It has been observed that a gifted child isolates itself from others and works on his ideas even at the cost of forgoing other fun activities children of its age indulge in. This sure is an indication that this child needs to be watched. One sees the child watching tv programmes or surfing the net for information on the subject he is specially interested in.
If a child shows interest in painting for example, one will find the walls of that house scribbled all over but those scribbles would have some meaning. It is then that the parents should take from there, encourage the child, appreciate it, see that the child gets time to pursue its interest. There are several other areas a child shows interest. Some have a tremendous memory and one suddenly finds the child answering questions that an adult is supposed to answer. Everyone gets amazed at this phenomena.
Whatever be the area in which the child is gifted it is the duty of the parent to encourage the child in that direction. It becomes difficult in the initial stages to understand the child and when the child fails at school the parents tend to discourage the child from paying attention to what the child is gifted with and that might spell disaster for the child leading it into depression.Many a time parents are so absorbed in their own life that they do not see that they have a child in the house who is different and because of lack of time parents do not understand the child and indirectly discourage the child from going further with what it is gifted with. It is important therefore that parents observe these gifted children closely and support them in every way.
These gifted children need handling by teachers, parents, friends and family. Their emotions in particular are at high stake when enough encouragement is not given as everyone hankers after standing first in class and this ambition can ruin a child's particular interest and it will go into depression. This is the most important aspect of handling a gifted child. Teachers in school in particular have a role to play when a student displays characteristics that do not fit in with school standards. Teachers should have the patience and expertise to understand the situation as sometimes these students could be smarter than the teachers themselves. And when this happens there is a tendency for the teachers to downplay such children or even punish them. Such children do go through challenges that sometimes force them to leave home out of despair.
A gifted child is a responsibility that parents and teachers should handle with great care. Some children may not come upto the standards academically. It would be unfair in that case to treat them unsuitable. A gifted child needs to be handled by a gifted teacher or a gifted parent as they too have to be gifted to identify that the child is indeed gifted. Whatever field the child may be gifted be it in music, painting, writing, sports it needs to be provided with whatever is needed to pursue and if the parent is not financially sound there are NGOs who could step in and provide the required finances as it is not every day that a gifted child is born.
A gifted child needs recognition. It is this recognition that encourages the child to go further. Giving it good publicity will make the child realise that he is normal like any other child and not accentric. Organising programmes for the child to perform, or display its work is one way to give the child recognition. Government sponsored programmes that some times fully pay for whatever is needed to go further is one way to take care of such gifted children.
Creating a competitive atmosphere is also necessary for the child to excel. These programmes could be extended even to an intentional level.
Taking care of a gifted child is not an easy task. It tends to get into moods swings. The best therapy for such children is to get them into yoga and meditation and also a much love too.
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