Learning Activities for Gifted Children
Projects to Stimulate Highly Intelligent Pre-School Minds
Sep 11, 2009
Using the child's response as a guide, and providing activities to stimulate his curiosity and interests, can bring an epiphany of satisfaction to the exuberant gifted child. Variety is important as well as the avoidance of preconceived notions about what the gifted child should or should not like to experience. Many pre-schoolers are fascinated with science while others are less inclined to an interest in this area. Here are some ideas on activities to gradually introduce to this child.
Show, Don't Tell a Gifted Child How to Perform a Task
Demonstration followed by the chance for the child to actually perform a task is often the most valuable learning technique for children in this category. If dealing with a simple science experiment or demonstrated engineering principle, the child will often repeat the task over and over to reinforce her learning. She may also try different ways of doing something to see if the principles still apply.
Science kits that are available in educational toy stores are a great investment for the child that is absorbed in experimentation. Other gifted kids have an affinity for nature, growing things and animals. Wildlife centers and farms are a treasure chest of learning opportunities for kids who cannot get enough of discovery of the natural world.
Taking the young child on hikes, camping expeditions and allowing him to attend camp programs with a wildlife emphasis will trigger his curiosity and need to research and understand more about living things. This can be followed up with trips to bookstores and libraries for reading on the subjects he is perusing through camp programs.
Provide a Wide Variety of Enrichment to the Gifted Toddler
At a young age, it is sometimes difficult to predict what things a child will develop a keen interest for in later years. Cooking, gardening and art activities may be just as fascinating to him as word games and mathematics. Events that involve creating something with ingredients, measurements and a productive result will be of great interest to the cognitively advanced toddler.
Spending time baking a cake or another creation that involves a multitude of details and processes is a learning experience that he will be enthused to repeat, preferably with variations on the theme. Like cooking, gardening also involves a myriad of details with an eventual impressive result. Though this is a long term project, a toddler can greatly benefit from experiencing the cycle of plant life first hand.
The gifted toddler will gain a more thorough and memorable understanding of growth, preferably if this can be combined with reading on the scientific processes involving cellular development, photosynthesis and related concepts. Though the vernacular may seem complex, she is probably quite capable of grasping the principles even at the preschool age.
Musical activities are another stimulant that will give her great joy and excitement. Allowing a young child to experiment with playing different instruments can teach him about sound and rhythm and can give him exposure to music at as early an age as possible. Like the development of language, early exposure is best, while the young brain is still in the developing stages.
Gifted toddlers have such an overwhelming desire to learn and experience new activities. Giving the child a wide variety of stimuli and allowing her interests to dictate her focus is the best approach. The more demonstration and actual hands on activities allowed, will give the most valuable and memorable learning experience. Taking care not to overwhelm the young child with too many competing stimuli is always a practical matter to take into account.
See related article Activities for Gifted Toddlers.
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