How to Take an Active Role in Supporting your Bright Child
It is important to take an active role in supporting your bright child in their education. So, what happens when you have a highly intelligent child on your hands? As a parent it is vital for you to take responsibility for their education, so that they can reach their maximum potential.
Here are the top 5 tips you can follow to assist your bright child in his/her needs:
1. Provide them with challenges
Bright students sometimes need to be provided with new challenges because school work might not be intellectually stimulating enough for them. So learning how to play an instrument or a new language is valuable to develop new skills. Aside from this, their new knowledge may increase their employability in the future.
However, you should also remember that your child needs time to rest too. Constantly overloading them with too many challenges, could lead to resentment in learning and an unhappy child. Knowing when to intellectually stimulate them is vital to ensure their success in the future. In a study conducted by Sally M. Reis states that:
“Conflict within the family is directly related to the high ability of the child. Parents push the youngster to excel and often the future goals set by the parents are unrealistic or do not coincide with the goals of the child.”
Therefore, it is important for parents to notice when to avoid placing too much stress on their children’s education
2. Try to interact with your child in a mature manner
It is natural for parents to interact with their children in a different manner to how they would with adults. However your child’s language skills may be advanced enough to comprehend complex adult conversations. With a highly refined vocabulary and the ability to follow a train of thought, one must understand that constantly interacting with them in a childlike manner may seem condescending to the child. Thus it is important to converse with them in a respectful tone, as well as having difficult topical conversations with your child to develop their cognitive and language skills.
3. Do encourage breaks, socialising, and mistakes
There is a tendency for parents to forget that their intelligent child need breaks and socialise with friends. Although it is important to intellectually stimulate them, it is also vital for them to have a childhood.Overworking your child may lead to refusal to do anymore work due to the academic pressure. Giving them breaks and the freedom to choose activities they are passionate about, will help develop a skill in commitment and dedication to their interests. As well as this, your bright child may not always get every single question correct. Encouraging them to learn from their mistakes instead of scolding, gives them the chance to find joy in learning. Hence it is important to remember that your child needs to be nurtured, not constantly overloaded with work and stress
4. Communicate with your child’s teachers
Communicating their teachers is the best way to gauge which level your bright child is at in school. Since teachers observe and teach children for 6 hours per day, they have the best knowledge in how your child tackle their classwork and responds to teachers during lessons. Thus communicating with them will help see what your child needs to work on outside of school.
5. Provide useful tools for your bright child’s success
There are many free online resources and child friendly apps that are beneficial to your child’s learning. Providing them these resources is vital for them to develop their interests. In addition to this, it progresses their cognitive thinking. You can use free online resources, child friendly apps, or even take them to the library for reading advanced books. Alternatively, you can take them to a tuition centre that can help provide you everything your child needs to succeed and advance their knowledge.
Here at Focus tuition, we pride ourselves in our dedication to our students. Our goal is to help your child reach their maximum potential in English and Maths. We provide many resources to cater to their needs. If they are performing exceptionally well to high standards, Focus tuition will guide your child to new levels and challenges.
To find out how your child is performing in Maths and English, book a free assessment now!
