Have you ever looked at your child and wondered if they might be gifted? Many parents with a precocious child have. Giftedness is often misunderstood, and the idea of a “genius” child can create many misconceptions.
Let’s explore the fascinating world of giftedness together.
Giftedness is relatively rare
While the exact definition of giftedness can vary, it generally refers to individuals who possess intellectual abilities significantly above average. Just as there are many definitions and many ways to formally identify giftedness, every individual is unique, and “giftedness” manifests itself differently in every child.
IQ score is one indicator of giftedness, and the data shows that 3% of our population would be considered intellectually gifted by this measure alone. According to the National Association for Gifted Children, “Giftedness exists in every demographic group and personality type,” yet economic circumstances, and more specifically, school poverty levels, are a driving factor in not having access to gifted services and programming.
In the U.S. there is an educational policy emphasis on establishing and meeting minimum levels of competency for schoolchildren, driven by the desire to ensure all students acquire essential knowledge and skills to succeed in life and contribute to society. While this is important, this policy neglects an entire segment of children falling through the cracks. Without being given the right instruction and setting, hundreds of thousands of gifted children may go through school without learning anything new.
With rare incidence and multiple variables for definition and identification, it is no wonder that many students, no matter how rare, lack the education that they deserve.
What does giftedness look like?
Gifted and high ability learners have intellectual, social, and emotional needs that are simply not met in standard classroom environments or in typical pull-out programs that meet for a few hours each week.
- Gifted students may score two or more standard deviations above the norm on intelligence tests.
- They may be able to perform several grade levels above their chronological age cohort in one or more subject areas.
- They may consistently get perfect or near-perfect scores on tests, even when they don’t seem to have studied much.
- Or, they may not finish their assignments, saying it was too boring or they already knew the answers.
- They may have an easier time and more interest tackling complex challenges than simple tasks.
- An intellectually gifted child may complain about being bored in class, and even ask not to go to school or to convey that they don’t like school.
- They may also experience asynchronous development, meaning one or more of their areas of ability outpace others. For instance, a student may be three grade levels ahead in math but on grade level for reading.
- Teachers may say that they are a distraction, because they finish their work too quickly or aren’t paying attention in class.
- They may spend too much time on an assignment, going far more in-depth than required to the neglect of other work.
- Gifted students often have common social-emotional struggles that may be unsupported in a typical school setting: perfectionism, anxiety, and/or over-excitability or sensitivity in a variety of areas.
- Gifted students may have difficult finding true peers, connecting with classmates, and generally fitting in.
“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” – Ronald E. Osborn
What do gifted children need?
Gifted students report much more interest than their peers in learning about subjects in-depth, to even an expert level; working at a faster pace; and getting more challenges in their learning environments. Decades of research and classroom experience have made clear that such children require differentiated, enriched educational programming to have the best opportunity to reach their full potential. One commonly-accepted myth is that because of their abilities, gifted children are fine learning on their own, but the truth is that highly gifted children need more from school, not less.
Without truly individualized learning, on the other hand, gifted children restricted to standard, non-enriched learning programs display measurable underachievement in school relative to their gifted peers in enriched classrooms and, without needed guidance and support, are more prone to misdirection and poor decision-making, acting out or withdrawing from certain classroom activities.
While public, private and parochial, and charter schools may offer some services for high-ability learners, it is very uncommon to find an opportunity for students to experience gifted instruction all day long. Gifted children need an education that will meet their individual intellectual capabilities, and allow them to move at their own accelerated pace and level of instruction across all subjects—even when their abilities vary from subject to subject.
At the same time, gifted children don’t just have academic needs; one of the perennial and most important tasks of childhood, the most basic, biologically wired-in impulses in our species — connecting with others — may be tremendously difficult for these children who otherwise have such promise and potential. We explore this topic more here
Supporting gifted children
While a school such as ours that is specifically designed to meet the needs of gifted, high-ability learners may not be accessible or convenient based on where you live, there are resources, advocates, and enrichment programs available to you and your child. Please visit our Gifted Resources page for links to organizations that provide both national and state-level resources, newsletters, research and opportunities to help meet the needs of your familiy.
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