How Parents Recognize a Child’s Hidden Talents that Need Nurturing
The best way to recognize a hidden talent that needs nurturing is with “strengths spotting”. Strengths spotting is the process of observing your child’s talents by using behavior clues. In Gallup’s Strengths Based Parenting book, the author Mary Reckmeyer recommends four methods to look for these behavior clues:
- Yearning: What activities or environments is your child repeatedly drawn to or eager to try?
- Rapid learning: What new skills or activities does your child pick up quickly and easily?
- Satisfaction: When is your child most enthusiastic and fulfilled? Which activities is he or she excited about doing again and again?
- Timelessness: When does your child become so engrossed that he or she seems to lose track of time?
There is one theme that flows through each of these four methods, self-motivation. When your child naturally gravitates to learning, trying, doing, and experiencing, they’re self-motivated.
It’s like I always say, children do their best when you empower them to do what they’re best at doing. Therefore, your job as a parent is to be a detective and find what your child is best at doing and then help him or her get the best out of it.