11 Characteristics of Child Geniuses
What are the most common characteristics of child geniuses? In this article, you’ll find out.
Certain children have more advanced abilities than others. Child geniuses have great cognitive skills, and they can accomplish amazing things. These things usually relate to cognitive areas, which are frequently highly developed.
To help them develop their great skills, these children need a special kind of education. Also, people should never force them to become geniuses. Instead, they should give them the necessary tools to promote the development of their abilities.
What are child geniuses?
Child geniuses are individuals who, from an early age, have more advanced abilities than their peers, especially in general academic areas.
These children posses exceptional talents in one or many fields. They may be extremely good at mathematics, painting, music, language, etc.
Characteristics of child geniuses
These children have some characteristics that differentiate them from the rest of kids, who don’t posses such exceptional skills. Let’s see some of them:
They’re very demanding babies
When they’re babies, child geniuses get easily overstimulated. They also learn to control their body from a very early age. They may lift their heads when they’re 1 month old, and they may even say their first word when they’re 5 months old.
They’re self-taught
Usually, they learn to read and write at an early age. They also do it on their own. Their great memory skills provide them with a wide vocabulary and curiosity to learn new things all the time.
Child geniuses usually have problems at school
Most of us might think that these talented children usually succeed at school. However, most of them tend to fail, because of lack of resources and support.
During class time, child prodigies tend to get bored, so they disconnect and fail. Of course, this has nothing to do with their abilities.
“If you want to be wise, learn to question reasonably, listen carefully, answer serenely, and shut up when you have nothing to say.”
– Johann Kaspar Lavater –
They’re emotionally intense kids
Child geniuses usually have low frustration tolerance, and a special sensitivity for certain things. They may become sad or scared by a movie. Moreover, they have a great sense of justice, and empathize excessively with people, when they perceive unfair situations.
Child geniuses have great memory skills
They have an outstanding long- and short-term memory. They also have all kinds of memory skills, even eidetic memory (remembering sounds, images and objects very specifically).
They question authority
Child geniuses question authority, but they don’t do it as an act of rebellion. Actually, they don’t accept anything that’s not convincing or well-argued. They don’t blindly obey. Rules must mean something to them; otherwise, they wouldn’t follow them.
Child geniuses are perfectionist, competitive and self-critical
They want everything to be perfect, which is why they try to avoid mistakes and are very demanding. In addition, they’re quite competitive and stand out among the rest. They get frustrated if they fail.
Characteristics of child geniuses
These kids share certain personal characteristics, which we’ll describe next:
Impulsive and curious
They’re impulsive and curious, so they’re constantly looking for new information to continue learning.
Self-critical
One of their main features is that they’re self-critical. Whenever they do something, they spend a lot of time analyzing the purpose of their actions.
Moreover, if they don’t reach their goals, they continue thinking about what they need to change in order to reach them.
Lonely, giving and a bit neurotic
These children are lonely individuals, who find it hard to form relationships, because they spend a lot of time working hard. When they’re teenagers, they try to develop their talents. Since their friends don’t understand this behavior, they tend to be left aside.
Sometimes, they even turn their dedication into a pathological behavior that interferes with their happiness. They may become overly obsessed about learning new things, so certain characteristics of a neurotic person start appearing.
They work for passion and not for money
When these children get to a certain adult age, they become passionate about their work, and they don’t do it for the money. In fact, they find pleasure in improving their talents.
“The fool has one great advantage over a man of sense; he is always satisfied with himself.”
– Napoleon –
In conclusion, a child genius or a talented kid is a person with outstanding potential, but that doesn’t guarantee they’ll succeed. To do so, they need a proper environment and the right tools at school and home. You should never force them to do something, but it’s important to motivate them.
Finally, remember that lack of affection, lack of stimulation or even poor nutrition may cause negative effects on children’s intelligence. Therefore, you need to pay attention to these things, because your children’s success or failure may depend on them.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Triglia, Adrián; Regader, Bertrand; García-Allen, Jonathan. (2018). ¿Qué es la inteligencia? Del CI a las inteligencias múltiples. EMSE Publishing.
- Sastre-Riba, S. (2008). Niños con altas capacidades y su funcionamiento cognitivo diferencial. Rev Neurol, 41(Supl 1), S11-6.
- Greco, M. (1951). El genio y la infancia: Pepito Arriola. Anuario brigantino, (3), 11-18.