There are many people who would like to know if their child is gifted or talented. Many students would like to know if they are pushing out of their potential and how to get themselves into art classes. Is there a way an artist parent can tell if their child is gifted and talented?

Yes and no. No, because it is difficult to spot talent before the age of 14-15 years old because children’s brains are still developing. That said, there are some things you can look for:

1) Does your child have an eye for color, shape and form?

2) Can your child express themselves creatively through drawing, cardboard sculpting, painting or music?

3) Is the idea of being told what to do by others frustrating for your child?

4) Do you find your child constantly drawing or doodling when doing other things or when supposed to be sleeping?

5) Does your child doodle in class but not pay attention?

6) Do teachers tell you that your child daydreams a lot?

7) Does your child ask lots of ‘What if’ questions?

8) Is it hard to get your child away from the computer (video games, etc.) ?

Art is not the same as talent. Talent has a specific meaning, and it doesn’t mean the same thing as any other word that ends in “-talent.”

The original meaning of talent is expertise in an area. Think of “a talented painter” or “a talented musician.” Or “a talented physician.”

Talent means you’re good at something, that you have a gift for it. It’s closer to “proficiency” than to the more general words we use now: aptitude, skill, ability, or even genius.

The term was extended to include any sort of gift, like having a talented dog. But that’s not what the word originally meant.

So when people say their child is “artistically gifted,” they may mean that she’s very good at drawing or painting or sculpting or designing clothes or building furniture. That’s fine–and if she is doing many different things and developing a variety of skills, it’s probably a sign she’ll be good at something in the future.

But if they mean she has talent–that is, an aptitude for art–then they are wrong. Talent is rarer than proficiency; there are fewer people who are really talented at art than people who can draw competently by

You may need to know if your child is gifted in art. Sometimes, a child may be pushed into one area but has another true talent that is being squandered. The best way to know this is to take some tests to determine the child’s artistic potential.

Tests for Artistic Potential

There are certain tests that can be used to determine a child’s artistic potential. These tests are not always given, so you may need to request them from the school or the child’s teacher

My daughter is in the gifted program. Her class is amazing, but to get into it she had to fill out a test. I have found that many of my friends are worried that their kids are not as talented as they think they are.

Here is how to tell if your child is gifted or talented.

1. How old is your child? Most kids will not be considered for Gifted and Talented until the 3rd grade. However, the earlier you find out about your child’s talents, the better you can help them develop it.

2. What does your child love to do? Does your child spend hours on end playing with his Legos? Does he never put down his iPad or DS? If so, he might be talented in that area already!

3. Does your child enjoy learning new things? Gifted and talented kids tend to be natural learners and do well in school because they enjoy learning new things. If your child has a hard time doing homework and learning new skills in school, don’t panic! There are plenty of other gifted children who struggle with schoolwork but excel in other areas like arts and athletics.

4. Is your child well-rounded? Gifted and talented children may naturally excel in one subject, but

There are a lot of creative kids out there who are not being recognized as gifted. Why? Because they’re not in art classes! They’re in math or science or gym or music classes. I think this is a shame, because I think all kids have the potential to be creative. Some are just more obvious about it than others.

Telling your child he/she is talented, or even gifted, may seem like a nice thing to do. But if you don’t also tell them that they need to work hard in order to achieve their goals and dreams, you really aren’t being honest with them. You see, telling a child that they are talented without setting expectations for success can set them up for failure when they don’t get those A+ grades…or make it into the college of their choice…or get the job they want…or whatever their standard of success is.

So what do you do instead? Well, first we teach our children that talent is something God gives us – not something we earn ourselves. And then we have to teach them that talent isn’t enough on its own. We have to work hard and practice in order to become successful at anything we do.

If

The artist Edouard Manet once declared, “There are no bad subjects, there are only bad painters.” I never learned that when I was in school. Instead, my art teachers taught us to look for the perfect subject. We practiced our still lifes and our portraits and our nature studies, and we practiced them over and over again until we could paint them well. But the perfect subject was always just out of reach.

How did the students learn to paint horses? First they drew horses from life; then they drew horses from memory; then they drew horses from imagination. They learned how to get them right, but they also learned how to get them wrong. They learned how to not just get close to the perfect horse, but how to see in a way that could lead them closer to perfection.

I wish I had been told about Manet’s quote back when I was in school. Because if I had heard it then, I might have realized that it wasn’t about talent or giftedness at all. In fact, it is about practice.

What is art?

Art is a way of communicating. Art is different from science, poetry and religion in that it has no purpose beyond communication. A scientific theory can be used to predict or explain things; a poem can be used to express oneself or communicate emotions; a religious text can be used to instruct or comfort.

Telling someone how to tie their shoes is not “art”. Instructions on tying your shoes are merely utilitarian, but they are not “art”. There is no intent to communicate anything more than information, and there is no intent to make the reader/observer feel anything other than boredom while they read the instructions.

There are many artists who create art that has little meaning outside their own experience, but this doesn’t mean that the work cannot be appreciated by others. Many people enjoy looking at paintings of scenes they were never in or things they never saw, just as many people enjoy reading books about places and times they have never been or lived in. It makes them feel like a part of something bigger than themselves.*

The point I am making is that even if you don’t think you can appreciate art, actually there are many ways that you do appreciate it. That includes the music you listen