prodigy

prodigy, a child who, by about age 10, performs at the level of a highly trained adult in a particular sphere of activity or knowledge. In this sense, neither high intelligence nor eccentric skills by themselves qualify a child as a prodigy. Rather, it is the capacity to perform in a recognized area of endeavour in such a way as to receive broad acclaim that defines the prodigy. Therefore, individuals who are chess prodigies or “lightning calculators” (those who have a remarkable memory for figures) but who are otherwise mentally or developmentally disabled (such as “idiot savants”) are not prodigies.

The American psychologists David Henry Feldman and Martha Morelock summarized late 20th-century research on prodigies to identify those inherent traits and environmental influences that contribute to the development of a prodigy. In general, they observed that most prodigies do not appear spontaneously; instead, they emerge when several important phenomena occur together (there are exceptions, of course, as in the case of the self-taught mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal). First, a child must have extraordinary natural ability in a particular domain (such as music or mathematics). Second, master teachers must be available to the child at precisely the right moment in the child’s development. Third, the child must be involved in a domain that is highly structured and self-contained, and it must be taught to him in a systematic and accessible manner. Fourth, the tools, instruments, or equipment needed to pursue the domain must be adapted to the child’s physical and emotional capacities. Fifth, the child must have a supportive family member or guardian who can seek the master teachers, provide transportation or other means of ensuring regular lessons, and nurture the child’s extraordinary talents.

Prodigies usually display only one of the multiple intelligences proposed by the American psychologist Howard Gardner—linguistic, mathematical-logical, spatial-visual, musical, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, or naturalistic. This occurs because the achievement of extraordinary expertise in these broader areas requires more life experience than is usually available to a child. Interpersonal intelligence, such as that of successful leaders, is usually cultivated through years of life experience. Prodigies are therefore more likely to possess what is known as idiosyncratic talent—that is, they have a specific area of expertise within a particular domain, such as playing the violin, exploring mathematical theories, or painting.

Best known are the musical prodigies, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, and Felix Mendelssohn, all of whom began to compose before the age of 12; Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Frédéric Chopin, and Yehudi Menuhin, who had given public concerts by age 11; and Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák, Richard Strauss, and the performer and composer Stevie Wonder, all of whom distinguished themselves through music early in their lives. Prodigies in other disciplines have included the authors Emily and Charlotte Brontë and the mathematician Norbert Wiener.

In some cases prodigies are both born and made; they can be born with retentive memories and a quality of mind that enables them to relate and organize experiences, and they can be made in the sense that they receive opportunities and rewards of special practice, instruction, or training. Some, however, achieve a superior level of performance without help or even in spite of adversity—Blaise Pascal, for example, constructed a geometry of his own, although his father deprived him of mathematical books at the age of 11.

Few mental prodigies have gone on to be as productive in adulthood as Pascal, Mozart, and the Brontë sisters. Too often, the good fortune and the overwhelming support that existed for the child are lacking for the adult. Many former prodigies lose their support systems and face a fickle public that quickly loses interest in an expert who is no longer an entertaining novelty.