How to Identify a Child Prodigy

A child prodigy is defined as a child, who at a very early age, demonstrates exceptional ability and skills in a particular field that is beyond their level of maturity.

If a child displays extraordinary skills and shows a deep understanding in a particular subject by the age of 10, then that child is termed as a prodigy. Innate talent and a lot of hard work goes into making a prodigy. Here are ways on how you can distinguish whether a child is a prodigy or not.

✿ Child prodigies have a superior memory as compared to other kids of their age. They have the ability to recall even the most trivial things.

✿ Such children have a very vivid imagination. They learn and pick up new things at a very young age, and at a pace much faster than other kids. They display very good reasoning ability and have a much better understanding of their environment and situations around them because of a heightened sense of perception and observing everyday things.

✿ An unusual knack for solving problems makes these children stand out among their peers. They have a unique fascination for numbers and can do complex math calculations mentally and very quickly.

✿ They achieve significant milestones much earlier than other children. They can even exhibit highly refined motor development skills from the start, which a normal child is not expected to perform.

✿ Unlike normal children, who do not have a long attention span, child prodigies show a lengthy attention span and remain alert for long durations of time. In some cases, such kids sleep for shorter durations than other kids.

✿ They learn words at a very young age, and are talking fluently even before other kids have started forming small sentences. They usually have an impressive vocabulary and pick up linguistic skills quite fast.

✿ You may find that such children get easily bored with playing everyday games, which other children seem to enjoy. They prefer to engage themselves in more complex and challenging games, like chess. They love to solve crosswords and jigsaw puzzles, or play games which are more demanding and challenge their creativity.

✿ Extremely curious, they have a lot of questions about everything, even things that other kids cannot yet comprehend. Even as toddlers, they are motivated to explore their surroundings, and learn new things.

✿ They are very focused, driven to achieve better results, and strive to attain perfectionism in whatever they do.

If you think your child meets any of the above criterion, you may have a super-smart kid! In such circumstances, get your child's IQ level tested. Let your kid undergo the Stanford-Binet IQ testing. An individual with an IQ score of 140 or above is classified as a genius. You can visit a child specialist who can aid you in understanding your child's gifted abilities.

Arguably the world's most famous child prodigy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a musical genius. Born in Salzburg, he began composing his own music at the age of five, and performed in various cities in Europe even before he had reached his teens.

Born in Tamil Nadu, India, Ramanujan was a math genius, and exhibited an inborn talent in solving advanced trigonometric problems at the tender age of ten.

Even before he had turned eighteen, he had deeply studied and researched 'Euler-Mascheroni constant' and 'Bernoulli numbers'. His major contributions to the field of mathematics include the 'Ramanujan prime' and 'Ramanujan theta function'.

Co-founder of the Cubist movement, Picasso was a world-renowned painter, who demonstrated remarkable talent as an artist even in his childhood years. An exponent of neoclassicism and surrealism, Picasso can be said to be one of the world's most prolific painters.

Having achieved the title of Grandmaster at fifteen years, Judit Polgár was an unusually talented chess player even at the tender age of five. She was competing in tournaments by the age of six, and even played blindfold chess when she was just seven.

Considered by many to be the greatest player that chess has ever seen, Bobby Fischer was also an author and wrote about the game of chess. He was a proficient chess player by six, and even dropped out of high school and dedicated himself completely to the game.

Remember, a child prodigy needs the same kind of love, patience, and support a normal child requires. In certain cases, gifted children realize that they are different and that they stand out from among their peers, and this may lead to isolation and decreased social development.

Motivating your child to excel is good, but never pressurize your child to perform exceptionally well, or it may backfire and prove detrimental to the child's progress.