Seven natural talents you may not know your child possesses
Forget academic grades. Here are seven natural strengths you may not know your child possesses – talents that will steer them to success in future.
Sometimes we get so focused on the traditional measurements of talent and success – high grades, participation in sports, winning competitions – that we can forget our children already possess a number of natural gifts and talents. Talents that will help them succeed not only in the world of academics and the future world of work, but also just in life generally.
It’s really important to pay attention to the natural abilities of your children, as well as other educational milestones, so they feel supported in all areas of their life. And know they are a growing individual with many ways of being successful – not just through grades at school.
This is particularly essential now there are many services that will help you to give your time and energy to what is really important, while not losing points from other subjects, particularly if you as a student often think about “who can take a class for me“.
Seven natural talents you may not know your child possesses
So, what are the natural gifts and talents of young children that you can nurture to support their personal growth now and for their future? Here are seven of them.
1) Adaptability
In an ever-changing and fast-paced world, adaptability is a vital talent for children to have and develop. It doesn’t necessarily have to be about dealing with adversity, but helping them to develop a good understanding that things change, sometimes unexpectedly, and it’s important to continue working to their best ability regardless.
2) Perseverance
Sometimes things don’t go as we plan, and it’s important not to let these things stop us from achieving our goals. Children have a tendency to bounce back quickly from setbacks, and this is a really positive natural gift of theirs. Continuing to teach children to embrace setbacks as opportunities to grow and develop helps them build the mindset of perseverance to get on in life and work.
3) Honesty
Children are naturally honest and open with how they engage with the world, but at some point they can start to lose this – possibly due to a fear of failure or letting people important to them down. Keep encouraging your children to be honest in proactive ways will help them to build the positive communication skills around their efforts and abilities that employers look for.
4) Enthusiasm
Someone who can talk positively about themselves, why they want to do something and who gets excited about doing new things and taking on new challenges always stands out from the crowd. Children are naturally enthusiastic about most things, so keep encouraging this, especially when it comes to embracing new situations.
5) Inquisitiveness
Taking an interest, asking questions, and having positive opinions all fall under this umbrella – and is another natural gift most children have! By encouraging children to be inquisitive, it also helps them build their communication skills and confidence around idea sharing – all things employers love!
6) Teamwork
Children like engaging with each other, learning about each other and supporting each other. Teamwork is something that comes pretty naturally to children and is easy to encourage – through team projects, team sports or just nurturing their natural urge to work with their fellow peers.
7) Entrepreneurship
Children have innate creativity and ideas that they love to work on – through play, or other creative pursuits. Believe it or not this can easily develop into entrepreneurial skills, and encouraging them to pursue their ideas and asking them questions (think ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’ questions to help develop their thinking) will help this gift bloom.
Jason Walker from GameQuarium explained to us the importance of nurturing your child’s entrepreneurship skills. The feedback loop which entrepreneurship offers is incredibly valuable for encouraging problem solving, critical thinking, hard work and determination.
Board games such as Monopoly, GoVenture and SHASN is an excellent way to learn these important skills.
Have you noticed any others with your own children?
This list is not exhaustive, and I’m sure the more you engage with your children, the more you’ll start to recognise the talents and gifts they already have, and can encourage them to keep developing.
Remaining open and supportive with all areas of your child’s personality not only helps them feel confident talking to you when they do feel they’re struggling, but it also demonstrates to them that you’re supportive of them even when they didn’t get that high grade on their last math test.
It helps them feel better prepared to handle failure – and that’s a great lesson to learn early on with the love and support of their parents.
Elaine Mead is a passionate education and careers consultant, and is particularly interested in empowering young women to be their professional best. You can follow her on Twitter and read more of her articles on medium.
Photo by Christian Langballe on Unsplash
