kengr

The thing I've noticed about trying to integrate genius children with their peers is that they essentially have no peers but each other. Their age mates aren't peers, either socially or intellectually. Neither are adults, because these are still children in emotional development. The little girl who looks up from playing with her dolls to explain desert thermodynamics to adults planning to drive across the Southwest in summer before cars were air conditioned had no peers. (Ues, I did that. I was 7. Fortunately my family was used to me and didn't shut me down.) My son's few peers were all online. The mother of one child emailed to thank me for encouraging the friendship, because her son had no peers either. His passion and genius is music; he won a Grammy award at I believe age 16, playing with his dad. But when they were 13, they had each other to talk to, laugh with, and play with. The problem? We live in northern Indiana; the other kid lives in Tennessee.

I think putting such children together would help the isolation of being a genius child a lot, but it would require adults that understand how to deal with such children. And they might be even thinner on the ground than the kids themselves.