Gifted children: why more and more parents believe they have a prodigy at home

The giftedness bubble: why every parent sees a genius at home

Why do all the parents I know say their child is gifted? The question, posted on an economics forum, drew 227 replies in a single day and exposed an uncomfortable truth: if every child whose parent claims so were actually gifted, 70% of kids would be more intelligent than average, according to a calculation circulating in the thread. Something is off. And it is not the test.

The diagnosis has become a fashionable label handed out as freely as end-of-year medals. A child who learns to read on their own, builds with blocks or knows the list of all 150 pokémon by heart is already a candidate for the stamp. The line between real talent and parental pride has blurred until it disappeared.

What giftedness really means and why it gets confused with being smart

The technical definition requires an IQ above 130, placing the person two standard deviations above the miccionan. That equals 2% of the population, not the neighbour upstairs. In Andalusia, for example, that threshold is applied and yet diagnoses keep multiplying. The confusion between giftedness, simple talent and a hard-working child is the root of the problem.

Some argue that overdiagnosis has an economic incentive: schools receive money from the European Union for pupils diagnosed as gifted. Hence the miracle of rural schools that, with 200 pupils, have 75 gifted children. The suspicion circulates without firm proof, but it fits with the proliferation of school counsellors and psychologists who, according to some voices, need to justify their jobs by inventing categories.

The other side of the story is the child who genuinely has an uneven development between intellect and maturity. That child does not boast; it is a burden. They get bored in class, switch off from rote learning and end up joining the ranks of school failure. The profile repeats itself: very high percentiles in one or two areas, inability to fit into the system, and parents who discover that the label does not make life easier, but quite the opposite.

The Terman effect: the smartest children do not always win the Nobel Prize

The most famous study on giftedness was carried out by Lewis Terman in the 1920s. He trinc 1,500 Californian children with high IQs, the so-called termites, throughout their lives. Most had more education and better jobs than average. None won a Nobel Prize. Meanwhile, two boys the study rejected for not reaching the cut-off, William Shockley and Luis Álvarez, did win it. Measured intelligence guarantees nothing.

The anecdote helps dismantle the fantasy that a test at age six determines destiny. Some point out that professional success depends more on perseverance and environment than on a percentile. And that the label, far from helping, can become a prophecy that makes the child complacent or excuses them from making an effort.

The diagnosis fad: ADHD, autism and giftedness as justification

The gifted label shares a shelf with ADHD and the autism spectrum. Part of the analysis argues that many diagnoses serve to cover up educational shortcomings: the child who underperforms is not lazy, they are gifted and bored. The one who misbehaves is not rude, they have ADHD. Responsibility shifts from the environment to the brain.

The result is a country where half of all influencers boast of being twice-exceptional and where any personality trait becomes a pathology, according to an opinion expressed in the thread. The harshest criticism points out that most of these diagnoses would not withstand a rigorous test. But it is also true that today's education system, based on memorisation, pushes out those who think differently.

The label business and the self-esteem bubble

The comparison with beauty or social skills is revealing: nobody insists their child is handsome when they are perfectly ordinary. With intelligence, however, it is hard to accept that the child is normal. The mediocre father with narcissistic wounds projects onto his offspring a greatness he never achieved, according to an opinion from the thread. The label becomes an imaginary social elevator.

Meanwhile, those who genuinely have a gifted child watch the spectacle in astonishment. They know that talent is not boasted about; it is endured. And that the diagnosis fad will eventually pass, just as magnetic bracelets did. What will not pass is the boredom of a child who learns to read on their own while the rest repeat the alphabet.

In the end, the question is not whether your child is gifted. The question is whether you need them to be.