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Comment by gokhan | Hacker News Reader

My son was converting binary to decimal when he was 5, found (x+1)^2 = x^2 + 2x + 1 by himself at the age of 6. Now he's interested in logarithmic calculations, doing very well on Chesstempo, learns languages using Duolingo and loves reading heavy books on his Kindle at the age of 7.

On the other hand, he never interested in any kind of sports (only exception is, thanks to Strider balance bikes, he's good at cycling). He's having trouble building relations with other kids around his age, sometimes hits or creatively frustrates them to cover his lack of physical skills.

Any parent can find billions of great things online for the gifted child. It would be great if it was that easy for my child to deal with the real world.

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I honestly have no idea if this would work and I have nothing to back up this idea other than my own personal experience, so take it with a grain of salt...

Have you tried making "normal" kids games mentally challenging for him? At 7, I imagine he's being exposed to team sports such as basketball, soccer, etc. Perhaps there's a way to make it interesting for him by getting at the strategy behind these games rather than just the physical activity part. Especially if he's competitive, it might work to expose him to what it means to beat someone at a sport strategically rather than just physically overwhelm.

I can say that this appealed to me as a kid as I was ridiculously competitive, but didn't always have the physical skill necessary to win. Once I realized that you can often win by playing smarter, it was like a whole new world.

Similar here. Ridiculously competitive, and though I had inconsistent physical results, I enjoyed learning strategy as well as making physical progress.

I personally found great intellectual stimulation and feelings of satisfaction from one-on-one sports such as tennis, table tennis (ping pong), badminton, racquetball, and wrestling. I also played team sports quite a bit, and enjoyed being a student of those games, but I tended to prefer pursuing mastery of one-on-one sports (edit to add: though I've never come close to mastery).

By distilling the experience down to a one-on-one competition, I find I'm able to focus more on the intellectual pursuit, as opposed to the intellectual+social pursuit of team sports. Handling social dynamics can sometimes overwhelm me when I attempt to focus on the strategic and the intellectual.

Everyone's experience and taste is different, of course. Many paths can lead to happiness :)

This is a long shot, but have you tried taking him to an indoor bouldering gym? It is a very mentally demanding physical activity, that does not require any outside interaction with others but at the same time encourages it while also developing an appreciation for physicality.

My friend's son started going when he was 3, so no there is no time too early.

I once researched for it but we don't have such a gym in my city. There are a couple of them in Istanbul (1 hr), I'll take a look. I didn't know that bouldering is a mentally demanding sport but now understand the routes and colored handles' purpose when I think of them, my son would love such challenges. Thanks.

You might also consider getting slacklind. You can set a line up between two trees, and learning to balance is extremely mentally taxing. I live in central Istanbul and have found a group of people regularly slacklining in Macka Park, so there must be supplies available.

I second this, it really is a fantastic physical puzzle game.

Why stick to bouldering? Although I'm a huge bouldering fan, the intellectual and physical concepts of solving bouldering problems translate just as well onto roped climbing (whether it be sport climbing, traditional or top roping). Moreoever, you get to introduce your kid (and potentially yourself) to learning about knots, how to build anchors and the physics behind falling (all of which are awesome theoretical concepts to experience and play with in real life).

I agree with you here - if parents invest the time and are able to understand their child's needs it is not too difficult to find enough material online or actually offline.

Taking your story as an example, I take it you are somewhat versed in maths yourself to appreciate what your son has done and probably assisted in the introduction to the subject matter at the time (I am making assumptions here - sorry if that's not correct)

Let's say though your kid is gifted in other areas that you have no personal attachment to - how does one go about kindling that interest? If your kid seems to be great in drawing but you have no clue about the fine arts, how can one add meaningful stimulus to support and encourage further study in that field?

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