Understanding Child Prodigies

The brains of prodigies appear to function in startlingly different ways from those of average kids.

A child who, by age 10, displays mastery of a field usually undertaken only by adults.

False

<p>Increased access to education and resources</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>More than three-quarters of them were the eldest child in small, dual-income households – families with relatively high socio-economic status.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>'If you have to ask whether your child is a prodigy, then your child isn't one.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Exotic creatures whose standout accomplishments are obvious</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Abigail Sin is a pianist.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>'A single-minded drive to excel.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Abigail Sin took her first piano lesson at the age of 5.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Benjamin Loh.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Abigail Sin practices an average of 25 hours of piano per week.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Her intensity is all the more obvious when she is compared with her twin brother, Josiah, who, like his sister, is good with numbers but doesn't share Abigail's passion for music.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The brain's neural circuitry appears to differentiate prodigies from their ordinary peers.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The advent of sophisticated technology such as a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The fMRI scanner measures blood flow to different segments of the brain.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Revealing which parts 'light up' during various mental activities.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Michael O'Boyle.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Children with an aptitude for numbers show six to seven times more metabolic activity in the right side of their brains.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The area known to mediate pattern recognition and spatial awareness.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>'It's like the difference between a stoplight and a Christmas tree.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Morgan Center.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The Morgan Center researches the development of children who have high intellectual potential.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Prodigies can also switch very efficiently between the brain's left and right hemispheres, utilizing other mental resources and perhaps even shutting down areas that produce random distractions.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Their brains aren't physically different from ordinary children's.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Prodigies seem to be able to focus better to muster the mental resources necessary to solve problems and learn.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>'For the longest time, these kids' brains were considered the same as everyone else's; they just did twice as much, twice as fast.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>'It turns out those quantitative explanations don't fit. They're doing something qualitatively different.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A combination of all of the above</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The age-old 'nature vs. nurture' question.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>'There is no inborn talent for music ability.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The Suzuki Method.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Even those who believe certain talents are innate agree that a child's upbringing has a big impact on whether a gift is developed or squashed.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Wu Wu-tien says, 'Prodigies are half born, half made and mostly discovered at an early age.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Their homes are often full of books; they read to their children at an early age; they take them on trips to museums and concerts.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They do not talk down to their children, and they allow them a high degree of independence.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Prodigies should not put away childish things simply because they perform as adults.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>'Children still need time to be children.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Yeou-Cheng Ma is a violinist and the older sister of cellist Yo-Yo Ma.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>'I traded my childhood for my good left hand.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Jacky.</p> Signup and view all the answers