What is nurturing? It is supporting a gifted learner’s interests and feelings and exposing him or her to new experiences, ideas, and opportunities for learning and growing.
If your child is interested in dinosaurs, you may want to find books on the subject or dinosaur toys. If your child doesn’t show any interest in music or sports, you may want to get musical toys or play some music the child might enjoy.
You can take your child to a sporting event to experience the ambiance and excitement of a live event.
However, the most important part of nurturing is how you interact with your gifted child. There is a need for warmth and understanding and an awareness of your child’s differences from the general population.
Listen, interact and discuss
Gifted children are always curious and ask a lot of questions. You as a parent are a sounding board for their feelings, their fears, their anxieties, their challenges, and their accomplishments.
Take the time to listen with interest (not while you check your phone messages). It is important that your child feel you are paying attention and care for what they say.
Your children may be highly emotional, worry about world events or life and death, get angry or frustrated easily, pick up on other people’s emotions, or get overly excited.
Your reaction to these feelings will be a sign of nurturing. A patient response to an emotional outburst will tell your children you understand how they feel, especially if you discuss it with them.
Share your own feelings so they get a better context for emotions. If you can’t answer a question, you should be honest and say so, and maybe suggest a way to find the answer. This might involve an Internet search or going to the library.
Answering your child’s questions might also involve contacting an expert in the field or a teacher at school or other educator. Your desire to get the answer your child wants will show your support for the child’s curiosity and thirst for knowledge.
It’s a good idea to discuss everything with your gifted children. Explain how they are different from other children their age.
Support your child’s education
It’s important to show interest in your child’s education. Talk to your child every day about what he or she experienced at school. What was learned, what was exciting or new, and even what was frustrating or difficult?
Be aware of possible boredom in case your child does not feel challenged by the traditional curriculum or is not getting enough detailed information.
Boredom can lead to lack of interest and can be misconstrued by the teacher as laziness or lack of focus. Get to know the teacher and make sure your child’s situation is clear and there is sufficient educational direction and support from school administrators.
Keep track of test scores and assignments. Sometimes gifted children have trouble with time management or organization. You can help with suggestions and with monitoring performance.
When you talk with your child, you can emphasize the importance of learning over whatever grades the child gets. It’s the process that counts, and establishing good study habits is more important than early report cards.
Depending on the quality and appropriateness of your child’s traditional school, you may want to consider a school designed for gifted and talented children.
Schools for the gifted have the philosophy, curriculum, and teachers trained in giftedness, and the support needed for exceptional students.
Students in schools for the gifted are usually grouped by intellectual level rather than chronological age, allowing children to associate with intellectual peers and work with similarly-gifted peers.
Find activities and programs
Gifted children need activity. Depending on their areas of interest, there are many choices to spur their curiosity and add to their enjoyment.
Activities can be as simple as taking a walk with them in your neighborhood or a local park, allowing them to use their keen powers of observation and spurring conversation.
Real-world applications are particularly effective and enjoyable for gifted children. Helping your child measure your kitchen cabinets or figure out the ingredients in a cake.
There are organized activities that would support your child’s area of interest. These can include community events for socializing or play dates with friends.
More stimulating programs could involve summer camps provided by organizations like the YMCA/YWCA or 4-H Clubs.
There are specialty camps and programs designed for areas of interest in virtually every category, including STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics).
There are also programs for music, astronomy, space, archaeology, marine life and so much more.
Many local colleges and universities provide summer programs for gifted students, with some courses offering college credit even before the students have enrolled.
Museums provide food for imagination with dinosaurs, great art exhibits, space stations, sea life and more.
Provide appropriate games, toys and books
Nurturing a gifted child’s abilities includes providing the games, toys and books that stimulate imagination and creativity.
Traditional toys and games may not be challenging. Those that require strategic planning or decision-making rather than luck or chance would be better.
You may want to look for games that increase vocabulary, math skills, comprehension or critical thinking.
Games that educate in some way and books that inspire are good choices for gifted students. The fun factor should not be ignored, either. There is nothing wrong with getting books that children like to read just for enjoyment.
The important thing is to encourage the reading itself.
Be an advocate
You want to be an advocate for your gifted child, not an adversary. You want to support and encourage, not push too hard or have unreasonable expectations. Celebrate both successes and failures because they both represent hard work.
You want to guide your child’s intellectual development while protecting his or her emotional and social vulnerability.
As much as possible, you want your child’s experiences to be positive, and you want there to be a love of learning and the curiosity that drives it.
Show your child your interest in his giftedness by your demeanor, your discussions, your efforts to provide activities and opportunities to pursue dreams and goals.
Be involved with the education process, both formal and informal. Always remember your gifted child is first, a child. Let her enjoy the things that all children enjoy.
Even as your gifted child shows extraordinary abilities, don’t lose the ordinary.