Children with high intellectual abilities are those who have a higher level of intellectual performance in a wide spectrum of subjects, and learn quickly and easily in a large number of disciplines.
There are three complex variables that would define the subject with high intellectual capacities: above-average intelligence, creativity and commitment or motivation for the task. Intelligence, being a multiple and not unitary factor, would not be enough to explain high capacities.
Young people with high intellectual capacities need special attention for an adequate management of their capacities and potentialities. The knowledge, awareness, resource endowment and training of educational agents is vital to ensure that they grow up healthy and happy..
Next I will present you 13 signs that can tell you that you are facing a child with high capacities. I will also give you guidelines to manage and promote the different characteristics.
Children with high capacities have a faster learning as well as greater ease in this whenever specific conditions are met.
One of the myths is that these children always learn faster in any subject and this is not true. This aspect is directly related to motivation, which, as in any other student, is key to learning..
We will be able to observe a very high level of performance in these students as long as their interests and needs are listened to and taken care of, finding out what they like, what aspects interest them the most, etc..
Perhaps the subject of language is one of the most striking aspects to detect a child with high capacities early. Children with high abilities have a much richer vocabulary and language than children their age.
For all this, it is important that we adapt to his level in conversations and that we respond to him based on his level of expression and understanding, avoiding the simplification of language just because he is a child..
His level of manipulation in terms of symbology and abstraction includes, in turn, the handling of relationships between people, events and ideas..
It is important to provide them with sources of information on various topics and to give them opportunities to present their reasoning through school work, dialogues, debates, etc..
In the school environment, it is important that as far as possible the student is allowed to handle the subjects from a global perspective, so that he can elaborate said generalizations freely..
The teacher must be accessible and interested in the face of these discoveries.
For this reason, it is necessary that the structuring of school activities be as flexible as possible, allowing the student to reach the same solution in different ways, diversifying the means of learning and leaving space for them to explore their creative possibilities at different levels..
We have to make space in the curriculum, especially in the case of children with high abilities, so that they learn different subjects through a center of interest.
If this especially motivating area is, for example, outer space, we can design activities or learning guides with that theme so that the child feels more motivated.
They can keep many items and are good at storing answer sets to solve items.
It is appropriate to propose complex tasks in which the solution depends on a considerable number of elements, inviting them to reason and reflection.
They stand out for their maturity when reasoning about the facts of life and for their proactive attitude to eliminate injustices and social problems.
For this reason, it can be very stimulating for them to raise ethical dilemmas, debates about different social aspects, etc..
High capacities are not limited to their great verbal ability, but also in the ease with which they express ideas through writing, images, sounds or gestures.
It may be a good idea to propose games and activities in which different means of communication and expression are involved..
Children with high capacities usually want to perform tasks brilliantly and stand out, in general, with respect to other peers.
We must promote a healthy competitiveness with himself and at the same time make him understand progressively the value of teamwork and what each person can contribute with their different abilities..
Sometimes, the dyssynchrony with respect to their classmates can make the child with high abilities seek to interact with people who are better adapted to their intellectual level.
We can promote communication between students of different grades through cooperative activities so that the child with high abilities diversifies their relationships.
In general, gifted children tend to have leadership skills, and their communication skills help them influence others.
It is convenient to manage this ability well to make it a factor that favors their development, giving them the possibility of directing projects, tutoring other colleagues, etc., as long as it is combined with cooperative activities..
Children with high capacities have a great ability to question and evaluate their own and others' actions.
When it comes to resolving conflicts or talking about inappropriate behavior on their part, it is necessary to give space to this reflective capacity, allowing them to give their reasons and to reach conclusions about their way of acting, it is necessary to promote healthy development in these children.
It should be noted that on numerous occasions we meet people who stand out in some way and who in a colloquial way can be defined as having high abilities.
However, in order to correctly identify high capacities, it is necessary to be clear about other related concepts.
Precocity, technically, is not an intellectual phenomenon but an evolutionary one. This term refers to children who present a more advanced development in terms of their appearance and consolidation.
Although some children tend to be precocious in some specific developmental area, this is not always the case, and not all precocious children present all the characteristics that define high intellectual abilities.
Talent, on the other hand, refers to people who excel in a certain area, for example, art or mathematics. However, talented people rank average in all other areas.
The genius, finally, is the person who does a “brilliant work”, who carries out something that is innovative for the benefit of humanity. Thus, not all children with high abilities are geniuses, although geniuses do tend to have high abilities..
When describing children with high capacities in order to correctly identify them, we must base ourselves on scientific guidelines, avoiding the popular beliefs that exist about this group..
Therefore, before addressing the common characteristics that will help us to detect a student with high abilities, we must clarify the following points:
As we said, the only thing that these myths can do is hinder our evaluation, so it is convenient to know them and, as far as possible, avoid them..
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