The Gifted Child

1. The Gifted Child Cory Meehan & Josh Cameron

2. Define “Gifted Learner”

3. What makes a child a gifted learner? • Students who are advanced in one area or in many areas and exceed the expectations of parents or of the school curriculum in specific areas of development (Hutchinson, 2014).

4. Gifted = Exceptional? • Gifted students require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop such capabilities (Ross, 2013)

5. The Gifted Child - Misconceptions • At your table – briefly discuss what some of the potential misconceptions are that surround gifted learners.

6. The Gifted Child - Misconceptions • Gifted students don’t need help; they will do fine on their own • Gifted students make everyone else in the class smarter by providing a role model or a challenge • All children are gifted • Acceleration placement options are socially harmful for gifted students • He/She can’t be gifted, he/she doesn’t do anything or he/she has a disability • Our district has a gifted and talented program; we have AP courses • Gifted and bright students are the same • Gifted children are easy to raise and a welcome to any classroom - nagc.org

8. Types of Gifted Learners • Research has identified 6 different types of gifted learners.

9. Gifted Types - Activity

10. 1. Successful Type • Does very well academically • Responds well to choice • Independent • Accelerated programs • Perfectionist tendencies

11. 2. Challenging Type • Bored quickly • Questions authority • Honest and direct • Aim to impress peers • Positive role models are huge

12. 3. Underground Type • Insecure, deny talents • Come across as average • Enjoy being around peers • More often are girls • Become insecure and frustrated

13. 4. Dropout Types • Appear angry and/or depressed • Commitment to task completion is a concern • Peers tend to judge • Feeling of rejection • One-on-one mentorship

14. 5. Double Labeled Type • Gifted and also have a learning/physical/emotional disability • Great focus required on talent/tends to be focus on weaknesses • Ability does not equal performance • Get stressed • Have a hard time with criticism

15. 6. Autonomous Type • Very self-confident • Good social skills (respected) • Accelerated and enriched programs • Self directed • Take criticism well

16. Signs and Behaviours • Because gifted children are so diverse, not all exhibit all characteristics all of the time. However, there are common characteristics that many gifted individuals share … http://www.kidsenabled.org/articles/classroom/i-hate-math-why-students-struggle

17. Signs and Behaviours • Unusual alertness, even in infancy • Rapid learner; puts thoughts together quickly • Excellent memory • Unusually large vocabulary and complex sentence structure for age • Advanced comprehension of word nuances, metaphors and abstract ideas • Enjoys solving problems, especially with numbers and puzzles • Often self-taught reading and writing skills as preschooler • Deep, intense feelings and reactions • Highly sensitive • Thinking is abstract, complex, logical, and insightful • Idealism and sense of justice at early age

18. Signs and Behaviours • Concern with social and political issues and injustices • Longer attention span and intense concentration • Preoccupied with own thoughts—daydreamer • Learn basic skills quickly and with little practice • Asks probing questions • Wide range of interests (or extreme focus in one area) • Highly developed curiosity • Interest in experimenting and doing things differently • Puts idea or things together that are not typical • Keen and/or unusual sense of humor • Desire to organize people/things through games or complex schemas • Vivid imaginations (and imaginary playmates when in preschool)

19. The Struggles • Boredom– Frustrated by the mundane and repetitive processes found in many classrooms. Driven by boredom, they fall out of sync with school and withdraw from the learning environment. • Teens often find it difficult to focus their career aspirations and to make appropriate course selection. Perhaps because they have many talents and interests. • Social integration – Peer relationships naturally change over the course of childhood – this process of change can be even more difficult due to the uniqueness of their personalities. • Trying hard to fit in to a social structure

20. The Struggles • Emotional Intensity – • “Emotional intensity in the gifted is not a matter of feeling more than other people, but a different way of experiencing the world: vivid, absorbing, penetrating, encompassing, complex, commanding – a way of being quiveringlyalive.” • Many people seem unaware that intense emotions are part of giftedness and little attention is paid to emotional intensity. Historically the expression of intense feelings has been seen a sign of emotional instability rather than as evidence of a rich inner life. - Sengifted.org

