exhibiting an amazing talent. If you discover your child is curious about any given topic, it shows a great zeal and enthusiasm for that subject and usually the kid will ask endless number of questions until he or she gets a reply.
Nurturing talent
After discovering your child’s talent, you then need to nurture it. Encourage your kid so he or she is not afraid to fall in love with something and pursue it with intensity. This is one of the ways to nurturing your child’s talent.
Another way is to know, understand, practice, develop and enjoy his or her greatest strengths. Let him or her free himself or herself from the expectations of others and play his or her game. Find a great teacher or mentor who will help you pursue your child’s talent; don’t waste energy trying to make the child all-rounded. Let him or her do what he or she loves most and can do well.
Do not take the talent of your child for granted. We need to assess not only intellectual skills, but also softer skills such as emotional intelligence, values, creativity, ability to work in teams, to think outside the box, entrepreneurial skills and more importantly, the willingness to learn and share. This is where the best brains start.
END: BL 42 / 26-27