The right kind of nutrition ensures a healthy child; the right opportunities would ensure the making of a prodigy.
The artist, the athlete, or the academic. At an early age (as early as the preschool level) children display natural abilities when going through their daily activities, especially at school. Over time, these natural abilities could develop into special talents and gifts. Some children learn to speak or read faster than others, while some show more physical ability and strength in the playground or in sports. Other children lean towards drawing pictures or building things with blocks and clay.
Parents recognize these early signs of development in their children and do their best to encourage them to reach their full potential. In order to help your children reach their full potential and develop their specific talents or gifts, it helps to be able to recognize early on what exactly your child is good at. But recognizing talent alone may not be enough.
For a talent or gift to fully develop itself, there are a variety of external and environmental factors. How much time and energy does your child spend practicing, learning, or studying a particular skill? Do financial, economic, and social factors affect your child’s ability to develop their talent? What can you do as a parent to help foster the growth of your child?
1. IDENTIFY
After your children’s lessons stop or the season ends, work with them to find an area that speaks to them, that they are good at. Sometimes, children need to try many different lessons before landing on the right sport, musical instrument, hobby, or academic pursuit. Mark your kids when they are involved in an activity. Say, they are watching TV. what do they like watching? Do they idolize ‘the smart Sizuka in the cartoon Doraemon’ or did they start playing building blocks emulating ‘Bob the builder’? ‘Identification’ of the right thing at the right time and hence, initiating the right step can serve a great purpose in the long run.
2. RECTIFY
But children being children would still struggle to identify what exactly they like or would like to pursue. They tend to juggle a plethora of activities and thus end up being a ‘master of none’. In order to eliminate these possibilities, guide and help your child find out what is that s/he most likes. If your children struggle in an area, encourage them to practice and be dedicated. However, don’t pour on the honey, hoping that overly building them up will cause them to all of a sudden succeed. If their talents do not lie in that area or they are miserable, consider allowing them to shift to a new hobby. If they are in the middle of a team sport or have otherwise committed to something, help them finish gracefully.
3. LET THEM FLY
But in the process of helping them, DO NOT impose your childhood desires to become the mission of their tender, young days, Raising kids with character requires allowing them to go through their personal challenges and grow into their strengths. The role of the parent is to create a safe environment for them to stumble, fall, get back up, dust themselves off, get a hug and a confidence booster, and try again until they can soar. At that point, they’ll have the life lessons and necessary tools to go at it on their own and voila! They’ll be off and running, achieving their potential. Let them sail around in their own directions, explore their own new ways, and thus, announce to the big world ‘what they got’!!!!
