At what age do you begin working with someone?

Generally we work with people 17 years old and up. A person's giftedness is present from their earliest years. But in order to assess it properly, three conditions must exist: they must have had enough life experience to provide us with a number of stories about activities they enjoyed; they must be able to tell those stories in a detailed way; and they must be able to describe the satisfaction they derived from those activities in a meaningful way. We find that all of that tends to come together at around age 17. Occasionally we'll meet a precocious 16-year-old, but most of our clients are older than that.

However, that doesn't mean that just because someone is 17 they should come see us. The person must want to come see us. Oftentimes parents are eager to have their son or daughter come find out what their giftedness is in order to make decisions about colleges and majors. However, that young adult is not nearly as concerned about any of that as their parents. In that case, we advise waiting a year or two, until they feel a need for outside input. The freshman year of college is particularly valuable in helping students become aware of that need.