K

IARA Herbst is the opposite of Chequita — confident, extroverted and somewhat cheeky. By age two, Kiara could identify cars on the road by their badges.

As with the other parents, Kiara’s mother Hannelie was none the wiser, believing this kind of intelligence was normal. Kiara also has a high sensitivity to noise (this is called misophonia; Mozart suffered from it) and certain textures and seams on clothing.

Hannelie’s anxieties regarding Kiara have little to do with Kiara herself. She worries about public perceptions (“The moment you say your kid is gifted people think you’re bragging”) and about what to tell Kiara (“I don’t want her to not know who she is . . . you have to explain to her so she can make sense of it and love herself.”)

Hannelie is aware that Kiara’s intelligence can isolate her from her peers.

“Kiara reads people so well,” Hannelie says. “Which is good in some ways because you avoid certain types of people but at the same time you put yourself out of the social bracket because you see people in a different light, and I don’t think it’s always adequate for her. It’s something we’re constantly aware of.” people we decide not to say anything, and they’ll say something like, ‘Wow, your child is very smart,’ and we’ll just say thank you. Some parents will try to compare their child to yours. It gets very weird.”

On a Wednesday afternoon in the Tyobeka’s home, KK is engrossed in a pile of National Geographic magazines. “Twentyto-three,” he says when I ask him the time.

Oratile and her husband are devoted to giving KK the correct schooling (they also have two other children), so much so that KK only started Grade 1 in February this year, missing the first few weeks because Oratile decided she hadn’t found the right school for him. KK now attends Montessori in Midrand.

“I’m not going to dump him anywhere just because it’s a school,” Oratile says. “I don’t want that light bulb in him to get dimmed by a one-size-fits-all education. That has been my biggest concern.”

KK shows the potential to be another Hjalmar. Would Oratile consider skipping her son up a few grades if he became unhappy with the pace? Would she let him go to university aged 14?

“Everything is up to him,” she says. “I just go with the flow, whatever he’s interested in. Sometimes, it’s like I’m schooling myself.”

For more information, visit www.giftedchildrensa.co.za