Gifted infants: What kinds of support do they need?

Abstract

The main question addressed in this chapter is what kinds of experiences in the very first years of life foster the development of special talents in children. Topics include: the role of experience in the development of talents; a supportive environment for gifted infants is one that fosters competence motivation (evidence from the lives of eminent achievers, evidence from intervention studies, why competence motivation is particularly vulnerable in infancy, why early experience is as important as later experience for the development of talents); quality of support provided by parents (essential ingredients of adequate support, quality of parental support in disadvantaged families); and quality of parental support and achievement of excellence in Surinamese-Dutch infants (the children and their families, measuring the quality of support provided by the mothers, quality of support provided by Surinamese-Dutch, indigenous Dutch, and Japanese mothers: a comparison, conditions impairing parents' ability to provide adequate support to their infants, 5 excellently achieving Surinamese-Dutch infants). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)