What is Gifted?

What Does Gifted Look Like?


There is no universal agreement on the definition of giftedness.
What we do agree upon is that some people process information differently than others.

GIFTEDNESS IN CHILDREN

The following excerpt from the New World Encyclopedia serves as a good starting point for understanding the nature of giftedness:

Giftedness in a child is an ability significantly higher than other children of the same age. The focus was initially on intellectual giftedness, but has broadened to include a multitude of abilities.

Gifted children often develop asynchronously—their minds are often ahead of their physical growth, and specific cognitive and emotional functions are often at different stages of development. Also, giftedness is often distributed unevenly across the various intellectual spheres. Thus an individual may qualify as gifted through exceptional mathematical ability, yet be below average in spelling or verbal abilities. Mainstream education places more emphasis on linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence when speaking of the gifted child; however individuals may excel in a variety of additional abilities, such as musical, spatial, or kinesthetic. The identification and support for those gifted in such areas cannot be done through standard IQ tests and accelerated education.

The recognition of gifted children and their needs raises questions regarding educational philosophy, techniques, and assessment. Some gifted children easily reach high levels of functioning in their particular area of strength, but may lag woefully behind in other areas, whether intellectual, emotional, or social. Successful gifted education of such individuals requires greater attention to the balance of different areas of development in order to allow them to reach maturity as a whole person.

 

GIFTEDNESS IN ADULTS