21. Emotional Intensity Emotional intensity can be expressed in many different ways: • As intensity of feeling – positive feelings, negative feelings, both positive and negative feelings together, extremes of emotion, complex emotion that seemingly move from one feeling to another over a short time period, identification with the feelings of other people, laughing and crying together • In the body – the body mirrors the emotions and feelings are often expressed as bodily symptoms such as tense stomach, sinking heart, blushing, headache, nausea. • Inhibition– timidity and shyness • Strong affective memory – emotionally intense children can remember the feelings that accompanied an incident and will often relive and ‘re-feel’ them long afterward • Fears and anxieties, feelings of guilt, feelings of being out of control • Concerns with death, depressive moods • Emotional ties and attachments to others, empathy and concern for others, sensitivity in relationships, attachment to animals, difficulty in adjusting to new environments, loneliness, conflicts with others over the depth of relationships • Critical self-evaluation and self-judgment, feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. • - Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted – sengifted.org

22. Ted Teen – Gifted Experience • Gifted Experience

23. What Can We Do? • These children require interventions that stem from a thorough understanding of the emotional nature of giftedness and an understanding of the typical intensity in gifted individuals.

24. What Can We Do? Hutchinson, 2014

25. What Can We Do? • Look for curriculum areas where students are not challenged and consider how to remedy that. • Enabling students to pursue their own intersts and using tiered assignments. • Introducing technologies. • Online learning • Assigning self-directed research projects. • Developing accelerated programs. • Placement of students – ex: moving to the next grade for math)

26. What Can We do? • Research suggests that gifted learners need to be with their intellectual peers for at least part of the school day so they are stimulated in areas in which they are advanced – however they benefit from learning with same-age peers during each school day. • Some gifted students prefer to work independently and learn alone, and it may be important to honor this preference at some time during each day. - Hutchinson, 2014

27. Re-Define “Gifted Learner”

28. Additional Resources • http://www.cbv.ns.ca/giftededucation/modules/mastop_publish/?tac=Ten_Things_to_Know_About_Gifted_Students • https://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources/myths-about-gifted-students • http://sengifted.org/archives/articles/emotional-intensity-in-gifted-children • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybmgVSdsMu8 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBYPyTVZBM4

29. References • http://www.prufrock.com/assets/clientpages/pdfs/emotionalintensity_samplepages.pdf • http://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources/my-child-gifted/common-characteristics-gifted-individuals • http://www.iusd.org/wp/documents/brightchildorgiftedlearner.pdf • http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-gail-gross/who-is-the-gifted-child_b_4119720.html • http://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources/myths-about-gifted-students • https://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/gifted-education-practices/what-it-means-teach-gifted-learners-well • http://www.cbv.ns.ca/giftededucation/modules/mastop_publish/?tac=Ten_Things_to_Know_About_Gifted_Students

30. References • http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10075.aspx • http://www2.education.uiowa.edu/belinblank/Students/BESTS/ • http://www.davidsongifted.org/EdGuild/ • http://www.hdsb.ca/Community/PIC/Documents/Understanding%20Gifted%20and%20Highly-Abled%20Children%2013.pdf • http://web1.nbed.nb.ca/sites/district8/schools/enrichment/PDFs/Giftedness_Brochure_v2.pdf • http://www.giftedidentity.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Myths-about-gifted-children-%C2%A9-2013-Duncan-and-Haase-seng-handout.pdf • http://sengifted.org/archives/articles/exceptionally-gifted-children-different-minds • http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-development/major-level-of-edu/gifted/guidelines-on-school-based-gifted-development-programmes/selection_11-eng_3647.pdf • http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2012/may/09/teaching-gifted-and-talented-pupils