What

Can there be any giftedness in toddlers? Each child is developing in his own way and at his own pace. Still, there are children of whom you can already see that they develop faster than their peers during their baby and toddler time. Some children excel in a certain development area such as language development. But others can show a lead in several areas, such as in language, thinking, play, motor skills or socially emotional. If a child is significantly further in his development compared to children of the same age, we speak of a development lead.

In preschool and pre-school age, we do not yet speak of giftedness because the development of these young children is still very rapid and can also differ per development area. But you do not suddenly become gifted at a later age, in predisposition is high ability already present at birth.

How to recognise? 

How can you identify a developmental lead in toddlers? Certain characteristics in the development and character of a toddler may indicate that. To be sure: it is not necessary that the child shows all the characteristics in order to detect a development lead. 

• Exceptional curiosity
• Good memory
• Great vocabulary
• Makes long sentences and uses difficult words
• Understands multiple assignments or tasks
• Has humor and understands jokes
• Wide area of ​​interests
• Requires little explanation
• Asks for explanation (why?) at a very early age, and then asks questions again and again (until the adult does not know the answer anymore.....)
• Shows in play that he / she has a plan
• Asks original and surprising questions
• Is interested in letters and numbers
• Does not like repetition
• Is bored quickly
• Has a rich imagination in playing and telling
• Deeply thinks about events
• Likes thinking games or plays for older children
• Is quirky or willful
• Has a great sense of justice
• Loves to play with older children
• Would like to be the first, the best, the fastest
• Aims for perfection

How adaptive support?

What can you do to offer toddlers with a development advantage an adaptive support?

1. Identify the level at which the child functions.  Use comparing material or instruments form national educational institutes and/or use the intake questionnaires presented in this toolkit (see chapter 7)

Have a profound meeting with parents to get a good picture of the child's functioning in the home situation (use the questionnaire!)

2. Consider what the toddler needs from:

• the pedagogical staff or teacher
• educational environment (challenging enough? or possibilities for concentration or...)
• the material
• the other children
• the parents

3. Make a plan with adjustments in the  fields of:

• activities
• educational environment
• the role of the pedagogical staff or teacher
• the level of conversation needed to have a good contact with the child
• the playmates

4. Execute the plan and evaluate what the effects are

Example

Semmie is 3 years of age and now a few months at the Kindergarden. Semmie is a boy who loves building, he can play endlessly with the blocks. Here he invents endless stories. Furthermore, Semmie is rather quiet and keeps some distance from the group. The pedagogical staff do notice that Semmie has a good memory. He understands quickly when something is explained and he knows the group rules very well. So far they have let Semmie play with the blocks and have not put many demands on him or offered any challenge.

At home Semmie indicates that he does not like it at Kindergarden and that the doesn't like children either. The parents decide toeave a meeting with the pedagogical staff. At home Semmie prefers to play with his 3 year older neighbor. The boys make the most beautiful things of lego together. And he also loves books very much. He even recognizes all the letters on his name.

As a result of the meeting with the parents, the pedagogical staff decides to make a development plan. They compile a list of possible topics that suits the interests of Semmie and make an estimation of the level that he could handle.

In addition, the pedagogical staff has the impression that Semmie needs a playmate who has the same level of development or interests.

They also consider the way which they communicate usually with Semmie.

In the plan of action, the pedagogical staff will find out together with Semmie which activities he would like more and interesting to do at the Kindergarden. Regarding the activities in the group the staff tries to find out whether adjustments can be made to make activities more attractive to Semmie. Together with a toddler who is also very good at building, Semmie is challenged to create new and nice building projects combined with other materials. They use also "thinker's keys" *) during transition moments, so that several children are challenged in their thinking.

After a few weeks, the pedagogical staff has a new meeting with the parents. Both parties report  about the latest developments. The pedagogical staff observes that Semmie has started to participate more in group activities and that he is more involved. Parents indicate that Semmie only rarely says that he does not feel like going to the Kindergarden. They agree to have contact every three months about how it goes.

Asynchronous development of toddlers

What

Toddlers with a developmental advantage often have a non-synchronized development in the intellectual, physical and emotional fields. In some toddlers, these three develop more or less equally: a synchronous development. But in toddlers with a development advantage this is often not the case. It seems that these children do not have one mental age but different ones. That makes them vulnerable.

The development profile of a three-year-old child could look like this:

think development: age 6 years
motor development: age 3 years
emotional development: age 4 years.
game development: age 4 years

 
But many other variations are possible

Examples.

> A child of five does enrichment tasks but has to ask the teacher to tie his laces

> The toddler wants to play father and mother, but during play it appears that the other children do not keep their role. The toddler is therefore disappointed and frustrated.

> A child already reads books intended for ten-year-olds, but gets nightmares from the many impressions in the book that it can not yet emotionally place.

The development profile of a three-year-old child could look like this:

How

You can not do anything about the way children develop, so asynchronous development can not be corrected. But when parents or teachers really understand a child it can be supported in development, self-confidence and self-image.

a few tips:

1. It is essential to recognize that social and emotional development of a child is different from intellectual development. Understand that emotional outbursts or frustrated feelings might be a result of that difference. 

2. Be aware of the fact that  because of asynchronous development special needs arise. For example, children with a developmental lead need maybe emotional support, but intellectual challenge too. A gifted child of four needs a hug, but can be busy with dinosaurs at the same time.

3. Recognize that children with a developmental lead can not always associate with peers with the same development. This means, for example, that they do mix well with children of their calendar age, but also need to cooperate with development matches in the intellectual field. That could be very well older children or even adults.

4. A child feels that something is not "right" because he doesn't recognize his "problems" in other  children of his group. This could result in a sense of insecurity ("Am I weird? What is the matter with me? What am I awkward!"). An explanation about what happens, naming what a child can not (yet) figure out, creates safety and security for him.