I have had this question floating around in my mind for years. It bumps into another idea, gets asked again, and makes very slow progress. Why are there so many gifted individuals out there that are not successful? We all know them, even if we don’t realize we know. They often walk around disguised as dysfunctional and struggling.

Then I read a book called “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell that gave me a step towards understanding it all. While Gladwell’s definition of success, sounding something like “Bill Gates” or “Joe Flom”, is different from mine (I define more in terms of happy, healthy, independent, and always progressing), he makes many intriguing points. One thing I like is that he claims everyone past a certain level of intelligence (he uses an IQ of 120-130) is as capable of success as any other in that “pot”. There is no further advantage the higher the IQ. But my favorite idea is that as long as the opportunities are there for our children, and as long as they have that certain level of intelligence, then it is up to them to see how successful they can be. They must learn to work and to understand themselves in order to succeed. And most of that boils down to what we do in our homes.

So what is that, exactly? Teaching kids how to work is a complex thing. But their happiness depends on it; anything worth having takes work. Gladwell suggests that the more work is done, the higher the level of success–provided they have opportunity. I agree, yet also believe that life requires a balance of four areas of life, and that we need to teach them about all four: mind, emotions, body, and soul. I would like to suggest that learning to work hard in all areas will produce the kind of success our children would be happiest to have. Help them learn to eat well, sleep on a good schedule, and discover spiritual or social ideals that can guide them in addition to giving them intellectual stimulation. Coach them in handling their emotions–that in and of itself being a complex subject, as we discussed last month.

But in the meantime, sit down with another adult that knows your child (teacher, spouse, etc.) and make an assessment of how your child is doing in each of the four areas. Then make just one suggestion you would like to help improve on and work on it with them. Once a month, sit down again and look at your assessment. Make another suggestion, then tackle that. Real change takes time, so don’t rush too many things at once. After all, children don’t need to be “fixed”–they are just young, and need guidance. As a matter of fact, include them in your discussions when appropriate. They are extremely capable and usually very glad to help make decisions regarding themselves. And they will be all the more successful for it!

Language talent in our children is quite complex and interesting. We learn to speak naturally, but learning to read is a whole other thing. It requires training many different parts of our brain to work together, when it is not automatic for our brains to do so.

Following learning these things, we learn, as parents, the importance of fostering good language development–both at home and school. We need to understand that, as usual, both genetics and environment are at play here. According to brain research, as our children age, environment becomes more and more important and influential in language development.

Some things we can do at home to help with this environment: Read to your children. Talk often and with enthusiasm about the books both you and they read. Sit down together and talk–especially at the dinner table. Use positive and engaging talk. This will provide a positive feeling that they can associate with communication. Along with other kinds of books, encourage your child to read classic literature. Classics will stretch imaginations, challenge ideas, and expand abilities of expression. According to David Sousa, author of How the Gifted Brain Learns, classics “shock students into thought, forcing them to confront new concepts”. Guide your child to extracurricular activities that are rich in language use–like essay contests, theatre groups, lectures, seminars, or reading groups.

At school, it will help them to learn Greek and Latin roots/stems. Literature circles, poetry and journal writing, writer’s workshops, and any use of language that encourages divergent thinking (questions with no certain answer) are excellent ways to develop language ability. Hopefully your child’s teacher is able to provide a good quality list of books for your child to choose from. Both the opportunity to choose, and the somewhat controlled, high-quality choices are beneficial to your child.

Our children need to go deep, up, and out in their language development. Good luck in helping provide opportunities to do so! Hopefully some of the suggestions mentioned will help. For next month? Of course it is yet another juicy topic: teaching our kids self-management. Yikes!

The next three months will be spent on the following: December-math talent; January- language talent; February- artistic talent.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but sometimes I feel extremely overwhelmed by the idea of raising my children. Am I handling each aspect of their lives well enough? Is their academics suffering because of something I am not doing right? Gaining knowledge in each of these areas has been very enlightening to me, and I hope you will take the time to read this and to do your own research to learn more about how to help your own children.

The best description of how the brain works in regards to mathemamatics is that there are many areas of the brain that process the different kinds of math problems. Different parts of the brain are used for exact calculations than are used for approximating. Sometimes language is used in processing certain types of problems, and sometimes language is not involved. The more complex the problem, the more language is likely to be used, and therefore more areas of the brain are involved. What does this tell you? That there is no simple answer when it comes to meeting the needs of various mathematical learners.

So if your child is talented in this area, how do you make sure their needs are met? Chapter 6 of David Sousa’s How the Gifted Brain Learns tells us the following options. Check to see that the following, at least many of these, are happening in your child’s classroom:
* Open-ended problems are being solved using multiple strategies. (A simple test to know if it is the correct type of question: If you are unsure how to proceed in order to solve a problem, then it most likely requires a multistep approach and is a good question for a mathematically gifted child.)

* Thought-provoking and nonroutine problems are being provided on a very regular basis.

* The level of complexity is regularly raised until students are engaged in a spirited debate about potential approaches to solutions.

* Because mathematically gifted students often show their talents in other curriculum areas, it is a good idea for teachers to involve math in all lessons. Tying various areas of curriculum together helps boost brain retention and creativity. For example, after learning how to add/subtract/multiply money, students could be asked to study how money was used historically by the Native American Indians or during the Gold Rush, etc.

No matter what, strategies for our children need to develop deeper understanding, lay stronger foundations, foster a willingness to seek out the connections between different aspects of math, involve higher-level thinking skills (i.e. open-ended vs yes/no questions) and cultivate a desire to understand why particular mathematical methods are correct (see p.183).