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Supporting your gifted child
What you need to know:
Nurture. If you have noticed that your child develops skills much quicker than those of a similar age, or excels in a particular area, they may be regarded as gifted or talented. Roland D. Nasasira asked parents about how to support such children
In some cases, there are children who are born with talents. This ranges from sports to music. A parent’s guidance is vital for the child to develop their particular talent.
Some children, show the talent while young, but along the way drop it as their minds divert to different things while others continue to explore theirs and build fortunes out of them.
Support the children
Betty Nakibuuka Senyonjo, a gospel musician and mother of Baby Gloria, a child musician, says, like a baby needs support when they are learning to walk, so in the same way a child should be given when a parent realises that a child has got a talent.
“If a parent doesn’t take part in developing their child’s talent, it may die away. But by supporting them, they (children) are also motivated to pursue their talents,” Nakibuuka says.
Invest money
Invest money in a child’s talent by looking for people to mentor them in their particular fields is equally necessary.
“Don’t discourage children with talent, but rather help them get better. If for example a child has talent in music, they could be good at singing but not good at writing and composing, requiring one to look for a better person in that field. But you have got to look at the character traits of their mentors or the people they associate with to avoid bad behaviour like using drugs which could derail them and they lose a bright future,” she explains.
Nakibuuka adds, “Baby Gloria doesn’t look up to me as a musician, she always looks at other big name artistes because it’s where she wants to be. She sometimes comes up with songs and I wonder how she composes them. I’m happy with this progress.”
It is from this that Nakibuuka advises parents to give chance to their talented children to supersede them in case they are in the same field.
Time is money
Arthur Blick Junior, a national rally motorcyclist, with his two sons who are also into competitive motorcycling, says the effort by parents to sacrifice part of their time and financial resources to help explore children’s talents is important.
“As parents, our presence and participation in the lives of our children to develop their talents is important because the parental support and bonding helps a child’s talent grow. It can’t however grow if a parent does not invest money in their talent,” he says.
He adds; “There are some parents who give their children to some other people to groom them. This is not good because if a child is to explore the talent, it can be best done by their parents because they believe in their children most.”
Give children chance
Florence Kyasimire, a Foreign Affairs Officer and mother of a swimming champion says, “As parents, we need not only to help identify the talent that a child has and help them shape it and create opportunities to exercise, expose and encourage them to push to levels they want in developing their talents,”
She adds, helping a child to identify people that are better than them in the fields of their talents and interacting with them to get better skills like in swimming, singing and dancing also helps them push their talents to a better level.
She however cautions parents, if they notice that a child is talented in one way or the other, they should encourage them rather than force them to focus on reading books as the only means of shaping their future. Developing talents alongside school work brightens their future.
Opinions
“When she was young, she used to imitate Judith Babirye’s song “Wambatila” but I couldn’t hear the words well. She also used to, while on the dining table, write down zeros on a paper and she would tell me that; Mummy, this will be my song. It’s when I realised she loved singing.”
Betty Nakibuuka.
“ When she was three years old in kindergarten, she was always interested and loved to play in water. When she grew up with the habit, I let her be and encouraged her to swim.”
Florence Kyasimire.
“ Motor cycling involves controlling and balancing while riding. When my children were young, they tried the game out on small bikes and when they got onto the big motorcycles, they were good at it. It’s then that I realised they were talented at the game.”
Arthur Blick .
