How to Know if Your Child is Gifted
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Gifted or Just Bright?
Sometimes it's difficult to discern whether a child is truly gifted, and therefore in need of special services in order to thrive, or simply very bright and well-served by the traditional classroom setting. Remember, a gifted child is not necessarily a model student.
- A bright child will know the answers, but a gifted child asks the questions.
- Bright children are interested. Gifted children are extremely curious.
- A bright child will pay attention, while a gifted one will get involved physically and mentally - often not seeming to pay attention, but taking in information anyway.
- Bright kids work hard and gifted kids play around but still get good grades and test scores.
- Bright children answer all the questions while gifted children question all the answers.
- Bright kids have same-age peers. Gifted kids prefer adults and older kids.
- A bright child memorizes easily. A gifted child is good at guessing the right answer.
- A bright child learns with ease, but a gifted child gets bored because he already knew the answers.
- Bright children listen well. Gifted children express strong feelings and opinions.
- Bright kids are self-satisfied, but gifted kids are highly self-critical and perfectionist.
We all want to believe our little Johnny or Susie is the smartest thing since Einstein, but only some of us will be correct. If your child is truly "gifted" it's important to get him or her the right kind of educational experiences at an early age. Gifted kids are famous for getting bored with school and therefore actually underachieving if their special needs are not met. The idea is that these kids need a different kind of instruction and classroom experience in order to reach their full potential. In response, U.S. pubic schools have created Gifted and Talented programs.
But how do you know if your child is gifted? Read on.
Is My Child Gifted?
Here is the short list from the U.S. Office of Gifted and Talented. These are the folks who administer the public school gifted and talented programs. A typical gifted preschooler (age 2-5) will exhibit the following:
- Uses advanced vocabulary for age.
- Uses spontaneous verbal elaboration with new experiences.
- Has the ability to make interesting or unusual shapes or patterns through various media: blocks, playdough, crayons.
- Ability to assemble puzzles designed for older children.
- Sense of humor used in general conversation.
- Understanding of abstract concepts such as death and time.
- Mastery of new skills with little repetition.
- Demonstration of advanced physical skills.
- Demonstration of advanced reasoning skills through explanation of occurrences.
Official Determination
Different schools test for giftedness differently, but a common factor is the IQ test because it results in a number, which can then be compared to the school or classroom norm. Kids who school in the top 2%, or with an IQ of around 125, are generally considered for gifted programs.
Often multiple tests will be used and the numbers evaluated in conjunction with one another. However, schools don't use a number alone to determine giftedness. For the purpose of placing a child in the gifted program, checklists of traits observed by teachers and parents are often used. Various qualitative tests may also be used to capture information not easily tested on standardized objective tests.
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Not All Children Are Gifted
If your child is not identified as gifted, it may be because your school does not provide any special programs or services for gifted children. Beware the phrase "all of our children are gifted". It's a red flag that tells you there may not be a gifted education program at all. It shows school administration's lack of knowledge about the needs of truly gifted children.
Whether identified by the school or not, you know your child. If she needs extra stimulation you may have to be the one to provide it. And if she has trouble in the classroom due to her giftedness, you will have to forge good relationships with the teachers to make sure she is served.
Resources for Parents of Gifted Children:
See Also:
Battling Perfectionism in Children
How to Approach the Endless Questions of a Gifted Child
All About SIG: Summer Institute For the Gifted
How to Choose a Summer Camp for Gifted Children
How to Recognize the Gifted Pre-School Child
How Gifted Children Are Assessed
Gifted Children and Attention Deficit Disorder
Educational Talent Searches For Gifted Children: Off-Level Testing
Educational Talent Searches for Gifted Children: Benefits of Participation
Educational Talent Searches for Gifted Children: Contrasts to Traditional Education
How Does My Gifted Child Get Into an Educational Talent Search?
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Comments
Thank you for this article. I've often wondered if my 6th grader, who breezes through school with straight A's was gifted. But your comparison listing above helped me to see the difference between her and a truly gifted child.
Hi Lela, Thanks for your article. I found it accurate and just reaffirmed that I do have two gifted children. One was identified as GATE five years ago and the other one has not qualified because of paper pencil tests which he does very poorly on. His teacher is pushing it and through an SST we are going to do a verbal test. I wasn't sure if he was truly gifted, but according to your criterion he also fits the profile. Both boys happen to be the ones who don't get good grades. My oldest has very high test scores, but doesn't turn in work, so he gets Fs. Frustrating to me (I was the one with straight As!) I also had a student who was extremely gifted in the area of art, but because academically he didn't do that well, he was not identified as GATE. Again, frustrating. Maybe it's time for me to become a champion for those "other" gifted kids!
Hi Lela, this is a great article. My kids are 2 years old and 3 months old. My 2 year old is very very playful but he knows when to be serious. He loves to play with cars...I have no idea what he be saying sometimes but he talks about them. He is also interested in books. He likes for me to read a certain book over and over and over back to back. He will get upset if I don't. He also knows his alphabets a-z, his numbers 1-10 and he can also identify his alphabets and numbers. I am going to let him attend the boy and girls club over the summer and go to school when he turns 3. He can write the first 2 letters of his name and he also tries to tell you what a story is about. For his age, I think this is amazing. He does not just sit around though...he plays amd plays. When others are talking...instead of just listening...he tries to tell the person you are talking to exactly what you said and then some. If the person you are talking to asks as if he or she is not listening...he will say look...shhhhh. I think it's cute.
Interesting article. The sad thing is that our schools have taken over much of the work that parents use to do. The social skills learned before school age make a big difference in how a child will react to classroom teaching.
thank you for post..
for me, all normal new born babies are gifted and genius. Its just that, later on, the potential seems to fade away caused by parenting, food intakes and surrounding factors.
Brilliant!
I have a four month old son, I'll be sure to watch for the signs.
I enjoyed this hub. My daughter appears to have some of the signs of giftednes and my godchild definitely does, so it's good to know.
Good hub! I wish that I would have known all of this when my son was very young. I remember when he was in kindergarten and his teacher told me that he was too smart and that she didn't have time for him. This was back in the 1980's. At that time I was a divorced mother. I moved and had a hard time getting him into the gifted program due to my being divorced. When he finally did go into the program, they sat all of us parents down and explained to us what you just wrote. It all made sense then. It continues to this day and I must remember that my son is highly intelligent but with these children we must remember that they also have very little common sense. They are such a joy though!
This is a great hub, thanks very much. My kids are being assessed at the moment, they have Asperger's and all are extremely intelligent. Once their IQ has been tested the struggle then starts with the school to get their needs catered for properly.
Thank you for the distinction between a gifted and a bright child. Our five year old seems gifted, though he has had some behavioral problems at school because it is too easy.
working
ripplemaker says:
11 months ago
Hi Lela, thanks for sharing this article. We, esp. people who deals with kids (parents,teachers etc) do need to know and identify if a child is gifted or not. A great education program could enhance the child's skills as well as hone other skills that he still needs to improve. I remember we had one student who had a superior IQ. But he was still dealing with his low socio-emotional skills and also needed to improve his psychomotor skills. So we encouraged his parents to work on that as well.