[TOPIC] Child Prodigies

I guess she might act like she is better then her peers and I know a lot of people me including would be upset with a little girl outsmarting me. I know some people would be mean and fool her but I know I wouldn't

While I can't really call myself a prodigy, I was one of the better writers in class when I was in grade one. It thrust me into a spotlight that I really didn't want to be in. Does that help?

A child prodigy could go either way. She might seek out the company of adults and shine in the spotlight, or might withdraw and be seen as conceited. Either way, she might experience a sense of disconnection with people her own age, especially if she's bumped out of their grade.

K

No, no, no! She would be deliriously happy to finally be allowed to learn at her own level. Children tend to be very accepting of someone on their own level intellectually, even if that person is younger than they. They just don't think about it.

Other seven-year-olds would be baffled by her, and she by them. No hard feelings necessarily, just mutual incomprehension. She would gravitate to an older age-group, or more likely to a group of adults discussing whatever she happens to be obsessed with at the time. Or else she would hang out in the school library.

(Okay, so I feel strongly about this. I have a couple of gifted children. They tried school, but when the board insisted that they had to remain in their own age-group ghetto, we chose homeschooling instead. Not much help in the grade-skipping department here, I'm afraid.)

Child prodigies don't usually make fun of other people or children. At 7, she's much more likely to just think people are silly for not knowing what she knows. This will likely cause other kids her age to put her at distance and not want to deal with her, or even tease her or pick on her. They may try to also get her into trouble with the stupidest and silliest of things -- but sometimes those things will work. (Teacher, teacher, she called us dumb!) Expect mean nicknames from people who are her peers. She will, most likely, feel isolated.

She won't be able to associate with her own age group well, and she won't be able to associate with people older than her too well, either, because they'd only look down at her and say, "She's a little kid, I'm smarter than her, I don't need to deal with her".

Schools usually avoid grade-skipping, but it can be done. Depending on where her intelligence lies, she could be skipped to, perhaps, the sixth or seventh grade. Beware, though, that the school may not want to skip her, parents might get upset and ask what makes your MC so special to be skipped ahead because they're children are just as smart (even if they're not, this is a usual parent mindset), etc.

:D Good luck.

Ever seen the movie Vitus? Super-genius piano-boy who's way ahead of his peers. The movie starts with him as a kid, but for most of the movie he's 11-12, I think. Might still help though?

you could make her a savant...

I am the wolf

Thank you all so very much for your help! All your imformation was very insightful.

I have one more question, if you don't mind answering:

Would she still enjoy kid things? Would she dress up for halloween, play at parks, and do other such childish things?

She might, or might not ... those are matters of taste. She might think it frivolous fun and lecture everyone on the origins of Halloween, or she might like dressing up in the same character costumes as other kids (all ages watch Spiderman, for example), or she might go as something odd that no one guesses, like an obscure historical figure.

She might think parks are a waste of time, or she might think that swinging is relaxing and good for inspiration, or she just might find it fun.

Prodigies are people too. They can like or dislike stuff same as anyone else.

If you can find the book Someday Angeline by Louis Sachar (I think), it's got a young prodigy grade-skipped and it's pretty well done. Welcome to the Ark by Stephanie Tolan centers on mostly teen prodigies, but there are young ones too. I'm trying to think of other good prodigy books ... Libby on Wednesdays by Zilpha Keatley Snyder is a good one. Middle school age, those kids are.

Proud Member of the Trebuchet Club!

Well, I wasn't exactly a child prodigy, but when I was six and in the first grade, this lady kept taking me aside and running me through these lists of words, having me pronounce them all as quickly as I could. I knew how to pronounce all of them, and so the first few times I went ahead and did that - sometimes, though, when I'd take a breath, the lady would mark a different column on her little clipboard. So, I experimented with her and intentionally stumbled over words. She marked up that category again.

At the age of six, I figured out that this lady was testing me on whether or not I was a gifted student, particularly in the area of reading, where one of my teachers or my father (I was never told who) thought I was excelling (and indeed I was - I could read dictionary entries smoothly and passages from high-flouting novels at that age pretty easily, although not with any acting ability yet!). Mostly I stumbled over words so I could return to the rest of the class, who were learning things without me (although, to be honest, I already knew the things they were learning), and I succeeded. The lady eventually stopped testing me and I went through the rest of the first grade relatively normally.

