Radford gives the reader a comprehensive and account of what iscurrently know n about all aspects of exceptional early ability, considering the roles of environment and genetic factors.

An investigation of exceptional early ability which draws upon both historical and contemporary examples of child prodigies. The author demonstrates the varied fields in which achievement is possible and considers the role of environment, genetic inheritance and stimulating mentors.

Presents an exploration of child genius through the stories of fifteen exceptionally gifted young people, from cybernetics founder Norbert Wiener and chess master Bobby Fischer to movie icon Shirley Temple and African-American musician Philippa Schuyler.

Gathering perspectives of musical talent from the psychological, musical, and educational fields, Kindling the Spark is the only single sourcebook that defines musical talent and provides practical strategies for identifying and nurturing it. Joanne Haroutounian uses her experience as teacher, researcher, and parent to clarify central issues concerning talent recognition and development in a way that will easily appeal to a wide audience. The book describes the different stages of development in musical training, including guidelines for finding a suitable teacher at different levels, social and psychological aspects that impact musical training, and research on talent development by ages and stages from infancy and preschool years through the teen years. An important feature of the book are "sparkler exercises" designed to provoke observable talent behavior in home, school, and studio settings. The book also includes an Appendix of Resources which lists books, media, organizations, and specialized schools that offer additional information on musical talent, identification, and development. For music educators in both public school and private studio settings--as well as for parents and their musically inclined children--Kindling the Spark provides an invaluable summary of the research on talent and a wealth of resources for developing it.

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Dusseldorf "Heinrich Heine", course: Hauptseminar "20th Century American Short Stories", language: English, abstract: Preface: Defining the topic In literature, just like in reality, gifted children may differ from each other in every aspect except for the very existence of a special talent or very high intelligence. Still, both in life and fiction, certain types can be traced. The terms child prodigy or wunderkind evoke a child which has developed outstanding skills in a certain area like chess (cp. the protagonist of Amy Tan′s short story "Rules of the Game" or Luzhin in Nabokov′s "Luzhin′s defence"; in reality, almost every grandmaster demonstrated exceptional skills in early childhood, the most prominent example being probably Capablanca), music (McCullers′ wunderkind in the short story of the same title does not live up to a comparison with Mozart, but is also considered a piano prodigy as a child), or any other art or science. In the study "Child Prodigies and Exceptionally Early Achievers", the psychologist John Radford practically equates the former with the latter, despite the conjunction in the title. The Wikipedia offers a similar definition: "A child prodigy, or simply prodigy, is someone who is a master of one or more skills or arts at an early age. One possible definition of a prodigy is a person who, by the age of 10, displays expert proficiency in a field usually only undertaken by adults"1. As this paper intends to study prodigious children in American literature, the best source for a definitions seems to be the leading American dictionary. However, Webster′s2 is extremely vague: "a person or thing of remarkable qualities or powers: an infant prodigy"is listed as a second possibility after an even more general reference to everything extraordinary. Merriam- Webster OnLine defines a prodigy in point 2b as "a highly talented child or youth"3. Un

This book studies the early developmental and family history of children who come to perform at the gifted IQ level during middle childhood. The authors detail their original research-the first systematic, longitudinal study of such children-and offer a theory to explain how children become intellectually gifted. Chapters examine the theory's implications for early identification and assessment as well as for parenting.

Ever wonder what is going on in a baby's brain? Or how you can best nurture a child's natural development? Or why exactly Bach is better than Mozart for babies? This book will explain why. No technical knowledge is necessary, as Shore makes recent neurological findings accessible to all those who come into contact with young children. Everything a baby experiences in his or her first five years is building the foundation of life's learning potential through the formation of neural networks in the brain. Through increasing the complexity of the early childhood environment in developmentally appropriate ways, we can nurture these neural networks. The visionary educational leader must look beyond the traditional boundaries of the K-12 system, and towards the space between the maternity ward and the kindergarten door.

This book reveals the dramatic stories of twenty outstandingly gifted people as they grew from early promise to maturity in Britain. Recorded over the last thirty-five years by award-winning psychologist, Joan Freeman, these fascinating accounts reveal the frustrations and triumphs of her participants, and investigates why some fell by the wayside whilst others reached fame and fortune. These exceptional people possess a range of intellectual, social and emotional gifts in fields such as mathematics, the arts, music and spirituality. Through their particular abilities, they were often confronted with extra emotional challenges, such as over-anxious and pushy parents, teacher put-downs, social trip-wires, boredom and bullying in school and conflicting life choices. Their stories illustrate how seemingly innocuous events could have devastating life-long consequences, and confront the reader with intriguing questions such as: Does having a brilliant mind help when you are ethnically different or suffering serious depression? How does a world-class pianist cope when repetitive strain injury strikes, or a young financier when he hits his first million? What is the emotional impact of grade-skipping? Joan Freeman’s insights into the twists and turns of these lives are fascinating and deeply moving. She shows us that while fate has a part to play, so does a personal outlook which can see and grab a fleeting chance, overcome great odds, and put in the necessary hard work to lift childhood prodigy to greatness. Readers will identify with many of the intriguing aspects of these people’s lives, and perhaps learn something about themselves too.

This volume presents fascinating new theoretical perspectives and empirical findings on the life-span development of talent. It shows how talents are the result of the acquisition of a sequence of skills and how the acquisition of these skills is facilitated by changes in the individual's environment. It explores to what degree the development of high intelligence or achievement is similar to the development of specific domains such as personality, morality, painting, musical performance, or professional skills. It questions whether the development of talent observed for specific groups is similar to individual cases and how the different numbers of highly talented women and men in several domains are to be explained.