I promise this will be the last BBC-News-related-thread, but I was reading this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8224565.stm), and wondered what other people think about children with an IQ fifty times their age, (or whatever :)).
Three languages, muscial instruments and an A* at eight. With a name like Xavier the first thing that came into my head was "poor, pushed child" but seemingly not. But is it really nature or is it just nurture? It would be interesting to see what other people think, anyway.
Kids are generally getting smarter.
However, this kid has probably been pushed. Nature/Nurture doesn't matter. If you nurture a kid towards becoming a nerd when they're little (the biggest development changes mentally start between 2 and 6 or something like that), then it's eventually going to be a natural thing for the kid to be a nerd.
It sounds great that the kid can do all this stuff as a kid. Languages are not really an achievement, to the extent that it's well documented that young children find it easier to pick up and learn languages than fully grown adults. The one thing people overlook with this stuff is that there no mention of that kid's social life. I bet you he has very few friends, what friends he does have he spends far too little time with, and as a result his social skills will be poor. As a result the kid may become a genius, but he won't go very far if he can't interact with people.
Furthermore, If he does stay in school, life is really going to suck for him when he reaches secondary school.
Nuturing may affect his nerdiness but i dont believe it affects his base intelligence.
I've tested fairly consistently on IQ tests for the last 12 years or so.
They are not experience based but rather based on cognitive ability.. which is innate.
His math skills are definitely innate.
Also his ability to pick up languages and learn instruments, not the fact that he did though.
I can't imagine an 8-year old wanting to learn three instruments, so it's probably a bit of a stretch of the truth when the mother says he hadn't been pushed.
Being a parent myself, I tend to lean more toward nurture on the subject of intelligence. Sure, there may be some nature at work as far as the baseline intellectual capabilities, but if you push a kid enough (and I don't mean insanely stressful pressure, I mean like introducing educational material at an early age and keeping up with it), and if you as a parent are dedicated enough, you can most likely end up with a very smart child.
However, things like learning languages cannot be taught; I believe they are simply skills that one is either born with the ability to pick up quickly, or not. Generally, certain skills can be taught, others cannot. IMHO
Both.
Intelligence is highly hereditary, but you can increase your child's "core" IQ by continuously stimulating their brain. Conversely, even good genes will be wasted on a brain that gets no stimulation whatsoever.
What Andail said makes more sense than what I was trying to say. :D
And that is very true, Andail, that last part. I had a friend whose kid was so intelligent and bright, yet it was squandered by a father who thought it was hilarious to teach him to curse, be racist, hit people, and act rude altogether. It was depressing to see, especially once I had kids of my own and realized just what he was doing. (That's mostly why I'm no longer friends with him, including the time his 3-year-old son pushed my <1-year-old son to the floor.)
Dakota Fawning, she boggels the mind, ive seen her in interviews and shes beyond my intelligence level.
Ive been dating this girl shes 18 junior in college premed and she speaks 9 languages shes a sensei, teaches karate, and shes pretty much a walking dictionary, The way she tells it, it just came naturally to her as a kid however one creepy aspect is all of her child hood photos show her and her younger brother with red glowing eyes no matter how you photshop them they always come out with red glowing eyes................. maybe thats off the subject thought ne way ive noticed kids these days are more intelligent then i would ever hope to become, my 7 year old cousin is doing algebra x + y and all evn i had trouble with that and my 14 year old cousin uses huge words i have to look up in a dictionary, i playfully bop her on the back of her head whenever she does trying to break the habbit but 2-4 sentances and im completly confused and asking her to say it in other words. I keep a dictionary now to try and keep up.
My 12 year old cousin builds exact models with all the tiny pieaces, and he can also make a computer do things that i would never imagine or dream of.
Im trying to get back into college but im finding that he youger generations are far more knowlagable than i ever was graduating ive got to go back and study everything all over again to keep a job nowa days you have to know all the new stuff their pumping into your younger generations. Somtimes i think its too much.
I sat down at my favorite cafe with a good book for one of my college classes a sweet bread and my favorite coffee, to help me relax and this young girl comes and sits down next to me and starts to quote from my book, so we get to chatting about it, what she thinks on the theories excetra we talked about it for atleast 2 hours untill her mom sat down with us and she introduced and we talked for awhile, she wrote her number down on a pieace of paper and handed to me but i stopped her and said hey?? i hate to ask you but you look young. She was 13?!?! lol............ telling me a 26 year old guy about things even my professor had troubles with............... lol consiquently with her back turned from me i tossed her number only feeling slightly guilty.
its really getting to be too much these days
Hehe @ Erenot
Dakota Fanning, though, she's so precocious I can hardly stand it. I once had to sit through "I am Sam", and the entire experience (along with the vulgarly bitter-sweet script and Sean Penn's pathological overacting) just made me sick.
She's pretty good in Taken (the series) and does a good job in Push.
Kids around here aren't smart, they punch moving cars and scream at police.