What is a gifted child?

Written by David Farmer Wednesday, 12 December 2007 07:11

A good question to start with. The word "gifted" has been defined differently by different academics and practitioners and is often considered by many to be an unfortunate term, but it has become generally associated with a child whose potential in one or more areas of skill would place him or her in the top 2-5% of children of the same age. Notice that this does not assume a narrow view of academic intelligence - the areas of skill can be traditionally academic, or creative, intrapersonal etc.

You can read the following general introduction or check out these pages which cover the main different models of giftedness:

• Gagne's Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent
• the Columbus Group's Asynchronous Model of Giftedness
• Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences
• Renzulli's Tri-factor Model of Giftedness

A United States Office of Education definition (Marland, 1982) suggests gifted and talented students are those "who have outstanding abilities, are capable of high performance and who require differentiated educational programs (beyond those normally provided by regular school programs) in order to realise their contribution to self and society".

The same source suggests demonstrated achievement or potential ability can be in:

• general intellectual ability
• specific academic aptitude
• creative or productive thinking
• leadership ability
• visual and performing arts
• psychomotor abilities

This idea of different types of gifts has been developed by Howard Gardner in his theory of multiple intelligences. The key point is to realise that gifts and gifted children don't all come in the same box, their gifts and talents may be across many fields or particular to one. And gifted children can have learning difficulties or disabilities too. A child may have an extraordinary talent in reading and comprehension but need remediation in mathematics or therapy to assist writing skills. Indeed some of the more difficult (perhaps tragic) cases of finding an educational fit for a child occurs when they are gifted and suffer specific learning difficulties at the same time. These Gifted Learning Disabled (GLD) children often have neither of their needs met - their erratic performance is neither superior enough or depressed enough for them to gain them access to special provisions that might alleviate their frustrations and often low self-esteem.

Gifted and talented students can show the same diversity of personalities and learning styles as other groups of students. They too, for example, can be inhibited and slow to respond. Some may be exceptionally or profoundly gifted in one or more areas. Consequently the "gifted" label covers a wide range of student abilities and needs and any one standard "gifted program" may well not meet a particular gifted child's needs - an appropriate program should start with an appraisal of the needs of that child.

Taking the many areas in which gifts and talents might lie into account possibly some 10-15% of the overall population could be considered "gifted" in one or more areas. Gifted children are not rare. Highly gifted children are rarer, and exceptionally and profoundly gifted children much more so - and may not have their needs adequately met even when gifted programs exist.

Particularly if you are new to the concept of gifted children, there are a number of myths that need to be dispelled. These are myths that have grown up over time, sometimes in the form of attack on these children.

It has been a popular belief that gifted and talented children are able to develop their abilities under any circumstances. Experience and research has shown that they need encouragement and support just as much as, or more than, other children.

Too many of today's gifted and talented children have poor self-esteem or are tragically underachieving. They suffer from varying degrees of emotional, social, and educational deprivation and distress due to a lack of understanding of, and provision for, their needs by those responsible for their care.

Gifted and talented children may come from low socio-economic backgrounds, or from aboriginal, multi-cultural, physically-handicapped and learning-isabled populations.

Gifted and talented children, like all children, must be provided with educational structures, programs and provisions which motivate them to develop their talents and assist them to perform as closely as possible to their optimum levels. These structures, programs and provisions should also be designed to minimise the ill-effects arising from any lack of identification of gifted and talented children or from any lack of recognition of their special needs.

The following lists bring together a number of resources.

Identification and Intelligence Testing

• Characteristics of gifted children
• The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children III (or WISC III) - some information notes to help people understand the process and the results
• The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence Revised (or WPPSI-R) - some information notes to help people understand the process and the results
• Some information on testing the exceptionally gifted with the Stanford-Binet LM test
• An article on the advantage of using the Stanford-Binet 5 for assessing gifted individuals
• Coverage of intelligence testing issues in the 1988 Senate Select Committee Report

Meet some gifted children

• "Lizzie "
• "Chris "
• "Lachlan "
• "Julian"
• "Lisa"