How can you help your child to develop his talent

If you have understood the three steps of the unfolding of talent, you will realise that the process of 'growing the talent' starts only after your child starts working on a task. So what can you do now when he/she is in secondary school? And is it necessary to start the 'preparation' at such a young age? Let us delve on this.

In school your child is gaining knowledge. While gaining knowledge in school, he/she is acquiring 'abilities' which he can convert later into useful 'skills' that can be later transformed into 'talent'. Which useful abilities is he developing in school? Can we enhance his abilities better to help him? Can we plug the gaps in his abilities that he requires later to 'realise' his talent?

Child develops abilities through abstraction

Your child learns different subjects like science, history, geography or mathematics. While studying a subject, he mentally

• isolates 'parts' of a 'whole' , 
• understand 'parts' one at a time, and then 
• understand how each part 'depends' on other part ( or relate to each other) to help the functioning of 'whole'. 

This process is called abstraction.

For instance, while abstracting a topic of biology, such as human body, your child 1>isolates the 'parts' of 'whole' human body such as lungs and heart. He will then understand 2>what individual 'parts' do. For instance, she will learn that 'lungs purify blood' or 'stomachs digest food and extract nutrients from the body' and so on.  Then she will understand 3>how the different parts are 'dependent' on each other. For instance, although lungs purify blood they depend on heart to 'get' and 'pump' the blood to different parts of the whole body. Abstraction helps the child to develop the links in a chain that together help him understand a topic.

While the child is 'abstracting' different topics in a subject, he is developing abilities. For instance, while abstracting the subjects in biology he is developing his 'logical ability'. While abstracting topics in mathematics, geometry and algebra, she is developing her 'mathematical ability'. Some cognitive researchers like Howard Gardner** club the two abilities - logical and mathematical - in one ability. While learning the 'language' the child is developing 'linguistic' ability. Science subjects like physics and science refine the 'logical' ability further, by delving deeper in the 'parts', such as understanding the 'physical property' of materials such as 'material composition' and others.

However, due to the dynamics of knowledge development in school, not all children develop these abilities to the same degree. For instance, due to group-teaching of schools, all children are forced to learn every subject at the same pace and sequence. If a child fails to understand a topic/lesson for some reason, he falls behind the class, due to which he cannot understand the next lesson. As the child is unable to keep pace with the subsequent lessons in sequence, he slowly loses his interest in the topic. However as 'topics/subjects' are interrelated, it hampers his learning of another related topic. His overall growth of abilities gets hampered. As the child is unaware of this dynamics of knowledge development, he often misses opportunities to correct himself in time or to find different ways of building his ability in a different way.

Which abilities are nurtured by schools?

Schools do not promote all abilities equally. Today cognitive psychologists agree that school curriculum mainly focuses on developing three abilities - Logical, mathematical and linguistic - that can be developed later into a 'skill or talent'. Musical, spatial and body-coordination abilities do not get developed well in school, because they are poorly supported by schools. Therefore, if your child wants to develop these three abilities to a sufficient degree, they have to go for special coaching or special schools.

Some abilities like 'logical ability of extensive subjects' are either ignored or poorly taught in schools. For instance, subject such as accounting ( which is very useful in commercial jobs that are related to banking and accounts) are not introduced in a school, while subjects like Geography are taught 'poorly' in schools. Many students miss the opportunity of  developing this talent, because they are simply not introduced at the school-stage.

Some abilities, although crucial in life, are completely ignored by schools although they significantly influence the long term talent-development of a child. For instance, abilities like interpersonal,(enabling one to interact with others) and intrapersonal ( enabling one to manage one's self) are required by every professional, be it an engineer, lawyer or a doctor. These are complementary skills. Without them, even the basic core skill, say of logical skill of science, cannot produce desired result. Many researchers believe that these abilities are so crucial that professional today cannot convert his brilliant academic intelligence into a useful talent without them. For instance, Daniel Goleman insists that emotional intelligence ( which is part of intrapersonal ability) is even more important than academic intelligence!

Some school environments ( such as Montessori and Waldorf) are conducive enough to develop these two crucial abilities - interpersonal and intrapersonal - in your child. But traditional school environments are not ideal for developing these abilities. If your child is studying in one of the traditional school, he needs external assistance in developing these abilities.

