It is possible to identify the most prodigiously talented infants by their intellectual capabilities and achievements compared with normal individuals and standardised tests can be used to confirm this. These talented children are often described as ‘little professors’.
However not all talents express themselves in the early years or in such ways and more subtle methods are needed to identify them. It is possible that some talented children despite hostile or disadvantaged cultural and linguistic environments harbour a special quality that will eventually enable them to succeed to become high achievers later in life.
During research on early literacy in 5 Reception classes it was noted that specific children had a greater facility for learning from the adults in their environment than many of the other children without necessarily seeming to be directly taught. This appears to be the early sign of a talent for self-regulated or autonomous learning
At present it can only be estimated how far this type of talent can lead to later success but it could be related to that special ‘spark’ that Freeman (2013) referred to based on her interviews with gifted infants.