Children with high capacities are those who have a great capacity for intellectual and creative performance. The data indicate that in Spain the number of children with high abilities can reach 300.000, although only 1% of them are diagnosed.
It is therefore the task of the parents themselves and of the teachers themselves to observe certain signs or signals in children that indicate that they have high capacities.
High abilities in children
High capacity can manifest itself in three different ways:
- The child excels in all fields of intelligence, which would indicate that he is a gifted child.
- The child scores fairly high on several tests and not all, so it would seem that the little one has talent.
- If the child, in addition to being gifted or talented, shows great creativity, it is said that he is a genius.
WHO considers that a child has high capacities when your IQ is over 130.
Signs that the child has high abilities
There are a series of common signs or signs in all those children who have high capacities. These are pretty obvious signs for parents and teachers alike. These signs vary according to the age group of the child.
From birth to two years of age:
- Babies are able to lift their heads before arriving at the first month of life.
- The first word they say around 5 or 6 months.
- At the age of two, children are able to carry on a conversation without any problem with an adult.
- Are able to control sphincters at the age of two.
- They can draw a human figure with two and a half years.
- The vocabulary they have for their age it is quite extensive and broad.
Between three and six years of age:
- At the age of three, the child is able to read.
- They develop great imagination and creativity, so they really enjoy drawing or creating and making their own stories.
- They are quite perfectionists and they have a great memory.
- They are quite emotional children and they empathize a lot with other people.
- Despite their age, they tend to show great concern for issues like death or religion.
- They have a terrible hunger when it comes to learning and his curiosity about things is insatiable.
- When something does not interest them, they are often too easily abstracted.
From six years of age:
- Conclusion children who have a great time with certain activities that are not according to their age, such as chess, sudokus or calculation problems. On the creative side, they show a lot of interest in music or painting.
- They show no interest in sports and find it difficult to make friends. They are quite comfortable interacting with adults.
- Competitiveness is a fairly clear element in this type of children. They do not like to lose anything and are often quite frustrated at it. Tantrums due to this are usually quite common.
- They are not able to accept the rules as long as they are not well argued. This causes them many problems with their own parents.
- They are born leaders and have critical thinking in the face of problems that often arise. They usually look for the appropriate solution to these problems.
It must be made very clear that a child with high capacities is not the same as ADHD. In many cases, both terms are often confused, which often leads to a misdiagnosis. It is therefore important to take the child to a professional who knows how to evaluate him at all times and to be right with the diagnosis. A bad appraisal is behind numerous school failures. Therefore, do not hesitate to take your child to a specialist, in the case of observing some of the above-mentioned signs.