How to detect and support your early child?

Today, I am interested in something that interests me at heart: how can parents (or at least entourage) detect and support their early child? In fact, I had previously talked about the characteristics of Zebra child. Nevertheless, it seems more than relevant to me to come back briefly to (1) allow my beloved readers and beloved readers to better interpret their child's gift and special needs and (2) propose, on my scale, some avenues for potential help.

In this article, we will therefore start by defining the High Intellectual Potential then lead to the characteristics of the child intellectually early. These characteristics will give us the keys to detect the potential of the gifted youth. Finally, I will offer you some ideas to allow children to flourish and their parents to listen attentively to support and guide them.

As usual, it's only about my adult advice to the parents of small zebras. This is not an absolute truth, only a return to experience.

Definition of early childhood

Early children are people who have intellectual quotient more than 130 on 1Wechsler scale – WISC. This represents about 2.5% of the population. However, this superior presupposed intelligence does not imply high intelligence as one might think. In reality, intellectually early children have a different cognitive function. That's why I don't like the term early, which tends to make it look like these students are just in advance. No, they are. different.

This new intellectual functioning is very large and more or less technical – it is moreover the whole subject of this site. Despite this, I like to simplify it as follows: people with high potential have two major and distinctive skills: (1) high potential intellectual, and (2) high potential emotional.

Let's take the intellectual abilities first. In a few words, the brain of the gifted has the best nerve connections. Nervous flows flow faster, more intensely, and are more numerous. In addition, the two hemispheres of the brain (analytical and creative) communicate much better. This operation allows for major changes in the field of memory and thought. Ideas are linked differently to each other via what is called the tree thought.

Finally, emotional abilities are increased as the early child is particularly sensitive to subtle variations in his environment. He feels and fears the world differently. They say he's hypersensitive. This hypersensitivity can also lead to hyperaesthesia: the sensations of the 5 senses are painful.

How to detect an early child?

The only sure way to detect an early child is to pass an IQ test. Indeed, only one registered psychologist HIP can identify children with high potential. However, I put a small asterisk on the psychometric balance. I am not convinced of the total and blind validity of the intellectual quotient tests. Many variables take into consideration, and may vary the score without justifying a decline or an increase in intelligence.

Nevertheless, it is very important to detect the gift in an early child in order to better understand the potential and specific needs of the child. Dear parents, in case of doubt, I recommend accompanying the child to be tested. Be careful, however, the IQ test represents a significant cost. Easily count 2 to 300€, and potentially a stressed or anxious child to take exams.

What are the characteristics of an early child?

If you do not opt for the "real" intellectual quotient test (which is perfectly understood), know that there are some common characteristics among gifted children. It is true that school difficulties (see outright school failure) or, on the contrary, class jumps are clichés to spot early students. Okay, a lot of people are spotted like that. But it's only because these children "get out of the norm," so we're looking for a justification for the phenomenon. Many (and mainly girls), manage to conform to society and pass almost unnoticed (j-is part of it). However, despite their chameleon aspect, they need special support and educational adaptations.

I have grouped the following three characteristics of an early child that I find most important:

1. Hypersensitivity : the child with high potential is a hypersensitive being who feels the world with more intensity;
2. Creativity Despite clichés based on their unusual intelligence, the gifted person works mainly at intuition and feeling (notably "because of" his hypersensitivity). Thus, zebra children are very creative whether from an artistic point of view as in the creativity of the solutions proposed to a problem;
3. The social gap : the gifted students have a rich inner life. They are extremely curious, and may be interested in extremely varied subjects that their comrades often find difficult to understand. Thus, they feel a great sense of lag with others.

To deepen your research, I invite you to pass the early childhood test.

Early childhood is hypersensitive

I had spoken quickly at the beginning of the article about the difference between the two high potentials (intellectual and emotional). Here, we find ourselves in the emotional capacity of the little zebra. In fact, the early child captures (without necessarily reporting) the small subtleties of his environment. For example, when I was going to school, I remember one morning that I was disturbed because the shutters of a house I was passing daily had been painted. I took a while to identify that it was that color change that had upset my daily life, but I really remember the feeling ofSomething's changed, it's not okay..