Unfortunately, however, my father succeeded in getting me a re-test when I was in the second grade, and I wasn't so quick to cotton onto what was going on then, so I passed with flying colors and was shoved into the gifted program. We would meet once a month or so and hang out, playing algebra games (yes, algebra at seven...it hurt then, too!) or messing with electricity-making games (connect the circuits to the battery and such stuff, I dunno, I never went for the science stuff) and things. In the third grade the Learning and Enrichment Center opened in my county for gifted students and I went once every other week to learn a whole bunch of stuff I wouldn't learn for years in the normal system. We studied the Renaissance, something I never got to until eighth grade, and then only briefly, and learned how to work computers and art and foreign languages and a whole slew of stuff. It was nice, but I disliked it because I was taken away from my friends, over whom I was pretty much the ringleader. I missed helping them with their schoolwork, too, which I did on a regular basis (I never did my homework on time, though, until the fourth grade...).

I left the LEC mid-third grade, returned in the fourth grade, and kept going from then on through high school. I made friends there and it was fun returning - plus more gifted students were uncovered from my school, as originally there were but two of us (and, incidentally, of the four that came from my school, one became homeschooled and us three were the top three of our class, myself in third because I was a little lazy) when I started in my third grade (well, there was a third, but he was a grade lower than me...and I didn't get to know him well until I was a sophomore or so, but he was a cool guy...quiet kid, though).

So, erm, to answer your question: I didn't dumb myself down (well, after first grade) because I knew more than everyone else or caught on to things quicker. I helped people out because I liked the warm fuzzies it gave me - maybe I was a born teacher. I dunno. Just picture how you want your MC to be as an early adult and pare that down to its bare essentials for a seven-year-old. Although I will mention that I never spoke up in class repeatedly until around my sophomore year of high school. I hated drawing attention to myself. Being gifted made me very self-conscious, and while I didn't let my schoolwork suffer because of it, I definitely didn't offer answers in class very often, or at all.

As for skipping grades, my dad tried to get me to skip ahead a year. I was in fourth grade at the time and I had heard talk of it around the house or something. My fourth grade teacher took me aside - at the time she was to see if I was emotionally ready for the grade skip - but I had no idea why. I gleaned from the avenues her questions were taking that she was asking me if I would be okay skipping a grade, so I faked a story (I was, erm, rather fond of lying as a child, I admit...rather, rather fond) about how my dad was a terrible person and kept pushing me and pushing me (half-true, actually) and how I didn't want to go ahead a grade because I only knew one person and it would be terrible (also true, but I knew I'd survive just fine if I did). I also broke down and cried like a little baby - although I totally faked that too - and it worked. She told my parents in a meeting that I wasn't emotionally ready and that was that.

I hope those personal experiences help you out. As you can see I was rather emotionally immature (selfish, although that's very typical of children) but very sneaky (for a kid). I think that might tie in with your MC? You'll also need to decide what she's really good at. It's easiest for people to notice ability in reading, math, athletics, music, and art early on. I know we didn't get to science and health and social studies until around second or third grade.

Good luck!

Have you seen the movie, "Little Man Tate"? It's about a child prodigy who's selected to go to an elite school and participate in the Odyssey of the Mind, or something like that. It's a great movie for your topic, because it shows him with children his age, and then it shows him interacting with the other gifted students. You should try to find it.

My seven-year-old is quite a bit ahead of her peers in school and could easily skip a couple of grades, if we (and the school) were so inclined. But at this point, we are not. My concern is with her social development, which is fine at this point, not with her academics. At this time, she is socially skilled, and I'm not sure what you mean exactly when you mention that your MC is "very emotionally immature." In our case, I'm not sure I would want my daughter to skip grades because then she would eventually be involved with a peer group that is into driving and dating and partying two years before her time.

Her current class is a mixed age, 6 to 9 year old class, all working at different levels. None of the nine year olds seem at all concerned when she works with them in their group and outperforms them. Her natural temperment is modest and reserved, so there's no problem there. Perhaps the mixed-age setting stifles the typical competitive nature of public schools. Whatever the reason, the children know that she is advanced and they have no problem with it. I work in the classroom and observe this firsthand. She is just one of the class.

