It is normal to be not normal -How to develop the potentials of gifted children
- This article is written from a professional coaching perspective and from personal experience. The author comes from a family in which members have been skipping school
years for four generations. All members of the last two generations (7) skipped a year in grade or high school. Moreover, some were schooled early. The focus of this
article is neither on intelligence definitions and assessment nor on didactic methods and teaching modalities (enrichment) for gifted children but on psychological aspects: How parents and teachers can guide gifted
children in learning proper self-management and in building up motivation to achieve, which means following the path of one’s own interest, by and large, as well as setting appropriate goals. It means joy of learning but also readiness to work; learning to stay on task and to cope with mistakes; learning to develop self-rewarding strategies; learning to evaluate oneself and to find resources. Comparisons to sports coaching are made.