As a parent, you will probably never forget when your child spoke his first word or walked for the first time into your arms. Those first moments that you share with your child are magical because you witness your child’s first accomplishments. However, as kids grow up, they will constantly be amazed by new moments and new accomplishments. They will bring you so much joy, happiness, and proud feeling. Every child is unique in its own way and some of them are prodigies, which is quite rare.
Even though there is no strict definition of what a child prodigy is, some experts define them as someone who has professional skills before they reach ten years old. When we are speaking about how rare is to be a child prodigy, we will only say that about one out of every five to ten million people is a prodigy child. This especially refers to the chess field. It truly sounds great now to have a kid like that. If you are wondering how to be sure whether your kid is on the way to becoming the next genius, you should continue reading this article.
What child prodigy looks like?
Let’s talk more about what a child prodigy looks like. Well, a child usually shows and expresses high talent in some field, such as math, art, or music. Some experts think that prodigies are born with special gifs, while others are believing that certain skills of the kid can be developed due to practice and learning. In this path, it is crucial for a child to have a supportive parent. Therefore, if you are noticing that your child may be different from their mates and shows high interest and talents in some field, you should help him or her to express that. According to conducted studies, there are some common things noticed regarding prodigies.
First, all of them have excellent memory, and as a parent, you can easily test this. Additionally, prodigy kids have incredibly sharp attention to detail and they are noticing things that many of us would not even realize. Further, all child prodigies are having above-average intelligence. Finally, they all practice a lot of the things they are interested in. Therefore, if you think that your child is a chess prodigy, you will probably see him or her constantly around the chess practicing moves, studying books about chess, and being amazed by the game itself. In order to help you be sure that your child is a chess prodigy let’s list some of the most crucial characteristics. These reasons will definitely tell you whether your child is a chess prodigy.
Your child is exceptionally skilled at a very young age
Believe it or not, Picasso completed his first painting at age of nine. Like that, the famous Drew Peterson played his own piano concert when he was six years old. These are great examples that will tell you that prodigy children usually perform their skills at a very young age. In most cases, they start being interested in something before the age of twelve.
Therefore, you should pay attention to your child closely and see what things interest him or her. In the case of a prodigy child, their interest field will be completely different from other children. More precisely, they will not be so interested in playing games or playing with toys that most of the other kids love playing with.
Your child spends hours playing chess
A Prodigy child is ready to do some activity literally for 24 hours straight. Whatever the skill is, the kid will want to master it to the fullest. Because of that, he or she will forget about the surroundings and about all other things, turn themself off from the world, and then spend hours practicing that skill. This especially refers to playing chess games. If you see that your child is constantly around a chessboard, there is a big chance that you have a chess prodigy in your house. Your child will probably be interested to read books about chess in order to learn new moves and tricks. Additionally, do not be surprised if your child is constantly asking all of the family members to play chess against him or her.
The child has an advanced ability in a chess area
All prodigies are generally focused on some specific area such as music, math, athletics, chess, etc. If you noticed that your child understands how the chess game works at a very young age, after watching someone play it once, this can be a significant sign that your child is a chess prodigy. A chess game is not so easy to learn, even for adults. Therefore, if your child can understand how the game is played at an early age, he or she will definitely become a professional chess player.
However, as a parent, you must notice that and be supportive of your child. The best way to do that is by taking your child’s interests very seriously and finding a way how your child can develop skills. When it comes to the chess area, you can consider hiring a chess coach that will interact with your kid. In that way, the child can express his true desires and do what makes him satisfied.
Your child has an incredibly good working memory
For those who do not know, a working memory includes more than just the ability of the person to memorize things. In fact, this is the ability to hold specific memory while you at the same time manipulate incoming information. For instance, believe it or not, Mozart could memorize music while he was rearranging compositions in his head same time.
Your child is experiencing loneliness
Unfortunately, all prodigy kids have a hard time interacting and relating to other kids. This is all because they are so advanced for their age and they are not interested in things that other kids like. This can lead them to feel alone in school. Therefore, as a parent, you should find a place where your child can adapt perfectly and not feel rejected. For instance, it would be good to send your child to different chess tournaments and competitions so he or she can share the same interests with other children of their age. Additionally, it is highly important to be proud of your child’s accomplishments because seeing that his parent is proud of him, the child is going to be extremely happy and feel valuable.