Is my child High Potential?

Coach and learning expert, Yasmina Benk answers your questions about High Potential (HP) children, their profiles and how they function.

The High Potential Child

A children are said to have high potential (HP) when they have a rate of development intellectually superior to that of his age. We speak of an IQ (Quotient Intellectual) of 130 or more on an efficiency scale. intellectual.

A high-potential children are characterized by their way of thinking and their emotional functioning. For this reason, it must be clearly understood in this intellectual and emotional functioning, so that its resources, which are very to develop fully.

The child high-potential also has its own special features. psychological

Events psychological

• Overdeveloped sensory perception (Hyperesthesia)
• High emotional reactivity
• The will to control
• Insistence on fending for oneself
• Great empathy

Events cognitive

• Language precocity
• Intellectual hypermaturity
• Fast processing speed
• Intellectual over-investment
• Difficulty coping with effort
• Intuitive, non-deductive processing
• Lack of method
• Global and simultaneous vision
• Tree thinking

A high-potential child may experience difficulties at school, despite his or her extraordinary abilities and have to cope with disorders learning. Traditional teaching is not always adapted to his needs. way of thinking. As a result, many high-potential children fail at school.

According to specialists, the HPI child can be either divergent or convergent:

• divergent reasoning is identified during the IQ test.
  It includes an excellent memory, respect for authority and high motivation for all school tasks.
• convergent reasoning is characterized by great empathy for others, a very good ability to adapt to change, a facility for conceiving new ideas and a high level of motivation for the subjects that interest him.

Visit HPI children generally present an intellectual developmental advance of two years or more than other children. This precocity causes this what psychologists call internal dyssynchrony. This dyssynchrony stems, on the one hand, from a gap between the development the child’s emotional and psychomotor maturation and, on the other hand, his intellectual development. This is why the verbal performance of HPI are better than their writing or drawing.

From What’s more, in addition to this internal dyssynchrony, there’s a so-called social dyssynchrony, when these children’s school and/or family environment logically expects behaviour that corresponds to the norm of their environment. age, which is not easy for HPI.

Types of high-potential children

Despite their above-average intelligence, HPI children are not necessarily top of the class. Whether because of learning difficulties in certain subjects, the boredom it can cause a lack of self-confidence, or poor integration into the community. In the classroom, a third of HPI children perform at a level below that predicted by their IQ.

He There are six different profiles of HPI children:

The student efficient

The student performant is a perfectionist who applies himself enormously. He enjoys being recognized by adults in general and teachers in particular. He remains very conformist. His school results are very good.

The student stand-alone

He has a great capacity for self-directed learning. He feels a great self-confidence and a definite appetite for knowledge. He does not hesitate to take risks if necessary. He’s persistent, accepts failure and challenges herself. HPI children are good at expressing their knowledge. Her school results and social integration are very good.

The student effaced, inhibited

He has low self-esteem and difficulty admitting his abilities. He seeks above all to be accepted by the other students in his class. His school results are average to good.

The student at risk

He is very often on the defensive. Subconsciously, he feels angry at adults who can’t adapt to their environment and to their children. needs. At-risk students tend to isolate themselves. His school results are bad or average.

The student provocative/creative

The student provocateur is bored in class and lets it be known. He is often on the and provokes his teachers. It is, however, competitive and gets involved when a subject interests her. He is very creative and non-conformist. His school results are inconsistent.

The student with disorders

The an HPI student with a learning disability (dyslexia, learning difficulties, etc.). attention, etc.). He is often anxious and lacking in confidence, with a great sensitivity.
He works slowly and doesn’t always finish his exercises for fear of failure; his skills are diminished. His school results are well below its actual capacity.

At Benk, we are learning specialists, helping high-potential children to develop better learning techniques and tools, combining cognitive and emotional intelligence. We work on organization, self-confidence, emotional management and progression.

Our success lies in helping your child reveal and exploit his or her potential.