In Pictures: How To Tell If Your Child's Gifted
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What’s one thing all experts in gifted education can agree on? There’s a whole list of ways to tell if your
child’s gifted. Now, there’s a tool used by psychologists and schools to screen students for entrance to
accelerated programs, and it lists dozens of characteristics of gifted children. We’ve picked 11 that
parents can easily spot in their own children. Parents, take out your notebooks, but remember: A child
may still be gifted if he or she possesses just some–not all–of these traits.
© AP Photo/Paul Warner
Learning
A superior memory is one of the most common–and most obvious–characteristics of a gifted
child. “It jumps out to a lot of parents, who’ll notice that their kids remember everything,”
says clinical psychologist Dr. Edward R. Amend, co-author of The Parents Guide to Gifted
Children. “One of the kids I worked with knew the states and their capitals before he was
five. Information just tends to stick there.” Such children may use advanced vocabulary for
their grade or age level. For example, such 3-year-olds may use words like
“understandably” and “actually” in their everyday speech.
© AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Motivation
Gifted children can concentrate intensely on one subject. When Judy Galbraith, author of
You Know Your Child Is Gifted When …, was teaching, she met a first-grader with such an
in-depth knowledge of dinosaurs that he could spell their names and rattle off who ate
whom in the food chain. “Lots of kids go through a phase when they are fascinated by
dinosaurs, but in this case, the first-grader really knew dinosaurs to [an extreme] degree,”
she says. “He would be just one example of the kind of child who really can concentrate and
is interested in a specific topic far beyond their same-age peers.”
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Creativity
Intellectual playfulness, or a willingness to fantasize, is another characteristic of gifted
children. These traits aren’t always positive, warns the University of Connecticut’s Dr. Robin
Schader. “The creative child is the one who is pretty risky in the classroom situation. They
are going to see things in unconventional ways. They are going to make leaps. They are
going have a terrible time with true/false tests. They are going to say ‘What if… ?’” Schader
says. “You need to stop and ask them what they were seeing and how they came to those
conclusions.”
© AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Leadership
Gifted children may assume direction of an activity when they are involved in it. They’re
responsible, and they follow activities or projects through to completion. These kids can be
a handful, tending to like a challenge, to argue and to think critically. Dr. Robin Schader
adds that “they are usually pretty verbally quick, and they tend to be very convincing. Little
guys at four can get others to line up and get them all playing a game [on the playground].”
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Art, Music and Drama
Artistic activities appeal to gifted children, who can express themselves on a canvas, in an
original composition or during a skit. They may recall melodies, tell vivid stories or imitate
others. “They need to have those kinds of artistic or musical or dramatic outlets, or else
they won’t be happy,” says Dr. Barbara Klein, author of Raising Gifted Kids: Everything You
Need to Know to Help Your Exceptional Child Thrive. “They are very emotionally intense
children and they need an outlet to express themselves.”
© AP Photo / Czarek Sokolowski
Communication
A student, who found school exceedingly boring and tedious, once struck up an e-mail
correspondence with Judy Galbraith, author of You Know Your Child Is Gifted When … .
Later, she was shocked to learn that he was only 6 years old. “I guessed he was around 11
or 12 based on his vocabulary and articulation,” she says. “Here is another example of a kid
who exemplified advanced communication skills and verbal acuity.” Gifted students can
explain things precisely and clearly, using descriptive language and lots of synonyms to add
color and emotion to a story.
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Planning
Gifted children organize their work and establish priorities among different assignments and
responsibilities. They are often good at games, like chess, where it is necessary to anticipate an
opponent’s move. But Dr. Edward R. Amend warns: “There are some gifted kids who really stink at
chess. But the thing I’ve noticed with these kids is that, in any game of strategy, even if it’s not
particularly competitive, they’ll figure out a way to think ahead and sort it out.” That’s why gifted
children can be bored with tic tac toe–they know it often ends in an unexciting stalemate.
© AP Photo/Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Doug Loneman
Mathematics
Some gifted children will tackle challenging math problems in or outside the classroom.
Others enjoy doing puzzles, games and logic problems in their spare time. Still others can
deftly solve problems without using paper and pencil. “The profoundly gifted kids started
doing algebra before kindergarten,” says Dr. Amend. “But one of the things that is difficult
for parents to recognize is that there are different levels of giftedness.” Kids who simply
show a keen interest in numbers and how they relate to each other–for example, how 36
and 63 contain the same digits but signify different amounts–may also be gifted in this
area.
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Reading
Gifted children can focus on reading for an extended period of time, and they often pursue
reading material above their age or grade level. Judy Galbraith, author of You Know Your
Child Is Gifted When …, recalls when a second-grade student brought The Hobbit to class.
“At first, I was a little skeptical that he was comprehending it,” she says. “But then he
started to talk about what was happening, and the characters.” Gifted students can tear
through several books a week.
© AP Photo/Brian Branch-Price
Technology
Got an in-house computer whiz? Gifted children may learn new software without formal
training, and they demonstrate a wide range of technology skills. Dr. Barbara Klein, author
of Raising Gifted Kids: Everything You Need to Know to Help Your Exceptional Child Thrive,
remembers a child who took apart radios in his spare time. “Their perceptual organization is
very advanced,” she says. “They may be fascinated by that, and not as fascinated by
learning to read.” A bonus: Gifted children also tend to help others with technology-related
problems.
© AP Photo/Fort Collins Coloradoan, V. Richard Haro
Science
Gifted children are intensely curious about why things are the way they are. Their questions
can range from the innocuous–”Why is the sky blue?” to the thorny–”Why is that man
homeless?” And they’re looking for meaty answers. “As a parent, you’re just not prepared to
answer ethical questions that are being asked to you by a 7- or 8-year-old,” says Dr. James
T. Webb, co-author of A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children. “And then later, they search so
much for meaning and truth.” So parents of precocious tweens, beware: It may get worse
before it gets better.
Captured from http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/22/solutions-education-gifted-opedcx_hra_0123gifted_slide.html
On Feb. 24, 2015 at 2:57 PM.