She loves dressing up for Halloween and hanging out with her peers, with older children, and with younger children, as well. She acts just slightly different with each different age group, adjusting her behavior only minutely to be at her best with each group. She is happy watching silly cartoons or viewing a complicated adult film.

I think your character could be a typical seven-year-old in her social interactions and sense of fun. Or she could be really weird. It's totally up to you. The only children I see ostracized by other ones as young as seven are the ones with social handicaps, the ones who just don't know how to relate positively with other children.

When children hit the older, "crueler" middle-school years, I could foresee students picking on the smart kid just because anything that marks you as different is a good enough reason to hate on you in the midst of all that adolescent angst. It doesn't seem to happen, to my eyes at least, so much in the lower elementary grades.

Hope that helps!

Most of what I could say has already been said, but the one really important thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is the attitude of her parents/caregivers. That pretty much accounts for everything, in all honesty. If she's raised being told she's a genius and given a ton of special attention, she's going to get a big head and treat her peers as stupid, and will be treated accordingly by them. On the other hand, if her parents try to challenge her but don't make a big deal about it and don't let others do so, she'll consider herself a normal child with a couple inconsequential exceptions. (However, even if she does her best to be like her peers, she probably won't feel like she completely belongs unless they're in the same situation as her.) Depending on this, she could act like a normal seven-year-old (outside of academics) or like a little brat pretending to be an adult.

I am pretty sure there are laws about how large the age gap is allowed to be for children in the same classroom. I am not sure whether that is set by the school district, the state, or nationally, but I want to say that it is no more than 3 years. As a public school teacher in an urban district, I find this comes into play more when dealing with students being held back (I don't think they skip students ahead), because there comes a point where the child legally becomes too old to be held back since the age gap is too wide. (At which point I think they'd get moved into a different educational setting - in theory.) So my guess is that it would work the same way with skipping ahead. She wouldn't be able to skip ahead more than two or three years. I would also guess that most schools would hesitate to skip a student more than one year (or at least do it one year at a time), even if they would allow that much.

Most super-smart kids are very socially awkward. My little brother is absolutely amazing at math (he was never taught multiplication, but somehow 'knew' it at the age of four-- the preschool teacher was quite surprised when he'd be calculating the volume of his raisin box during snack time). In elementary school, the principal/my parents/ etc was considering having him skip a grade, but then decided against it, because he was socially awkward enough already, and they just pulled him out for math, and was privately tutored by the school math-lab-teacher. When he got to middle school, they bussed him over to the high school for calculus, and eventually he just went to a local college for math. My school district is very against moving kids ahead-- it's extremely rare, and my parents had to go through a ton of work, involving loads of tests my brother had to take, to get in the right situation, despite the fact that he was clearly WAY ahead of his peers. I can't imagine getting a kid easily getting placed more than one or two grades ahead in a public school-- if they're that much farther ahead, they'd probably have to go to a private school for gifted kids, or be homeschooled.
For the period of time when he was put in a higher-grade math class, he had a hard time. There was the minor teasing and everything, but the hardest part was the pressure to be absolutely perfect. He felt like he had to keep his reputation as being super-smart, and therefore was afraid to ask questions. Strangely enough, when he went to his college math classes, it wasn't nearly as big of a deal-- there was a wide range of ages, and it was a big class, and no one really paid attention to the random twelve-year-old learning upper-division math.
My brother also had trouble because he felt that he had to be the person everyone saw him as-- quiet, serious, studious, smart. He didn't have many friends, and had trouble fitting in. However, whenever we went on vacation, or when he got an out-of-town job at a summer camp, he was a completely different person-- goofy and outgoing and fun.
I guess it wasn't as big of a deal when he was seven, but I think the way he acted when he was little definitely type-cast him, which he regrets now. He had a hard time relating to people his age at that time, and they all saw him as a bit strange, particularly when the teachers wouldn't know something or got something wrong and he'd correct them. He never was into dressing up for halloween, usually just pulled on a mask or whatever to get candy. I remember once in preschool his class was having a 'teddy bear picnic'-- he was absolutely disgusted that his teacher expected him to bring a teddy bear to school and have a picnic with it...

