Child Genius

I've just watched the final of this year's Child Genius. The title certainly describes what they are!

All six finalists were fantastic and the two that fought it out at the end deserve all that they wish in life.

Unlike some of the contestants at the earlier stages these six seemed pretty much like normal kids that just loved to stretch their thought processes. I'm not so sure about some of the parents!

Although the 11 year old girl that won deserved the title the 8 year old boy that she competed against at the end was amazing. At the age of 8 he was very self-possessed, spoke like an adult (a very intelligent adult) and, in my opinion, was asked a couple of maths questions that were unfairly hard compared to the girl. He still wouldn't have won but it seemed particularly more difficult. They had to add up numbers in their heads. Her questions were two figure numbers and his were three figure numbers. She had two more numbers than he did to add up but it was still easier to do that than the three figure ones.

Some people may argue that the parents shouldn't be encouraging them to work so hard on absorbing information and that they should spend more time playing. This is a difficult topic because we don't know how much, if any, time they spend playing. Also, they may consider some of what they do as play whereas others would classify it as work/study.

A lot of that would depend on whether they're driven to it by their parents' wishes or by their own wishes.

I've met quite a lot of young geniuses and the majority of them have been well balanced children (plus some horrors) that have remained well balanced when encouraged to develop themselves in the correct way.

Gifted children can suffer quite considerable discrimination by other children, and all sorts of people - including teachers and the education system. This can have a disastrous effect on their lives.

If you think you have a gifted child or know one then this link may be of assistance

http://www.potentialplusuk.org/parents.php