Gifted Children: Characteristics, Challenges, and Support PDF

# (REALLY, REALLY SMART) This is the trait most people think of when they hear the word "gifted." A child with advanced intellectual ability may: - seem just plain smart in a lot of areas, including some that might surprise you - easily grasp new ideas and concepts - understand ideas and concepts...

# (REALLY, REALLY SMART) This is the trait most people think of when they hear the word "gifted." A child with advanced intellectual ability may: - seem just plain smart in a lot of areas, including some that might surprise you - easily grasp new ideas and concepts - understand ideas and concepts more deeply than other children his age - come up with new ideas and concepts on his own, and apply them in creative and interesting ways - easily memorize facts, lists, dates, and names - have an excellent memory and never forget a thing ("But Mo-om, you promised!") - learn new materials (and learn to use new things) more easily and quickly than other children his age - really love to learn - which may or may not include loving school (more about that later) - enjoy playing challenging games and making elaborate plans - the more complex, the better - have friends who are older (because he needs someone to match wits and interests with) - enjoy books, movies, games, and activities meant for older children or even adults - know many things that other children his age seem totally unaware of # NOT-SO-GOOD THINGS A brainy child might be easily bored, especially in school. Sometimes a child with a smart mind also has a smart mouth. He might act like a show-off and a know-it-all. He might have problems getting along with others who feel intimidated by his knowledge. He might be impatient with others who seem "slow" to him. Rapid learning can lead to inaccuracy and sloppiness when little hands can't keep up with speedy thoughts. Or a child might get impatient with one thing ("I already know that!") and want to move on, even if he's still working on an assignment, task, or project. Plus being really smart can complicate life with more choices, more interests, more possibilities - and more pressures. # WAYS TO HELP YOUR BRAINY CHILD 1. Feed that hungry young mind. Make lots of books and magazines available. Take frequent trips to the library. Find family-friendly Web sites to surf together. Visit museums, go to concerts, go to movies, travel if you can. And talk, talk, talk. 2. Be a learner yourself. Show by example that learning is something people can and should do every day of their lives, not just when they’re in school. 3. Keep track of your child’s school performance and progress. Ask about his experiences and listen to his stories. You’ll be able to tell if your child is happy in school or bored, busy learning or frustrated. 4. Stay in touch with your child’s teacher. Attend parent-teacher conferences. (Ask if your child can come, too. Why not, if the conference is about him?) Do your part to build a courteous, respectful relationship. That way, if problems arise, it will be easier to work together to find solutions. **Tip:** Notice when the teacher is doing a good job. A thank-you note, friendly telephone call, or positive comment during a conference goes a long way. 5. Help your child learn and practice social skills. Encourage him to recognize and appreciate other people’s talents. If his classmates and other kids his age don’t share his interests and abilities, look for groups, organizations, and special classes where he can meet people who do. # MYTH: BEING GIFTED GUARANTEES STRAIGHT A’S IN SCHOOL. **FACT:** Being smart (even really, really smart) doesn’t always lead to high grades. Some highly gifted children don’t do well in school at all. Then again, there are gifted kids who get A’s but aren’t learning anything because they already know all or most of what’s being covered. So their grades don’t show progress, just performance. # OTHER WORDS FOR “GIFTED” (AND WHY THEY’RE NOT AS GOOD) Gifted children are called many things. This can get confusing for parents (and even more confusing for kids). Some of these terms describe only part of what it means to be gifted, and others mean something different today than they used to. Here’s a short list of words that are used instead of “gifted,” with reasons why “gifted” is usually a better choice. | Word | Explanation | |---|---| | Genius | Once in wide use, now used only for the super-gifted-people like Einstein, Marie Curie, Stephen Hawking, and Marilyn vos Savant. | | Talented | Refers to a particlar strength or ability (for example, a talent in music, leadership, or math). Gifted kids usually have many talents, not just one. | | Prodigy | Describes someone with an advanced skill that emerges at an early age (for example, a violin prodigy, math prodigy, tennis prodigy, or chess prodigy). Gifted kids often have many skills, and they might emerge early or later. | | Precocious | Usually refers only to young gifted children. | | Superior | A comparative term. Superior to what? To whom? A gifted child might be superior to most children his age in some ways (for example, verbal skills), but inferior in other ways (for example, motor skills). Plus this is a word that makes a lot of people uncomfortable. | | High IQ | Another comparative term. Higher than what? Plus it’s limiting. Giftedness is more than a number or a test score. | | Rapid learner | This is just one characteristic of giftedness. It helps us understand giftedness, but it’s not the whole story. | | Exceptional | Once used to describe children who were “different” because they were smarter than average. Today it’s also used to describe children with disabilities. Giftedness is not a disability. | | Elite | This used to be a positive term, but not anymore. | # CHARACTERISTIC: VERBAL PROFICIENCY (WORDS, WORDS, WORDS) This is one of the most obvious signs that a child is gifted. Suddenly she’s speaking in complete sentences