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?
All About Johns Hopkins University Talent Search
Links to Gifted and Talented Child Resources
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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.
Lela, Thank you. Always like to think of my child as gifted. Lots of information here, will have to reread again. Never knew these subtle differences.
Your list Gifted or Just Bright? gave me such a good laugh. It brought me back to when my daughter was young. The comparisons are spot on. But even more than this, I was able to see myself. When I was in the third grade, I was removed from regular classes and taken to "reading lab" the first of many experimental teaching methods which were the forerunner to today's gifted programs. There was no label in those days (thankfully). I personally detest the term Gifted, i feel it makes others and sets an unrealistic standard for these children. I think "Creative" is a more descriptive term, but there may be one even better. I cringe remembering teachers that would say something along the lines of "she should know better since she is gifted."
Thats really an excellent list you have there! Do you work with gifted children or something ? I just love this list.
If you count working with my own child... I read a lot on the topic to understand my oldest. He's a genius! Objectively speaking, of course.
I am pretty sure I have at least one genius on my hands, but only in one topic: math. He fifth-grade math when he was four years old and would actually help the older siblings of his kindergarten kids lol. Their parents would call us and say stuff like "you realize you have a gifted child there?" He's gifted in other areas, is extremely verbally advanced and so on, but we really try to downplay all of that. Our main aim is for him to have good social skills, which he does so far. His little brother btw is definitely gifted.
Anne, you're probably right. It's challenging getting gifted kids motivated sometimes, but every child is different and yours just happen to be different in this particular way. Enjoy!
Someone told me once that the inclusion of realistic or nearly realistic detail in drawings by young children can be an indication of giftedness. For example, in drawings by children of people, the earlier they include the correct number of fingers, the better. Likewise for drawings of cars, trucks, flowers, etc.
I'm not sure that a bright line can be drawn between "gifted" and "bright." I think of intelligence/giftedness/brightness as more of a continuum than an either/or concept. However, I agree that the distinctions mentioned in the hub do have considerable validity.
The common factor used to test giftedness is IQ. I am wondering if EQ or any other factors would be tested as well. Would be interesting to know these as well.
childcen - Yes, IQ tests are used as part of the determination of giftedness in the public school system. However, other tests are also used, as well as information about creativity and motivation. It's been my experience that the testing process is subjective. A number on a test is not going to tell the whole story.
TO HAVE a gifted child, it starts from US.... If we observe that our child is a "gifted" one, then help him to develop that skill..
Hi Lela, Should we consider Gifted children as abnormal - on the better side of the scale?
Hi Worldscope, Abnormal would be one way to put it and they are certainly statistically outside the norm. Also, gifted education is considered special education.
How early is too early to test?
Lela, this was a good article. Thank you! :-)
I enjoy reading your article. Helps me a lot as a parent of a little boy.
It is also interesting to note that gifted kids can also have difficulty in academic areas and qualify for remedial help as well as services for their giftedness. These kids are known as "twice exceptional".
Great article!
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Thanks for the great article. For any parents out there considering whether to pursue a gifted program for their child, I would encourage you to entertain the idea. After my 6 year old son was moved from regular class to the gifted he's flourished even more than I thought he could.
His curiosity is now fed not stifled and his questions are now welcomed and not thwarted because of the teacher’s time constraints to deal with the mass of other children in the class.
iam very thankful to you sharing this article
I have a little girl who is GAT and she passed the OLSAT in Kindg. we did have some help from www.anotheryoungscholar.com, but they told me she was talented, and was exposed to alot at a young age, that was a big difference between her and the other kids. I'm so proud of my little girl, I work hard with her on all the different strategies I learned she will be tested on in the next grade, so that I can get her prepared. Your information in this article is excellent, please continue to help inform parents.
Thank you for another excellent hub.
Sam
Excellent hub!!!
Excelent and useful information. Despite their capabilities I know that in a way my children are gifted: they are experts in making me happy!
Great article- a timely response to an often overlooked need. I have a 22 month old little girl. Though she is still talks alot of gibberish I am more and more amazed at just how bright she is. I'm not going to say she is gifted because I think it may be a little too early in this stage to tell. However, I've noticed a few things that really make me wonder.
For example, my wife nursed her and the hospital she was delivered at was all for nursing. Yet, when we went to see the Pediatrics, I was very disappointed in their very PRO FORMULA approach, to the point of pushing it on us. I'm the kind of person that doesn't mind if someone nurses or uses formula, but don't push it on me as I am completely convinced the mother's milk is best. Back to the story- this Pediatric clinic kept pushing this to the point they cautioned: "your baby's brain is not going to develop properly". Fortunately for them, I was not there when this was told to my wife or they would most likely still be dealing with the reprecussions of such a statement.
Obviously, as a new parent this worried me after it was told to me. I had this nagging doubt that her brain might not develop as it should. Then one day, a small but by implication- a huge incident occurred that set my mind at ease.
I'm a guitarist and would often play up in my office. This particular occassion I was playing my electric guitar, which as you may know- can really be heard through an amplifier. Well, my amplifier was one side of the room and I was on the other side. I happened to be playing my guitar using a 20 foot long electric cord. This particular moment I had the cord stretched to the max while I was playing, meaning me and my guitar were 20 feet away from the amplifier- where the sound was coming through.
My wife was carrying our baby (9 months old at the time) and walked into the room. Me and the guitar were closest to the entry while the amp was as previously mentioned- on the other side of the room, out of view. My little girl watched my fingers intently, then looked at the other end of the room to see where the sound was coming from. She was making the correlation that what my fingers were doing on the guitar was the cause of the sound coming from the other side of the room!
From that point forward, I never doubted her brain's development and for that matter, have been even more amazed since! Thanks for such a thoroughly researched and fine work!
All children are born with greatness. We have continuely promote and nature it.
Judging from the contrastments you made, you reminded me of my childhood.
I used to ask my mum a lot of questions that she could not answer and disliked searching for answers. I even scolded her once because she could not answer my questions!
I was very playful in primary school but somehow my grades weren't bad at all. Sadly, I was even lazy to use my brain sometimes!
I used to argue with my teachers especially over maths questions. Even though the answer provided is different from mine, I would still argue and insist my answer is correct.
Thanks for this article
ripplemaker says:
2 years 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.