Personalised Development For Gifted Children

[aqab]

Hi,

I’m new to this community and a new father of a baby boy, Aryan, who is just over five months old. He is the joy of my life!!! :lol: :lol:

The reason I am starting this thread is because I would like to discover others out there who have recognised their children as being gifted in one way or other. Since before he was born, we started educating him with sounds and classical music. We made sure that he would receive the best nutrition that could be provided with a strict regimen. That included the appropriate amount of vitamins, minerals, energy supplements, and balanced meals (with a lot of pizzas!!!) for my wife. Also, I’ve tried my level best to ensure that she received the least amount of stress. However, this was difficult at times due to our living conditions and my working hours, since I was about to submit my PhD whilst also working full-time as a stock broker. I have changed working practices, and will begin lecturing at the local University in a couple of weeks to in order to provide him with a more suitable atmosphere catered towards learning, and to be able to spend more time with him in his formative years. Nevertheless, we made sure that he should have the best from the beginning.

From the very start, we noticed that after having been in breach until the last hours before birth, he enjoyed being in an upright position most of the time. He is already standing up with only a little aid and tries his very best to get into that position regardless of our efforts to make him lay down. Especially at night! He is awake a lot more than he sleeps, which is worrying at times. Still, he's healthy and above average in weight and height. He was a healthy 8 lbs 4oz when he was born.

I have been amazed at his mental development, acute concentration and grasp of the people around him and his surroundings. Others have also noted his abilities. The most important factors are to provide him with the utmost amount of love, comfort, and security in order to enable him to develop a secure and balanced personality.

Since I am relatively new to fatherhood, I would like to find out how to help develop his mental acuity and skills to provide him with the best tools to deal with life in the future. I know that most would think that he is only five months and that I should just enjoy his natural development. However, I believe that most parents neglect the most essential development during the formative years of a child’s life by not enabling this development process at the soonest possible time. A child can have all the security, love and attention whilst also being taught at a more rapid pace than the norm.

We have a multi-cultural and multi-lingual family, with seven languages between my life-partner and me. Many believe that introducing several languages at an early age confuses a child. What do you think? Does it not provide the child with more avenues of expression, since every word has a meaning and every connection between different words provides new perspectives for expression?

What about the alphabet? Since the beginning, I have been reciting the alphabet and showing flash cards with letters to associate phonetic sounds with them. He responds very differently with different sounds, and has already developed the ability to differentiate between the sounds.

What about mental arithmetic? I have been introducing him to numbers, their sounds, written form, and even the abacus. Therefore, as not to confuse him, I only show him numbers up to five. Is there a better way to help develop his mathematical ability??

We have also been showing him BABY Einstein videos, and he has dozens of soft toys as well as developmental toys, from numerous music boxes, moving animals with sounds and lights, and toys to enable his recognition of shapes and colours. I have also bought a small electronic organ, over which he has been composing his own tunes. Well, who said there had to be a pattern to music, as long as he enjoys the sounds that he produces.

As far as speaking, he started cooing as early as two weeks old, and he can already deliberately call my name, the abbreviated form.

I am also lucky to have wonderful In-laws who have made enormous efforts to encourage his development. He is their first grandchild, whilst he is the first in my family also.

Whenever I am working on my computer, the buttons and the screen intrigue him.

I have wanted to introduce him to swimming as soon as possible to take advantage of his reflex to keep his mouth closed. This also re-introduces him to an environment within which he was originally formed as well as an essential life-skill. May be, in a few years, he will also be able to sail with me???

This was just a brief introduction to this thread. I hope we can learn from each other, since.. having children is the greatest adventure!!!

I welcome all responses, whether positive or critical. However, please be responsible in the language that may be used.

Thanks for your replies….

Aqab

P.S. The photos were taken when he was about a two months old. :D

[The Dude]

Welcome to the site!!!!

He's such a cutie!!!

I picked the 3 that I think are most important!!

Good luck :)

[WolfPack]

wonderful In-laws

Forget the child. How do you develop this?

[Anonymusius]

I don't think learning an kid as much as possible in the shortest time is good. Let's say you learn him how to read and calculate, what's he then gonna do on school? He'l be bored like hell there.

as you can see in the poll (of all 3 voters :p ) Is love and personal attention (most) important.

Don't get me wrong about your parenting, I bet your an great father but you might want to slow a little bit down on learning.

Growing up isn't a race.

[aqab]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies,

I do understand what you are saying, however, to not provide our Aryan with the education through which he can fulfil his abilities would also be a mistake on our part as parents. We are not living in a normal world. It depends upon our experiences and the environment within which we are nurtured. If his peers have exceptionally high abilities, then why would he feel out of place? To not fulfil the extent of our human abilities and potential would be a failing and misuse of our existence also. For example, within the world that I have grown up, my role models were all professors, doctors, engineers etc... Very highly intelligent people. So too will his, in part because of the schools that we will select for him and because all of his family is highly educated.

This is not to say that he will miss out on his childhood, as some may say. Most of the day is spent enjoying childhood, but we can also make learning a fun activity, rather than just propping our children up in front of the TV.

In any case, what is childhood, and how can someone define what should be done in childhood. And, it all depends upon how you define normality. As you may well be aware. Many children in the less developed world do not have the childhood that children in the more developed world do. They spend their childhoods surviving, looking for the next meal, working from an early age in the most dangerous of environments. In a way, the western childhood is a fantasy for them, and many of them would readily give up their work to be able to learn through play. There are many ways of teaching and new research has indicated that the child's brain absolutely requires this development.

One of the most basic findings of the study was that an infant's experiences actually develop his brain. Sensory experiences (hearing, seeing, touching, feeling, tasting) actually teach brain cells their jobs. A lack of such sensory experiences results in brain cells failing to make connections and eventually dying off. If a child lies in a playpen all day, he is experiencing a limited number of sensations. He will not have many new experiences through which he can establish new brain connections. Unfortunately, these connections must be made in infancy. A person cannot go back and "redo" these experiences. The first four years of life are when the brain is "built."

It is the way you teach the child that matters in this context. Through a loving, secure and playful environment. Otherwise, we'd be guilty of not providing the essential skills that are increasingly needed in life.

Thanks again, and good luck.. I hope you have a wonderful experience throughout your pregnancy, and make sure your partner is there at the birth because it is a once in a life time experience not to be missed if its the first time.

Regards,

Aqab