Gifted child : high potential, but high risk

DELAHAYE CATHERINE/SIPA

Published the 18.10.2017 at 11: 12 am

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What we expect as an opportunity or a gift is not experienced like this by the person concerned : the gifted understands everything very quickly and is bored in class. He is disappointed by the school that does not meet its expectations, and risk of dropping out at any time. He perceives very quickly the difference with the others, a difference difficult to live with because it is out of step with his peers : he does not have the same centers of interest and therefore, it is difficult to make friends and then lives in its own bubble away ; it is hypersensitive and suffers from this difference.

Gifted, early, in advance, with a high potential, the qualifiers for these children are many, and in France we are talking about children intellectually precocious. But precocity is to say that these children are just ahead and so that one day they might be overtaken by the other. This is not the case.

Children increasingly many

These children would be more numerous, perhaps because they are detected more and think more often before problems in school. There would be 200 000 in 10 million students between 3 and 18 years of age or approximately 5% of children, either one to two children early for class.

The spot is not easy ! This is not necessarily a 1st class, on the contrary : behind all the child dissipated, or even failure, may be hiding a prodigy ! A dunce is a bit special, which started with a baby very wide awake : he walked at around 12 months instead of 4, it is expressed well in 2 years, and 3 years had the vocabulary and phrases from a child of 7 or 8 years. He was able to read prior to the entry into preparatory courses and, in particular, has laid thousands of times the question ” why ” about everything, and in particular of the meaning of life… In fact a child who had issues of adults, but with the emotional needs of the child and who has become a hypersensitive…

They read fast and a lot, but write poorly

Their writing is often bad because the motor skills of their hands does not follow the speed of intellectual development. They are unable to put their laces, but you asked what there is after death ! In physical education, these are not arrows ; in soccer, the ball their queue between the feet. For them, it is upsetting and they refuse so these games with, once again, away from the group.

The scientists think that they use their right brain, while the human being uses more of the left half of the brain, with the result that they are more intuitive than reasoned. But anyway, the two parts of the brain work at full speed so information is processed more quickly. This is not all : his senses are exacerbated, more efficient : its view is broader, his hearing allows him to listen to several conversations at once, his sense of smell is ultra-sensitive….

How to identify ?

As soon as there are doubts, it is best to consult a psychologist or a child psychiatrist to do psychometric tests. These IQ tests are reliable from the age of 4 years. It is considered that the child is early for an IQ between 120-125, and for other between 130 -135. But not everything needs to be summed up at the QI for the diagnosis of premature child. It should be a full psychological evaluation and in-depth.
But above all, it is urgent to take care of themselves, because the children are fragile, vulnerable and very exposed, paradoxically, to school failure and learning disorders.

Remains to know what to do : the answer is complex. The psychologist must be very present to help the family to find the right formula to insert the child.

The core of the support also lies in the education : to jump or not a class change or no establishment to find one where talents can express themselves. “It would simply be necessary that the school recognizes and takes into account our peculiarities of operation” : that is, the ones who say it !