or using words you didn’t know she knew. A verbally proficient child may: - talk early (and never stop talking!) - skip the period of grammatical errors (“I falled,” “he gots”) that most toddlers go through - pronounce words correctly from the start - quickly develop a large and advanced vocabulary - use complex sentence structure (conjunctions like “however” and “although”) - make up elaborate stories - easily memorize poems and stories - enjoy reciting poems and rhymes - prefer books with more words and fewer pictures - catch you if you skip parts of books you’re reading aloud to her - teach herself to read by asking questions (“What’s this letter?” “What’s this word?”), watching TV, and/or hearing the same books read aloud several times - read early and progress rapidly - enjoy playing with words and inventing words - easily and spontaneously describe new experiences - give complex answers to questions (even simple questions) - explain her ideas in complex and unusual ways - have an early interest in printing letters, names, and words Olivia was speaking in sentences at a year and a half. By age 2, when playing with children her age, she’d ask her parents, “Why don’t they talk to me?” Her long, involved, made-up stories already included words like “difficult,” “arrange,” “ignoring,” “disgusting,” “appreciate,” and “serious.” Her friends didn’t talk to her because they didn’t yet have the words to converse at her level — a fact her parents found hard to explain. # ARE THERE MORE WAYS TO BE GIFTED? Howard Gardner, a Harvard psychologist and winner of the MacArthur “Genius” award, believes there are at least eight different ways to be gifted. He calls these “multiple intelligences.” They are: | Intelligence | Description | |---|---| | Linguistic intelligence | Is good with words, language, stories. Is an excellent reader, writer, listener, speaker, speller. Loves memorizing information and building vocabulary. | | Musical intelligence | Is sensitive to melody, rhythm, musical patterns, tempo, pitch. May play one or more instruments, with training or by ear. Appreciates many different kinds of music. | | Logical-mathematical intelligence | Easily learns patterns, calculations, negotiation skills, numbers, math concepts. Often enjoys science. Loves games, riddles, puzzles, brain-teasers, computers. | | Interpersonal intelligence | Gets along well with others. Understands other people and their feelings. Is a natural leader and born mediator. | | Intrapersonal intelligence | Has keen insight into himself. Manages his own emotions. Sets and reaches goals. Enjoys keeping a journal. | | Naturalistic intelligence | Has a built-in love of nature. Feels a personal connection to plants and animals. Enjoys being outdoors. Understands how things fit into groups and categories. | **One evening, 7-year-old Kira was too wound up to go to bed. So she read three books. Then she did all of the puzzles in a puzzle book (for ages 9-12). After that, she used the computer to document the family tree. Next, she created and drew a cartoon strip. Then she experimented to see if, when you place a tissue in the bottom of a glass, flip the glass over, stick it into a bowl of water, and then remove it, the tissue stays dry. Still wide awake, she made several origami cranes from memo pads and napkins, and after that she made name tags for the cranes. By then it was 2:30 A.M., and Kira finally turned in for the night.** # MYTH: GIFTED KIDS NEED LESS SLEEP THAN OTHER CHILDREN. **FACT:** Gifted kids need just as much sleep as other children. But because they’re so busy thinking, planning, problem solving, and creating, they may have a harder time calming down and going to sleep. ### Jeanette, 3, was singing a long, involved ballad about frogs and ballerinas. Suddenly her grandmother realized that the melody stayed in one key, the words rhymed, and they also “scanned”—they were perfectly in sync with the rhythm of the music. ### Shortly after he turned 3, while working his way through the “N” volume of an encyclopedia, Michael read the section on numbering systems. He went to his mother and asked her to solve the following equations: A-1 = 1; A=10. His mother was baffled. Michael grinned and yelled, "Binary code! Base two!" ### Maria, 4, loved her gymnastics class. One Saturday, after the instructor showed her a new move, she did it twice while he helped her and corrected her technique. On her third try, she did it perfectly with no help. “How could you learn the move so quickly?” the instructor asked. “My body remembers,” Maria replied. ### When Santa asked Michael, 3, what he wanted for Christmas, Michael spoke quietly and briefly, then hopped down from Santa’s lap and toddled back to his parents. “What did you ask for?” his mother asked, hoping it wasn’t the Salad Shooter he’d wanted when he was 2. “I told Santa that what I wanted for Christmas was for all the babies in the world to be happy,” Michael answered. ### Bobby, 8, struggled with a writing assignment at school. He started three different stories but always got stuck after a few sentences. Finally he finished one, turned it in, and got high marks from the teacher. When he took his story home and gave it to his mother, he told her he wasn’t happy with it. “Why not?” his mom wanted to know. “Because it’s not a good story,” he answered. “I don’t have the courage to write down how I really feel.” ### Ameli, 9, loves animals. When a proposal arose to create a live animal display in a nearby town, Ameli wrote a letter to the editor in protest. “Animals were not meant to live and die in cage-confined areas,” she wrote. In her letter, she also mentioned that animals in the wild die naturally, and their bodies go on to become part of the soil in a continuing cycle of life. The Rocky Mountain Animal Defense League quoted from Ameli’s letter in a large mailing, and no one was happier than Ameli when the townspeople voted not to allow caged animal displays.