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I read with interest the story of Karina Oakley, the little girl tested for intelligence and found to have an IQ of 160, which puts her on a par with Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking. She's 2 years old.
(Gates and Hawking have yet to comment on being compared to a 2-year-old, however...)
I've written before about the fact I've been in Mensa, having been tested at 13. My 172 IQ puts me in the top 0.1% of the population in terms of intelligence. On paper, if nothing else, I'm a genius. Which is nice.
Nobody in my family was surprised by this. Like Karina, I was a scarily articulate child. Able to read by the age of 2, and with the reading age of a teenager while still in infant school, my parents also knew their own little madam was a bright spark. If I'd been IQ tested back then, I might have made the news, too.
Also, from a very young age I was also 'imaginative and gifted with words'; I've become a writer so that's pretty much my job description, and personality, summed up. I can see little Miss Oakley following the same path, as that's where her gift seems to lie. But then, she's TWO YEARS OLD. Anything can happen.
My concern about Karina, and other children like her, is that way too early in their lives this huge expectation is placed on their tiny shoulders - she's already been dubbed one of the smartest kids in the world (Sorry, Elise-Tan Roberts). Who the hell can live up to that at two years old? Or any age?
Let's be real here. The fact that her IQ score puts her in the same league as the world's greatest minds is no guarantee she'll achieve anything close to what they have. There are millions of people out there with genius-level IQs and their greatest achievement might be asking: 'Do you want fries with that?' so let's not get too ahead of ourselves, mmkay?
But you just know there will already be talk of gifted-child programs, being moved ahead a year or two at school, first-class degrees from top universities, PhDs and the like.
The unspoken assumption here is that high levels of intelligence translate into academic excellence; kids like Karina might well be able to pull great work out of the bag, but if they're anything like me, they'll also like what they like; anything else bores them rigid. In fact, knowing you’re good at something can make you complacent and lazy. Yes, gifted children can be lazy too! Child psychologist Sylvia Rimm said in this article:
"The root of gifted underachievement is that kids feel that they need to prove how smart they are all the time."
Yep, sounds about right.
The Karina Oakleys of this world run the very real risk of being regarded as 'talking brains' and little else, and a personal identity crisis soon follows. An identity crisis is not much fun to have, believe me.
Gifted children need to be taught that intelligence isn't just about raw brainpower, and that even though you might have more of that than the average bear, it doesn't necessarily translate into being a top rocket scientist... or even a top barista at Starbucks.
The fact that your brain goes at warp speed doesn't make you a better person either, so don't get wrapped up in the notion that's you're superior. Does having a 172 IQ make my shit smell like honeysuckle? No! It takes a great deal of emotional intelligence to be humble about your abilities.
Gifted and highly intelligent children should be guided to make sure they achieve their full potential in the things they love to do, not pushed to live out someone else's fantasy of being a gifted child, as can happen. Also, a clever child who shows an interest in something might be pushed to be the best at that thing, way past the point of boredom. We all have passing fads, but in the case of the Clever Child it's hard to accept that 'passing interest in a subject' plus 'intelligence' does not equal 'talent'.
While we're being real, not all clever people want to go to university, and even if they do, might not get a great degree (*cough* Carol Vorderman *cough*); that is, if they don't drop out...
Not all clever people enjoy reading the classics, can learn 6 languages and solve algebraic equations - or even add up. Not all clever people use long, pretentious words when short ones will do, or like to discuss politics, economics or philosophy over breakfast, if at all.
Intelligence shines from within, and genuis manifests itself in different ways (look at footballers with skillz on the pitch, but the linguistic skills of a baboon), and you don’t need a degree, or any piece of paper, to prove your worth as a capable, bright human being. Just be who you are and accept your limitations; there are things the world's top minds are useless at, too.
This is the one lesson gifted children need to learn. Learn it, and learn it well.
How to support gifted children






