Conclusion
In short, if you want to help your child ( who is in VIIIth to XIIth class) gain an extra step in fulfilling  his talent, you can take one or more of the following four actions:

1. Help him 'decode' the dynamics of knowledge development, so that he can develop the three core abilities - logical, mathematical and linguistic - to its maximum level! If he understands the linkage between 'abilities' and 'skills', he will know what 'tasks' he could possibly select in the future !

2. Introduce her to interpersonal ability: Being able to 'articulate' one's thoughts and communicate them to others is an important component of this ability. However, be aware that communication is often mistaken as 'talking', instead of 'listening'!

3. Sensitize him to his intrapersonal ability: Journey of managing one's self is a long journey; but it is better to start it early. Understanding one's emotions, stress buttons and choice triggers ( beliefs) are the three components of intrapersonal ability.

4. Give him a tool to 'synthesise' his multiple abilities into one 'whole'. He needs a tool so that he can 'catch his own fish', because only he alone knows what he 'wants'. Systems thinking is a well known tool that can serve this function.

** Howard Gardner calls these 'abilities' as 'intelligences'. Interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence are two important intelligences in his list.

Encourage Imagination ( not fantasy ) in your child

Armaan, a father of 4  year old child, told me last week "I put my child in play school, because play school is helpful for child's imagination. Once he can read, I will give him comic books to fire his imagination. At the end, it is imagination that makes the child creative. Isn't it?''.

I think Armaan is confused between imagination and fantasy. Imagination makes the child creative, not fantasy. Let us ponder over this distinction and understand what is Armaan trying to do.

Children at the age of  3-5 are constantly asking us questions to explain things.  For instance, if we explain to the child that 'America is 12000 Kms away from Bangalore'', he cannot understand 12000 kms because he has not even understood the 'meaning' of number, although he can recite 1 to 100. Or if you tell the child that it takes America 'a full day and night to reach', he relates to his journey that he did last year to his grandmother which took a 'full day and night to reach' in the train. America remains 'unreal' to him.

But surprisingly, when the same child stands infront of a globe, where he can see "India' and 'America', he uses his imagination to 'sense' the distance, not 'understand' it.  Till then,  America is in the world of fantasy for a child, much like 'Alice's wonderland'. With the 'globe',  he uses his imagination to 'sense' the part of truth. With 'globe', he feels that 'America' is something 'real', although he has not 'seen' it as concretely as a 'car' or a 'bicycle'. Here globe extends the child's consciousness beyond the concrete, so to say. (As Dr Montessori says, parents and teachers require a special kind of 'training' to nurture a child's imagination.)

Imagination is bringing the object in the 'mind's eye', even though one has not seen it. When a parent tells the child about 'river' or 'mountain', the child can bring it in his mind's eye through the pictures and photos he has seen. It is not fantasy.

But when we tell the child the story of a phantom, he is engaging his mind in an unreal world. When he hears the fairy tale, where 'animals' for instance, speak to each other, he is in the unreal world. In a fantasy, anything is possible. Man can fly, animals can talk, fairies can bring chocolates from air. For a child below 6, whose mind is like a camera which takes on everything indiscriminately,  this creates confusion. He is unable to distinguish between what is real and what is unreal.  A child who cannot get the distinction between real and unreal world, for instance, understand why it is not possible to buy an ice cream at 1 o'clock at night.

Comics, fairy tales and cartoons create an unreal world for a child. This helps him 'fantasise' and makes  him 'imagine' impossible events and happenings. Imagination, on the other hand,  helps the child in seeing different possibilities while simultaneously anchoring him to 'reality'. A child sees "America" in his imagination', but he knows that he cannot 'fly' to America in a minute like a superman.

Imagination seems to serve three functions in the child's growth. One, Imagination helps the child to perceive 'what is not concretely seen' and go near  the truth, such as in the case of understanding "America'. Imagination helps the child to extend his mind's consciousness to learn faster, so to say. Here, imagination is the force to discover truth.

