A Gifted Child Doesn’t Have to Be the Best at Everything. How to Recognise and Support Giftedness

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16. 9. 2026

Gifted children are back in the public debate. How can we recognise them? Do they get enough support at school? And what happens when a child masters the curriculum much faster than their classmates, but the school keeps asking the same of them?

In the Hanky ve středu dění podcast, Hanka Trejklová and Hanka Slabá focus on gifted children. From a Montessori perspective, they explore not only how we can recognise giftedness, but above all how to create an environment in which a child does not have to wait for the others and can progress at their own pace.

A gifted child is not just a child who knows a lot

A strong interest in dinosaurs does not in itself mean giftedness. It is more important to notice what lies behind that interest. A child may have an exceptional ability to go into depth, look for information, connect it and concentrate for a long time on a topic that has caught their attention. In another child, the same ability may show when building complex models, in mathematics, language, music or sport.

Gifted children can also surprise us with an exceptional memory, a rich vocabulary or an ability to grasp connections we would not expect at their age. Some read with understanding very early, others work with abstract concepts or ask unusually deep questions. However, there is no list of traits that every gifted child must meet.

Giftedness may not show straight away

Some children show exceptional abilities very early; in others, giftedness appears only later. At kindergarten, a child may seem completely unremarkable, or those around them may see them as too emotional or difficult. Only at school, when they start working more with logic, language or abstract thinking, does it become clear that their abilities reach much further.

That is why long-term observation plays such an important role. In a Montessori environment, guides observe the development of all children, not only those they already suspect of being gifted. They notice language, mathematical and logical thinking, social relationships, interests and ways of working. This helps them recognise when a child is simply going through a normal developmental change and when they need much more room.

Ahead in one area, completely ordinary in another

A gifted child does not have to be ahead in everything. Quite the opposite. They may read and work with information at the level of much older children, yet in practical life or social skills be exactly where you would expect for their age. In some children, the differences between individual areas of development can be very large.

And this is where misunderstandings can arise. When a child talks like someone much older, adults easily begin to expect the same maturity in emotions, relationships or self-care. But high intellectual abilities do not make them a little adult. They still need support that matches their actual age and development.

When a child can do more, they shouldn’t have to wait

It can be very frustrating for a gifted child to keep practising something they mastered long ago. If, for example, they are working with much more complex mathematics, repeating basic material just because their grade is covering it will bring them nothing new. Boredom and a long-term lack of stimulation can then show in their behaviour as well.

A Montessori environment has one big advantage here. Children do not have to follow the same plan just because they are the same age. When a child is ready for the next step, they can move on. The prepared environment also offers materials of varying difficulty, so the child can see where they can take their work next.

Supporting giftedness means seeing the whole child

The point is not to push a gifted child forward as fast as possible. We need to offer them enough stimulation where they are ready to move faster, while not forgetting the areas in which they need the same or even more support than their peers.

Perhaps, then, what matters more than the label “gifted child” is our ability to truly look. To notice what interests the child, how they think, where they need a greater challenge and where, on the contrary, they need support. Giftedness is not a reason to speed a child up. It is a reason to let them grow at a pace that suits them.

You can listen to the full conversation between Hanka Trejklová and Hanka Slabá in the Hanky ve středu dění podcast (in Czech) here: