Tips Recognizing And Fostering Child Talent With The Exploration Process

JAKARTA - Education expert Najelaa Shihab said that children's interests and talents will grow along with explorations carried out from an early age. This graduate of the Faculty of Psychology, University of Indonesia, said that talent is not a destiny that arises at the same time when children are born into the world.

"This is a very, very long-term process, there is an interest that arises from exploration and has only emerged at the high school level, some have grown since an early age, some need exposure before their talents become stronger," said Najelaa as quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, September 17.

Children should be given as much exploration space as possible in order to have a lot of experience and choices in developing interests. It takes various experiences and explorations that have been carried out since early childhood education (PAUD) to be able to recognize interests and talents.

When it enters high school, it will be better prepared to choose what interests and concerns it.

According to Najela, parents and educators do not need to form children's interests by directing them to be able to in certain fields. Children who are given freedom in exploring many things will more easily recognize their interests and talents.

"The child's talent needs not to be tested by others, but children need to be given space to be able to recognize his own interests, so that he can gain experience and determine what he likes the most and best for himself," said Najela.

Furthermore, Najelaa said that children need to go through various processes to be able to determine what is most attractive. This experience cannot be obtained in just 1-2 months.

In addition, parents are also expected to be able to accept their child's aspirations in determining their goals and not comparing them with other children.

"Our job is to make these children have high aspirations and diverse ideals," said Najelaa.