The second function of imagination ( and probably more powerful ) is to drive the curiosity and interest of child. When a child is told a story of  'How Land of India moved and created Himalayas thousands of years ago', his imagination is 'activated' to ask 'how could this happen' and learn Geography.  Or when the child is told that 'Caterpillar becomes a butterfly', it fires his imagination to know more about biology.

The third function of imagination is 'defensive' in nature. It helps the child escape the 'harsh' reality of the world for the time being and gives him 'hope' to go further. This function could be used for meeting different ends. For instance, it can act like a savior for a child who has to live in difficult conditions, either at home or in the society.

Going back to our original discussion, what helps creativity? Is it imagination or fantasy? Creativity is using imagination to see beyond 'what is possible' after understanding the 'current reality'. Scientific fiction writers, such as H G Wells,  are popular, because they help child see the 'realm of impossibility', while anchoring their story in the world of  'reality'. When the child's mind wanders in any direction without the anchor of reality, such child is called 'deviated' by psychologists, not 'creative'.

What would you advise Armaan now? Does a play school , beyond enabling coordination of movement, foster fantasy ( or imagination ) in a child below 6 years of age?

Do comics and cartoons help the child become creative after the age of 6 ? What do you think? 

Motivation is also temporary; you have to nurture it expertly

If you have understood why confidence is temporary from the earlier discussion, this will not surprise you.

Whatever the task, be it singing, solving a mathematical problem, or writing an essay, when the challenge of the task is just higher than the 'capacity' of the child, the child is highly motivated. When it is too high, the child becomes anxious and will not feel 'motivated' to do the task. He will avoid the task. When the challenge is too low, the child is 'bored'. In other words, the child to be motivated, should have a challenge which is just 'above' his capacity at that time.

But as you would have guessed, no sooner, the child performs the challenging task, one or two times, the challenge from the task is gone. The motivation is also gone. Now boredom sets in, because there is no challenge any more. This is why the child will play with a toy and throw it after a day. Motivation for the child rises and drops all the time, depending on what he is doing.  To expect a child to remain motivated all the time, is a wrong expectation.

Instead, if you understand why motivation rises up and down, you will be able to help your child. When the child does not want to study a subject, either he is bored ( because there is no challenge) or because he is too anxious ( because the challenge is too high). Your first step therefore is to understand why he is not studying.

You have to ask him some questions in a proper way. If you make a mistake, he will clamp ( not speak). Also note, that if he is anxious, he will generally 'avoid' talking to you because the child does not want to accept that he is finding it difficult to do the task. One idea is to talk to his friend. Or ask someone ( with whom he has a different relation) to find, such as his grandfather/uncle.

After your investigation, if you understand that the 'challenge' is too high for the child, you have to help the child. Please help the child without hurting his self-respect. For instance do not tell him ' How easy is this?" Or "Anita can do it so easily. Why can't you'? Instead empathise with his anxiety, by saying something like ' I understand how some things are difficult to do'. If you want your child to come back for help next time, you have to ensure that you respect him. While helping, you have to just 'fill' the gap and help him surmount the challenge; not overcome the challenge yourself.

On the other hand, if the challenge is too low for him, then your remedy has to be different. You have to give him a similar task with 'increased challenge' to keep him motivated. If a task is well-defined like in music, dancing or sports (the A&P talents), this is easier, because any musician will tell you the 'next challenge'. But if you are performing a cognitive task, you have to find a subject expert to help your child find another challenge in his subject. That is why 'special teachers' are necessary to keep the flame burning in your child.

Or you have to find a good school that 'recognises' this need of a child and 'fulfills' it. A traditional school teaching all children in one classroom will generally not be useful; a Montessori school is ideal. As a Montessori school typically has mixed age-group of children ( 6 to 9 or 10 to 12) in one class, your child can 'pick' up increasing challenges from the older children, if he learns fast. And when the challenge is too high, your child requires 'individual' attention. Once again, Montessori school is helpful, because every child is 'coached' individually in Montessori school.

If you however do not have a good school around your neighborhood, then go ahead and find a  specialist in 'child development' to guide your child. It is worth the effort.  

Here is a puzzle that you can solve now:

Why does a musician generally grow in a family of musicians? Or why does a sportsman grow in the family of sportsmen?