How To Discover & Promote Your Child’s Skills & Talents

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Toyin Osaigbovo

When one reads about child prodigies, one wonders how they are able to achieve the feat. They are not magicians neither are they more special than your children. They have only been able to discover those special skills they possess and work on them in order to perfect them.

Here are some tips to enable you discover your child’s talents/skills and help them make the most of them…

1. MONITOR YOUR CHILD’S DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES

While your child is growing, monitor the developmental milestones. Note the ones that your child meets and surpasses early. Also, look out for where they are trailing. This will help you know your child’s innate strengths and weaknesses. This sometimes is a measure of knowing gifted children.

For instance, a child that talks early could be good with words. Also watch the child’s expressions and what your child picks interest in. A child could also be physically more active than others or enjoy jumping or running. This could be an indication of your child’s budding skills in sports.

2. INVEST IN TOYS

Purchase educational toys for your child that teaches various skills. Watch what interests your child and what he has advanced skills in. Sometimes, a child could have advanced skills in a specific area and show more interest in another. It is important to note this and try to marry the two if possible. Then try to buy more toys that fuse these two interests or at least toys that promote each of the interests.

3. OBSERVE

Watch your children at work or play and note what excites them. Watch out for expressions of satisfaction. Get involved with work and play, note your child’s interests and what he doesn’t like, as well as those in between. Make notes of these things and like a scientist, let your observation lead you to a reasonable conclusion.

It is important to also observe and differentiate between innate, learnt and copied skills. A child could love to sing because the mum likes to sing and not because the child has the gift of the vocals, but at the same time, a child could have the gift and also have a role model that likes to sing. We need to know the difference and work with what we have.

4. LIST POSSIBLE OPTIONS

After careful observation, we need to draw conclusions. A very active child with highly developed motor skills could have martial arts, tennis, soccer, basketball, sprints, etc, as a list of possible options. A child that you think is cerebral could have several mind sports like chess or scrabble.

Draw up a list ranging from sports to music to photography and and so on.

5. INTRODUCE VARIOUS ACTIVITIES

A child that is cerebral and loves numeracy could tend more towards scrabble than chess but they might surprise you, hence the need to try all possible options. Introduce your child to all the skills you have listed, one after the other, giving them time to make up their minds and choose. If your child doesn’t show interest, talk to them, it might be the teacher. A swimming instructor once made my child dislike swimming and this killed her one time love for the sport but as soon as a better coach came on board, she started showing more interest. It might also be the atmosphere.

Try various skills. It might save you time and money if you ask your child’s school to introduce some of these activities or choose a school that has a number of them. You can then begin to eliminate and then add more to them until you arrive at your destination.

6. WORK WITH TEACHERS AND CAREGIVERS

Do talk to your child’s teacher and caregivers so you can know your child’s new interests and what your child is losing interest in. This might help you add or delete from your list. It is however important to communicate with your child as other factors could be responsible for the interest or lack of it.

Let the teachers give you pointers as they spend half the day with the children, noting that children often have some of their interests changing periodically.

7. EXPERIMENT

Experiment with various skills, introducing a few at a time. You could try a physical sport, a mindsport and an art skill at the same time. Introduce several skills and watch the performance of your child while adding and eliminating. If your child is more inclined towards physical sports, try several of them and also include martial arts. Later on, you will be able to narrow it down to a few.

8. ENCOURAGE

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Encourage your child all the way in any skill they are good at. Invest time and money. Buy the equipment needed and go and watch your child perform. This will sustain the child’s interest.

If need be, learn the skills and help your child or get a good coach.

Once interest is sustained, let them participate in competitions as this will help show the level of development and give them lots of exposure.

9. GET A COACH

Once an interest is sustained, it is important to get a good coach or teacher for that skill. Shop around, ask questions in order to develop the skill and get the best coach that your child needs. Do this bearing in mind that the wrong coach could kill the interest in your child. Not all good coaches can teach children.

Get the one that can teach children and work with the coach.

10. SEEK COMPETITIONS

Competitions will help show the level of development. For a writer, seek essay competitions, publish the books written. You could go as far as setting up a blog once their skills get to that level. There are always several competitions for different skills both locally and internationally. You could have an exhibition for arts and crafts. Your child is NOT too young for it. Expose your child.

A Nigerian child has the Guinness Book of Records award for the youngest exhibiting artist in the world. Your child can do it too.

11. BALANCE

Recognize that your child still has school work, is still a child, needs time to play and do some other things kids do. This is where your time management skill comes to play. If you can’t manage time well, please do learn it as you cannot do this without it.

Create a timetable and also let your child know their priorities. Draw up a scale of preference if possible and always follow up. Your child still has to do well in school, do chores and be a child while developing these skills. Create your own formula to strike the needed balance.