I agree with this completely. I was what was called a "profoundly gifted" child. Maybe not a prodigy, but smart enough for Mensa, reading and composing music early, starting school when I was 4, blah blah blah. As an adult, I have also worked with some of the kids in Mensa, some of whom are scary geniuses and some of whom are just nice, exceptionally bright kids. They can play piano concertos and tell you all about post-Impressionist art and so on. And then they can turn around and blow snot bubbles and giggle about Austin Powers.

The kids who are well-adjusted, who play well with their peers, who share interests, etc. are the ones who have parents who make an effort to keep them well-adjusted. The kids who are maladjusted and think they're superior are the ones who have been led to believe that.

I will also say that things like Mensa and gifted children's classes can be a godsend. When gifted kids are around other gifted kids you kill two birds with one stone--you keep them challenged intellectually and you also allow them to form relationships with their peers who might share their interests and talents. I was in gifted schools from second grade on up, and I can tell you that we had allllll the drama and intrigue you'd find in a regular school.

My 8 year old last year tested at 138, so he's way beyond the other kids in his class, but he's not remotely conceited. He knows he's brilliant, the other kids know it, but "that's just the way he is," he's accepted for what he is. He doesn't dumb down either. His emotional maturity is fantastic, and yet he's still a little boy interested in little boy things, so he can relate to kids, but he also has a wit that's appealing to adults. So much depends on the individual personality... you can believably make your MC as healthy and adaptive (or the opposite) as you wish.

As a "brilliant" (only at school, though) kid who finally skipped exactly two grades, I can only agree with what the others said above. Allowing me to study with older pupils helped me not to get too lazy, as I didn't even know that one was supposed to have to work, in order to understand what we were taught at school. When the others were in difficulty, I just thought they were a bit silly, and possibly not listening. So I was intellectually challenged, and that wasn't bad, in a way.
However, the shy little girl I was even before it all happened was cast apart by the others (and it really got worse when we were teenagers, as there's a huge gap between a twelve-year-old and a fourteen-year-old and tons of issues that only get solved in one's late teens) and was extremely lonely and melancholic throughout all my teens.
The fact that my parents had grown used to my excellent results made it worse: they'd stopped telling me how proud I made them (even though they were still quite proud). So I felt like I was somehow too smart to fit in, but not enough for my Mom and Dad to be satisfied. I learnt quickly, understood fast, and it felt like a curse to me.
My husband could tell you how depressed he found me, aged 18 1/2, after a whole life of feeling like a freak.

Now I've come to terms with what I am, and I'm not a genius, just someone whose mind works fast. It helps me a lot in my job, but I'm not exceptional. I get on well with my colleagues, who don't know what I've been through as a kid and as a teen. And it's just fine as it is.

NaNo 2006 : Et pour quelques gigahertz de plus (Won)
NaNo 2007 : Les Deux Reines (Won)
NaNo 2008 : Le prix d'un mensonge (Won)

Whoever said that taunting only happens in the middle school years... nuh-uh. I was advanced for my age (taught myself to read at age 2) and fortunately I was in a school that had an awesome gifted program, so I was one of the youngest in my class, but I didn't have to skip a grade to be challenged, but MAN was I mocked by the other students. I was a sensitive kid, I got along so easily with adults, but I never understood the kid dynamics where it's okay to say sh*t like, "I only want to play with you if my two bester friends aren't available..." and I was teased all the time because I cried easily. My mom was awesome, though, we'd practice witty comebacks at home, so I started building a library of smart stuff to say when other kids got under my skin.

Note, that even though I blew away the other kids in testing and academics, I was never in a position to think I was better than them, because THEY MADE FUN OF ME. How could I be better? They knew the cool clothes and music and had later bedtimes and I just got good grades. So, fine, I was better at math. That couldn't possibly mean I was superior to them in any other way. There's no dumbing down, no feeling superior, just finding a common ground (i.e. dancing or t.v. shows or a sport or loving mysteries) and going forward on an equal basis there.

Oh, and I loved the dress-up and other "little kid" stuff. I was probably the last kid in my class to give up on the myth of Santa Claus (I mean, if you'd asked, I really did know the truth, but why let go of the fantasy when it's so much fun?)

