Preschool prodigies1/13/2024 ![]() "It's just exposing him - like letting him order food when he's 3 or 4 from the waiter or waitress. "Mike gets asked a lot by some of the other parents, 'How did you get so social?'" Melissa says. That meant Mike got used to being outside his social comfort zone at a young age. "Being able to communicate was a biggie." "We decided that we would just put him in social situations and try to encourage him to engage with everyone else and just be more comfortable talking to others outside of our environment," says Melissa. Rather, they wanted him to find his own voice and use it. Mark and Melissa didn't want to be Mike's spokespeople, or his micromanagers, they say. Get kids out of their social comfort zone early I gauge the person, in a sense, and then go from there," Mike says. He's a believer in the social art of compartmentalizing. With friends his own age, for example, he will engage in conversation about car racing, not business metrics, while with adult colleagues, he may pivot to more technical discussions about artificial intelligence and machine-learning systems or the Internet of Things. "I couldn't have asked for a better experience, to be honest."īy spending so much time with such a wide variety of age groups, he's learned how to change the dial on his vocabulary, he says. The teachers and other students were "very open and welcoming," he says. Mike may have gotten lucky at his particular school, too. ![]() Mixed-age friendships are linked to less reported loneliness in children, and are a significant factor of childhood development, a 2009 University at Buffalo psychology study found. Kids are more likely to form friendships with their peers when they are physically seated next to each other, recent research shows. "Mike will be the first one to say that his parents never pushed him as far as academics go, but they left no room for negotiating on his social skills." "I wanted him to be able to be social and be able to handle all the different personalities in the classrooms with older children," says Melissa. Instead, Melissa and Mark saw the value in having him navigate those situations. Some parents in their position opt for homeschooling, shuddering at the idea of putting their 12-year-old in a room full of 18-year-olds. ![]() Mark and Melissa discovered their son's intelligence before he entered preschool - a child psychologist told them that Mike had literally maxed out her IQ scale - and concluded that a standard education curriculum wouldn't support his fast-track development. "You've just constantly got to keep your finger on the pulse of how they're growing and what they need." Surround children with a variety of age groups 1 rule to raising a social kid who can befriend anyone: "Let be who they are and just support it," Mark says. The Wimmers are proud of helping Mike ensure his "social skills were in line with his intellectual skills," Mark says. ![]() Then, after speaking with him, they realize "he's just a normal 14-year-old that happens to be able to do absolutely amazing things." "I'll be honest, people expect 'Young Sheldon' before they meet Mike," Melissa tells CNBC Make It, referring to the CBS television show. In fact, there's a statistical correlation between introversion and high IQs, research shows. That isn't always the case for child geniuses. His friends range from the kids he grew up with, to the 20-somethings in his college classes at Carolina University, to adult co-workers. He's a self-described extrovert who at age 11 won homecoming court for his high school sophomore class. ![]()
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