In some cases it is also possible for the child Highly Sensitive Person to develophyperaesthesia (sensory hypersensitivity). Personally, I am very quickly dazzled by the light, or then the t-shirt labels hurt me horribly, just like the seams of socks that can make me live a calvary if they are poorly positioned. The idea is that the sensations of the 5 senses are felt as painful.

Early children also show great empathy. They can perceive the emotions of others, without it being expressed. I think this requires a better reading of micro-expressions, tones of voice and body-language. Finally, when we talk about hypersensitivity, we cannot not forget emotional hypersensitivity. Ever since I was a kid, I've been an emotional ball. Nothing hurts me or makes me happy. As I grew up, I realized that these emotions were too strong compared to others. As a result, gradually, I learned to internalize them to the point of almost not expressing them.

Early childhood is usually creative (creative)

The two brain hemispheres of people with high potential communicate very easily. Thus, when solving a rather analytical problem (so left brain), early children tend to operate at the same time their intuition (right brain). This usually gives more creative answers than the average. Indeed, they make different associations of ideas because they do not live and feel the world in the same way. Thus, connections and causal links may seem, for some, unlikely.

When I was younger, I loved trying to find new ways to do things. And for that, I needed to understand their current functioning. For example, I remember being absolutely outraged by my schedule of 6^nd, college. In my opinion, it was not optimized. And in general, all schedules were poorly optimized. The same goes for carrying the textbooks (super heavy!) from home to college, then from room to room, then back to home. Anyway, I didn't like it. So I read and inquired about how this system was built. And I came to the simple conclusion that, instead of seeking to lighten the books to have a less heavy backpack, or to minimize the movement in the corridors by only going to nearby rooms, the simplest was to make teachers move, not the students. We would have gained (1) in the course of the intercourses, (2) in back pain by carrying the overloaded bags during the day, and (3) it would have forced some teachers to digitize their courses and thus potentially be able to give it to us remotely, online, and thus save even more time.

Today, special schools for gifted students develop a school path in which creativity is increasingly important. Thus, to accompany his early child in the gift and help him to flourish I recommend setting up creative activities at home or in his daily life.

Early childhood may present a social gap

This way of seeing and feeling the world quickly made me feel different. The feeling of social mismatch has come. Among my school buddies, none took time to calculate a better optimization of school schedules or to go to the CDI between noon and two and learn new things. No one had my curiosity. In parallel, I felt that my way of feeling was different from that of others. So it's all my different interests as well as my heightened sensitivity that made me feel in a social gap.

The more I read the adventures of other zebras about their early childhood, the more I notice this similar characteristic in all of us. Since our brain is connected differently, we find it difficult to be in social harmony with others. Our inner life is very rich. We are more than curious, and our interests differ from the "normal" interests of a child of our age.

Allow me to put you back on the side of the infographic view on another article which takes up the different typical profiles of intellectually early children. As you can see, not all of them have a social gap. Nevertheless, they all have specific characteristics.

Some associations help parents and early children

To help you with your youth, here is a list of three associations for early childhood and where you can interact with other parents and children who have the same problems. If you're going to meet them, don't hesitate to tell them that you're from me, it's always fun.

In any case, if you have any questions or would like to make a modification / precision to my articles, do not hesitate to send me a small message. Your feedback always makes me extremely happy!

Conclusion

In conclusion, there is no miracle method for detecting an early child, if it is to pass an IQ test. Only, since one does not pass these tests "like this, to have fun", one must first have doubts about the potential gift of the child (perhaps) early. This is where I come into play, offering you three characteristics of the gifted children who, in my view, should allow you to guide yourself.

Your child demonstrates a high sensitivity This sensitivity can be noticed in a sentimental and relational context, as in the case of physical and sensory sensitivity. The noises, light or labels of clothes scratching are usually widespread signs that should make you point in this direction.

Your child is creative (creative) and curious (curious) He (she) proposes new revolutionary ideas (on his scale) and may be interested in broad and varied subjects for a child of his/her age. In parallel, rich vocabulary and semantics are additional clues.

Your child seems to have a social gap This gap is a priori linked to differences of interest with those of his comrades. The child can try to erase this shift by adapting his behavior and vocabulary to better blend into the mass.