Do you have a child with high abilities and want to enhance their skills? It is important to know that, although highly gifted children have outstanding abilities in one or more areas, they also need stimulation and challenges to develop their full potential. In this article, we present 10 activities that you can do with your child to help them enhance their skills and enjoy their learning executive functioning skills.
- Encourage reading
One of the most widespread myths about high intellectual abilities is that everyone reads early and self-taught, when high abilities are a heterogeneous condition with a different learning speed.
Reading is a key activity for the cognitive and emotional development of children with high abilities. If your child enjoys reading, encourage him/her to explore different genres and authors and share his/her readings with you. If he has not yet developed the habit of reading, you can start by reading together and showing him interesting books for his age that help him develop his concentration, memory and stimulate his imagination.
- Practice creative writing
Creative writing is an excellent way to encourage creativity and expression in children with high abilities. Encourage your child to write stories, poems or journals and offer constructive feedback on her writing. If you prefer, you can write a story together or create a collaborative journal. - Develop math skills
If your child is particularly skilled at math, there are many ways to develop those skills further. You can offer him puzzles and math problems to solve, or teach him interesting math tricks . You can also encourage him to create his own math problems for you to solve. - Experiment with science
Science is one of the areas in which highly gifted boys and girls tend to excel. Encourage your child to explore different branches of science and carry out simple experiments at home. You can find many tutorials and videos online that can help guide you through this activity. - Explore different languages
If your child likes learning languages, encourage him/her to explore different languages and cultures. You can learn some basic phrases in another language together, or even sign up for online or in-person language classes. This activity can help develop language and cultural skills. - Develop artistic skills
If your child likes art, encourage him/her to develop his/her artistic skills. They can experiment with different painting, drawing or sculpting techniques, or even create their own works of art with recycled materials. Additionally, they can also attend art workshops or visit museums to get inspired and learn more about different artists and art movements. - Travel and explore new places
Traveling and exploring new places is a great way to broaden your child’s horizons and encourage their curiosity and creativity. Visit museums, national parks, historic cities and cultural places. Make sure to involve your child in the planning and itinerary of the trip, so that he/she can learn about different cultures and traditions. - Participate in sports activities
Sports activities are not only beneficial for the physical health of boys and girls, but also for their cognitive and social development. Encourage your child to play sports they like and participate in sports teams or clubs . This will help them develop teamwork, leadership and problem-solving skills. - Participate in board and strategy games
Board and strategy games are excellent for developing cognitive skills such as attention, memory and planning. In addition, they also encourage creativity and critical thinking. Encourage your child to play board and strategy games with family or friends, or even to participate in competitions and tournaments. - Carry out research projects
If your child is curious and likes to learn about specific topics, you can encourage him/her to carry out research projects. He can research topics that interest him, such as science, history, or technology, and present his findings in a report or presentation. This will help you develop research, writing and presentation skills.