Despite a general belief that highly gifted children are assured of a successful future, they still need the help and support of families, schools and society to ensure their potential is not wasted, said speakers at a recent seminar on the problems facing gifted children.

It is estimated that there are about 200,000 such children in Thailand.

Noticing that his son was hyperactive but lacked social skills and interests, a businessman in his 40s told The Nation that the boy, now a 10-year-old fifth-grader, was found to have a knowledge and interest in biology and other sciences equal to that of a second-year university student.

The man said his son suffered from being misunderstood by some of his schoolteachers as a troubled, aggressive and ill-disciplined child.

The misunderstandings affected him greatly, the father said.

"He did not want to go to school, thinking the teachers and pupils hated him. We took him out of school once, but the school director persuaded me to change my mind and wait until he graduated from Prathom 6, after which he could join a school with special classes for gifted children," he said.

The boy reads textbooks and studies his favourite subject in his free time, while also joining therapeutic activities concerning social skills such as how to release his frustration and anger the right way.

In his quest to find out more about how best to support his son, the businessman along with about 200 other parents of so-called "super-smart" children went to a seminar on the subject on Wednesday.

Many of the parents expressed concern that their children's special talents would disappear into the one-size-fits-all Thai education system if they did not get proper support and a good mentoring system.

And they have good reason to fear this, says veteran gifted-child expert Usanee Anurutwong, head of Srinakharinwirot University's Research and Development Centre for the Gifted and Talented.

If not properly supported, many children see their talents fade in primary or secondary school. Children, who suffer from being perfectionists, can become lonely and alienated, which can lead to low self-confidence and self-esteem as well as stress and frustration, Usanee said.

Because of this, the centre provides a "giftedness detecting" service and therapeutic activities for such children.

Deputy director of the Office of the Basic Education Commission Potchanee Chanpanus said the education system had become more flexible towards gifted children with the inclusion of special classes for quick learners and additional challenging content and more money for child support subsidies for parents.

Potchanee said ministerial regulations had been launched to let "whiz-kids" study and obtain grades in higher-year subjects in advance, while remaining in the lower-year classroom with their peers.

Children on the fast-track curriculum are also considered by many universities as a special

quota intake, Potchanee said.

Seven or eight universities, including Chulalongkorn, already have programmes allowing gifted children to study in advance in some subjects, said adviser to the National Education Commission Rungroung Sukapirom, who presented the strategy for the development of highly gifted children and youths 2006-2016.

Despite the good news of a more flexible policy, some parents said they held little faith in the regulations materialising as schools seemed hesitant in creating innovated and more flexible curricula.

So rather than wait, Usanee urged parents to unite as a network and pool resources to help develop their children's potential.

She said the centre would gather children of similar talents and find experts to mentor them in supplementary activities, while seminars would be held for the parents to help them understand and better support their children.

Premyuda Boonroj

The Nation