Problems with the promotion of the highly gifted

Once a diagnosis of giftedness has been made, it must be remembered that it is not a disease but a skill. For this reason, one must not think in terms of healing or treatment, but rather in terms of promotion. After all, the correct utilization of the gifted person’s cognitive abilities ultimately leads to a healthy development of the ability and to a better balance in life.

Both mental illnesses such as depression and somatic illnesses are reduced in highly gifted people if they are given access to highly gifted support as early as possible.There are several schools for children and adolescents that specialize in promoting above-average memory performance. Parents who find that their children are highly gifted should never try to slow them down in order to adapt the abilities and performance of children of the same age. If the child wants to read or do arithmetic, he or she should do so.

Questions, no matter how complicated, should be answered. The brain should be used as much as possible. In addition to the few highly gifted centers in Germany where highly gifted students can be taught, there is also the possibility of special support in conventional schools.

One of the main problems of highly gifted students is that they are quickly underchallenged. So it makes sense to speed up the speed of the material transfer. The easiest way to do this is for the child to skip a class after sufficient testing.

Furthermore, the material to be taught, which is currently being studied in class, can be prepared in a very deep and intensive way for the specific student. In the adult education of highly gifted children there are several associations that deal with highly gifted children. This is a kind of self-help group in the classical sense.

The people concerned are all highly gifted and exchange information in regular meetings. Furthermore, there are highly gifted universities, which also specialize in the promotion of highly gifted adults. Numerous scholarships also support the highly gifted.

One of the problems that the promotion of highly gifted people brings with it is stigmatization. Thus, the highly gifted are in special institutions far from the average population. What on the one hand is sufficient support, on the other hand also poses the danger of de-socialization.

In the USA, the promotion of the highly gifted is much more intensive. The main reason is that highly gifted people should be given the opportunity to make a career in research or science through cognitive high performance. Under the best conditions, young, highly gifted people are already being supported in special schools and universities in order to then start their own research projects. This kind of support for the highly gifted is not feasible in Germany, if only because of the high costs and limited research scope.