Background
Identifying and Handling Gifted Children
Giftedness is widely distributed across any population, irrespective of socio-economic background. There are many ways of identifying giftedness and one of the most widely used methods is a standardised IQ test. Giftedness can also be identified on the basis of special talents, exceptional skills and achievements in any area like mathematics, music, dance, dramatics, leadership, indoor or outdoor sports etc.
If identified early, gifted children can be provided with appropriate avenues and adequate scope to transform their talents into superior achievements. Otherwise, they may lose interest in learning, may fail to develop their skills for want of enough challenges, may remain underachievers and may face intense frustration for life. In some cases, the parents are worried to find that their child is otherwise quite bright but performing poorly at school. There may also be a few children who display exceptional talent in a particular field, but may be deficient in other areas or even in basic reading and writing skills.
The education system is designed to suit the majority and hence caters only to children with average academic abilities. Unfortunately, the small percentage of children with exceptional academic abilities or high non-academic talents do not get the special attention they deserve. Hence, many highly talented children remain underachievers resulting in sheer waste of valuable national talent. There is an urgent need to generate mass awareness about this lacuna in the system and to take corrective measures.
After giftedness has been identified in children, special efforts must be made, both at home as well as at school, to ensure their proper development. Their inquisitiveness must be encouraged and efforts made to satisfy their curiosity. They must be given adequate privacy and space to pursue their special interests. They should be exposed to accelerated learning and higher academic courses without over-burdening them with expectations. Parents of gifted children should take specialised guidance for handling their children in an appropriate manner.
Genesis of Swanand
Dr. Swatee and Col. Anand Bapat, parents of two gifted children, Asilata and Aniruddha, identified their children’s talents early and put in consistent efforts to nurture them. Despite having lived in an education hub like Pune, they felt a distinct lack of appropriate information about avenues for grooming gifted children. So, they could very well imagine the gravity of such problems among underprivileged classes and in rural areas. Over the years, they had gathered information and expertise in nurturing young talent and had been sharing it with many parents. They decided to institutionalise their efforts under the aegis of Swanand Foundation, a not-for-profit NGO.
What is Swanand?
Swanand could literally mean “the source of happiness from within oneself”. We believe that people whose occupation matches their field of interest, enjoy their work and are usually happy. If children with exceptional talent get to do challenging work in their field of interest, they would not only be happy but would also achieve excellence. Therefore, happiness would beget excellence and excellence would beget happiness. Swanand Foundation aims to tap the wellspring of happiness within all the highly talented Indian children and to optimally harness the national talent pool. Besides many like-minded well-wishers and volunteer workers, we have a core team that is wholly committed towards turning our dreams into reality.