This Is How To Turn Your Child Into A Mastermind, According To Science

A 45-year study of 5,000 highly intelligent children has thrown new light onto how to bring the best out in talented children.

The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) launched in March 1972 - based on the performance of 12- to 14-year-olds in their SAT exams.

The researchers looked for children in the top 3% of scores - and have since tracked them throughout their lives.

What they found in terms of nurturing talent is that it pays to push talented children ahead - by allowing them to skip ahead years in school.

Talented children who bypassed a school year were 60% more likely to earn doctorates or patent their ideas later in life, Nature magazine reports.

Psychologist David Lubinski of Vanderbilt - who helped to run the study - said, ‘ These kids often don’t need anything innovative or novel.

‘They just need earlier access to what’s already available to older kids.’