Case studies of cognitive precocity: The role of exogenous and endogenous stimulation in early mental development

Case studies of the highly successful socialization commonly evident in the development of mentally precocious children may furnish an excellent source of heuristic information on how early experience contributes to development, without down-grading our understanding of how phenotypical development is jointly determined by the cumulative interactions of genotypical and experiential processes. Both the investigation and case study literature on bright children suggest that exceptional early abilities typically flourish in highly intellectual families who early involve their children in rational communication with adults and who intensively stimulate them cognitively during early development. Two general parental strategies emerge from the case studies, one following deliberate, systematic instruction, commonly involving play, and the other applying stimulation incidentally to intensive, continuing interaction between caregiver and child. Both strategies appear to be highly flexible, interactive, and child-oriented, however, and both overlap in many ways, drawing on combinations of similar specific techniques and following a similar sequence in which interactions become increasingly, but never totally, endogenously regulated, as the child masters in exceptional ways high level sybmbolic skills (especially reading but often writing and math), complex problem solving skills, and vast bodies of knowledge. Much of the difference between the strategies can be attributed to differences in parental belief systems that alternatively stress hereditarian or environmental bases for development.