BANGALORE: Do toppers always make it big in life? Not necessarily. What they have left behind is perhaps the required success skills to meet a fiercely competitive world. So where do you start? Right at the start.

Childhood is the best place to inculcate success and thinking skills, believes Geniekids. A unique concept in effective child development through programmes and workshops for children – Geniekids – understands that a child needs to be moulded at a very young age to be successful and be a thinking individual.

Says Ratnesh, co-founder – Geniekids, "A child’s growth revolves around two things – academic and personal development. We, at Geniekids concentrate on developing the child’s success and thinking skills."

"For this, experiential learning is vital. When a child goes through a certain experience, he reflects back on it. Experience can be designed for children, which is what we do at Geniekids. What the child is thinking before, during and after an activity and what the child conceives in the mind during an activity help him learn and grow."

"Experiential learning is letting the child learn on his own through various experiences. For instance, make the child do everyday activities instead of helping him out. Trial-and-error is essential for the child. Only then will he become resilient. He should also be given a sensitive environment to grow up," he says.

"There is always a strong thinking mind behind any success story. Success skills are perhaps as important and may be more important than academic skills," he adds.

Which is why Geniekids offers a variety of activities based on the child’s interest, skills and motivation. Which is why it is bringing success programmes for children from six months to 13 years at its centre in Indiranagar.

"Children have resources. Give the child independence. Hand responsibility over to him. Parents generally operate from a mindset which does not give the child what he wants," says Ratnesh.

"All our facilitators go through a four-month training programme. They work on consultancy basis and take up a particular programme and train the child," he explains.

Geniekids has as its objectives high self-esteem, high self-confidence, better understanding, decision-making and problem solving among other things. And punishments are no solutions. "Punishment is not an alternative. There are 10 other resorts to make a child do something. If it is not permissible, then you have to find another alternative."

Geniekids’ success programme includes ‘Success Saturdays’ comprising activity-based sessions to develop success skills, thinking skills etc. There is the ‘Young Genie’, an exploratory programme to experience and explore the world around the child through open-ended activity-based sessions, a young artist development programme, ‘Wonder Years’, a unique parent-child programme where both work at the same time, each learning and developing. ‘Theatre Magic’ introduces children to the world of theatre to boost their confidence and promote their creativity.

Geniekids attempts to bring out the genie in every child even as it hones his skills and gives him the recipe for success. For more info, visit www.geniekids.com or call 25202510/98450 45833.