See also: List of child prodigies and Fictional child prodigies

A child prodigy is a child who masters one or more skills or arts at an early age. This is a list of people who in Childhood (at or before 13 showed exceptional abilities in a specific field comparable to those of a highly skilled adult hence the term Child One generally accepted heuristic for identifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 13 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding field of endeavor. heuristic (hyu̇-ˈris-tik is a method to help solve a problem commonly an informal method ^[1] [1] Examples would include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Pablo Picasso. Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso (October 25 1881 &ndash April 8 1973 There is some controversy as to at what age and standard to use in the definition of a prodigy.

The term Wunderkind (from German: "miracle child" or "wonder child") is sometimes used as a synonym for prodigy, particularly in media accounts, although this term is discouraged in scientific literature. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Wunderkind also is used to recognize those who achieve success and acclaim early in their adult careers, such as Steven Spielberg, Steve Jobs and Michael Jackson. Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE (Hon (born December 18 1946 is an American Film director, Screenwriter and producer. Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24 1955 is the Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc and former CEO of Pixar Animation Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29 1958 is an American musician entertainer and businessman

Cognitive studies on child prodigies

Neurological Activity of Child prodigies

Few studies have examined the neurological activity of prodigies. Neuroscience is a field devoted to the scientific study of the nervous system However, Michael O'Boyle, an American psychologist working in Australia, has recently utilized fMRI scanning of blood flow during mental operation in prodigies to display startling results. Mental health professional A psychologist is a practitioner of Psychology, the systematic investigation of the mind including Behavior, Cognition, For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Functional MRI or functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI is a type of specialized MRI scan Blood is a specialized Bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's cells ��such as nutrients and oxygen—and transports Waste products “Calculators,” those capable of mentally performing arithmetic, geometry, or other complex mathematical operations normally reserved for electronic calculators, achieve six to seven times the typical blood flow to parts of the brain observed to be active during mathematical operations. Mental calculators are people with a prodigious ability in some area of Mental calculation, such as multiplying large numbers or factoring large numbers Arithmetic or arithmetics (from the Greek word αριθμός = number is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics used by almost everyone Geometry ( Greek γεωμετρία; geo = earth metria = measure is a part of Mathematics concerned with questions of size shape and relative position The brain is the center of the Nervous system in animals All Vertebrates and the majority of Invertebrates have a brain ^[2]

Mental calculators versus Mathematical prodigies

Mental calculators are not to be confused with other mathematical prodigies, because mechanically carrying out and keeping track of progress in a calculation is very different from having an understanding of the deeper principles behind mathematics. Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and This is potentially one of the reasons why mental calculators do not necessarily go on to become mathematicians. A similar principle, for nearly the same mental mechanism, can be observed among players in games, such as, for example, chess or go. Chess is a recreational and competitive Game played between two players. People typically think a few moves (or ply) ahead. In two-player Sequential games a ply refers to one turn taken by one of the players Recent studies have indicated that ordinarily university students think 2, 3, or 4-ply when confronted with some kind of game-playing or problem-solving task. Beyond that it becomes very difficult to keep track of the different branches and details. But some people (and chess tournaments are good places to look) are able to look further ahead than that, and the skill sets between games and mathematics are very similar.

Memory capacity of child prodigies

PET ScansPDF (72. 6 KiB) performed on several math prodigies have suggested thinking in terms of long-term working memory (LTWM). A kibibyte (a contraction of ki lo bi nary byte) is a unit of Information or Computer storage, established by the International This memory, specific to a field of expertise, is capable of holding relevant information for extended periods, usually hours. In Psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store retain and subsequently retrieve information For example, experienced waiters have been found to hold the orders of up to twenty customers in their heads while they serve them, but perform only as well as an average person in number-sequence recognition. The PET scans also answer questions about which specific areas of the brain associate themselves with prodigious number-manipulation. Positron emission tomography ( PET) is a Nuclear medicine imaging technique which produces a three-dimensional image or map of functional processes in the One subject never excelled as a child in mathematics, but he taught himself algorithms and tricks for calculatory speed, becoming capable of extremely complex mental math. His brain, compared to six other controls, was studied using the PET scan, revealing separate areas of his brain that he manipulated to solve the complex problems. Some of the areas that he and presumably prodigies use are brain sectors dealing in visual and spatial memory, as well as visual mental imagery. Vagina Imagery is used in literature to refer to descriptive language that evokes sensory experience Other areas of the brain showed use by the subject, including a sector of the brain generally related to childlike “finger counting,” probably used in his mind to relate numbers to the visual cortex. The term visual cortex refers to the primary visual cortex (also known as striate cortex or

Nature versus nurture in the development of the child prodigy

Most researchers recognize that prodigious talent tends to arise as a result of the innate talent of the child, the environment that the individual resides in, the energetic and emotional investment that the child ventures, and the personal characteristics of the individual. The environment also plays an extremely important role, many times in obvious ways. Solely environmental theories to account for the performance of prodigies have been developed, examined, and to some degree 'tested'. For example, Laszlo Polgar set out to raise his children to be chess players, and all three of his daughters went on to become world class players (two of whom are grandmasters), emphasizing the potency an environment has in determining the area toward which a child's energy will be directed, and showing that an incredible amount of skill can be developed through suitable training. László Polgár (born 1946) is a Hungarian Chess teacher and father of the famous "Polgár sisters" Zsuzsa (Susan Zsófia

See also

• List of child prodigies
• Fictional child prodigies
• Genius
• Gifted
• Gifted education
• Child actor
• Late bloomer
• Whiz kid
• Chess prodigy
• Intelligence Quotient
• Mensa
• Triple Nine Society

References