Giftedness

Who is Gifted and Talented?

Someone who shows, or has the potential for showing, an exceptional level of performance in one or more areas of expression About 5% of the student population (3 million children)

High IQ
Mildly Gifted -- 115 to 129 Moderately Gifted -- 130 to 144 Highly Gifted -- 145 to 159 Exceptionally Gifted -- 160 to 179 Profoundly Gifted -- 180

Exceptional Talent
Exceptional talent is the ability to perform a skill at a level usually not reached until later years, sometimes as late as adulthood. A three-year old may be reading like a third grader or a nine-yearold may be playing piano like an 18 year old, who has studied for years. If the exceptional talent is in a non-academic area such as music or art, the children may not be identified as gifted by the school because most testing for gifted programs is based on academic ability or achievement

High Achievement
Gifted children are usually, but not always, high achievers. Even when they don't achieve good grades, they tend to score high on achievement tests, most often in the 95-99 percentile range. They love to learn and their love of learning, good memories, and ability to learn quickly and easily enable them to succeed. However, if a gifted child has lost the motivation to learn, he or she may not do well in school, although achievement test scores will usually remain high.

Potential to Achieve or Excel

Whether or not a gifted child excels in school, he or she has the potential to do so. Many gifted children are intrinsically motivated, which means the motivation comes from within. They become motivated by interest and challenge. When these children are interested and appropriately challenged, they can and will achieve. However, even though a gifted child may not be achieving in school, he or she may still be learning and achieving on their own at home.

Heightened Sensitivity
Although heightened sensitivity is rarely, if ever, used to identify gifted children in school, it is so common among gifted children that it is one of the characteristics that set them apart from other children. They may be emotionally sensitive, crying over what others considered trivial. They may be physically sensitive, bothered by tags on shirts or seams on socks. Psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski called these "over-excitabilities."

Characteristics of Gifted and Talented Students

Learn Quickly and Easily Able to use abstract thought and critical reasoning Exhibit Verbal Proficiency Have a high energy level Become bored and frustrated Dislike repetition Receive negative adult attitudes to smartness Dominate Discussions Difficulty with listening skills Become frustrated with inactivity and lack of challenge

Cognitive Traits
Very Observant Extremely Curious Intense interests Excellent memory Long attention span Excellent reasoning skills Well-developed powers of abstraction, conceptualization, and synthesis Quickly and easily sees relationships in ideas, objects, or facts Fluent and flexible thinking Elaborate and original thinking Excellent problem solving skills Learns quickly and with less practice and repetition Unusual and/or vivid imagination

Social and Emotional Traits

Interested in philosophical and social issues Very sensitive, emotionally and even physically Concerned about fairness and injustice Perfectionistic Energetic Well-Developed Sense of Humor Usually intrinsically motivated Relates well to parents, teachers and other adults

Language Traits
Extensive Vocabulary May Read Early Reads Rapidly and Widely Asks "what if" questions

Additional Traits
Enjoys learning new things Enjoys intellectual activity Displays intellectual playfulness Prefers books and magazines meant for older children Skeptical, critical, and evaluative

Problems Resulting From Asynchronous Development

Gifted children can intellectually understand abstract concepts but may be unable to deal with those concepts emotionally, leading to intense concerns about death, the future, sex, and other such issues. Gifted children's physical development may lead to an inability to complete a task they are capable of intellectually envisioning. (Perfectionism may play a role in this frustration as well.)

Problems Resulting From Advanced Verbal and Reasoning Ability

Gifted children can be argumentative and/or manipulative. (Adults often remark that theses children are little lawyers!) Parents and other adults need to remember that, although credit should be given for logical and convincing arguments, a child is still a child and requires appropriate discipline, no matter how clever or cute the behavior may look. Children who see that they can manipulate adults can feel very insecure. Gifted children can be manipulative. (Parents and other adults need to take care that they don't allow this manipulation.) A gifted child may try to outsmart parents and teachers.

Problems Resulting From Perfectionism and Emotional Sensitivities

Perfectionism can lead to fear of failure, in turn causing a gifted child to avoid failure by refusing to even try something (including doing a homework assignment!) Keen observation, imagination, and ability to see beyond the obvious can cause a gifted child to appear shy, holding back in new situations in order to consider all the implications.

Intense sensitivity can cause gifted children to take criticism, or even general anger, very personally. Childhood slights do not roll off their backs.

Strategies for Teaching Gifted and Talented Students

Create alternative activities that go beyond the regular curriculum. Work with students to design an independent project that they would be interested in completing for credit. If possible, involve students in academic competitions in your area. Create tiered assignments, which have different expectations for different levels of learners.