I'm what you call "gifted" and I can tell you it's tough. At first (and if she's seven, she might have been through this already), you don't understand that you're smart, until you start outperforming other kids. They get mad at you. Now comes the hard part. Either she will act superior, try to hide it, or act normal. If she acts superior, she will be unpopular. If she hides it, she might be getting problems wrong on quizzes to prove she's "normal" (I've done that, but more to stand up against my teacher's expectations than anything). If she acts normal, it will probably be the hardest on her in the beginning, but later, she will be a candidate for middle and high school gifted programs. Once in those programs, she will blossom, having finally found people like her. Either way you go, she will most likely be a social outcast, and made fun of. Instead of same age friends, she will rely on older kids as peers. Many of my friends are in high school already.

Right now, most schools don't encourage skipping grades for social reasons. They say kids need to interact with other kids their own age. My school district has considered skipping me, but decided to stick me in the gifted program instead. I'm at the same level in math and science, and higher in reading, as many of my high school friends.

I think I agree... -points to self-, "extremely gifted". That's what people call me. I've been in the gifted programs ever since I started school, and I was going to skip sixth grade but I didn't want to, so I threw a fit and started accidentally-on-purpose "forgetting" the answers to my spelling tests.

It's sort of a love-hate thing. Sometimes, you feel really cool and special. I was at an eighth grade reading level in 1st grade, and I remember telling people that and feeling good about the weird looks they gave me. Often you feel embarrassed, though. I only tried dumbing down myself when it felt really embarrassing. Mostly, you just don't. It doesn't really work. Sometimes I'd purposefully spell a word wrong on tests.

However, sometimes you subconsciously "dumb" yourself down. For example, I've got a really big vocabulary- I've had a really big vocabulary since second grade, at least. A lot of times you subconsciously don't use words that you're thinking of, because you know on some level, that the other kids won't understand you and will make fun of you. I've been made fun of for my vocabulary.

She might also garner some attention from the adults when she maxes out reading scales and such. In the fifth grade I maxed-out the Lexile levels (it's a reading/language arts scale thing). I remember my English teacher used me as an example for the class on how to find books, but she couldn't find any for me so her display didn't work. She literally found ONE fiction book for me: The Good Earth, by Pearl Buck. And it was still lower than what should have been. It was hugely embarrassing, especially since people began giving me really weird looks.

It can be very hard to find good friends. I have a very small, tight-knit circle of friends, and not many others. My friends don't really think much of it, occasionally they make jokes about it. A lot of times I get drafted for tutoring or homework help by people I know.

In short, the MC would get a lot of attention from adults, and some grief from a few of her peers. Making friends might be hard. The whole smartness thing can occasionally be embarrassing, and most of the time it sucks but there are a few warm-fuzzy moments.

I was lucky. I was raised right, so I never got a big head- very rarely. It all depends on the upbringing. My parents make no secret that they are proud of me and my "extremely gifted" brain. But I get treated like a normal kid, at least at home.

However, I think I underestimated the amount of dumbing down. Thinking back, I remember a lot of it going on with me. Purposefully failing quizzes, skipping over the big words when my teacher asked me to read aloud from my paper, lying about my scores on tests.

She could be mildly autistic. If so, she may have difficulty recognising the age of other people, and also with the social instincts needed to realise that not everyone is like her. If she was like this, she would likely act like everyone was her equal, and talk to them as such. Depending on how that worked, she may react differently. If the people she was talking to were not able to understand her, she may look down on them.

EDIT: However, as you said, she is emotionally immature - or just her age? - and so she will be very succeptible to bullying from other people. Especially as, at that age, people will laugh at you (etcetera) for being cleverer than them. For example, if she described a bar as "horizontal", other people would likely turn, point and laugh, and say, "What sort of a word is that?"

And, of course, there's a difference between the intelect measured in schools - which we all know only care about exams and getting through them - and intelect at home. For example, does she watch documentaries? I used to as a child. I'd rather watch something on paleantology, how babies were made (sperm etc), or ancient greece than watch the Magic Roundabout or something. If she is interested in these, especially interested, she may want to talk about them with her peers. They will not have the same knowledge, most likely, and will probably avoid her. Or, as said before, out-right point and laugh at her for it.

"There's a sneeze in my nose!"