Early Identification of Giftedness

There are different opinions as to when giftedness is best identified. Should one identify giftedness prior to Kindergarten or should one wait to see how a student is performing the first few years in school and then identify gifted students? “Not gifted at age 6, but gifted at age 8,” is the short and somewhat cynical version. It is indeed common to start gifted education programs and offerings in 2^nd or 3^rd grade -- possibly due to the fact that at that age the first standardized, school-administered test results become available, which are often factored into an identification matrix.

Methods to identify qualified students for gifted education programs also vary greatly, resulting in different criteria depending on the school district in which one resides. Occasionally, one hears parents proclaiming that a child is not identified as gifted in one’s home district, but is identified as gifted in a neighboring district. “Not gifted here, but gifted 5 miles away from here,” is the short and somewhat cynical version in this instance. This may be partially due to the fact that there are only a limited number of gifted program openings in any given school.

The truth of the matter is that the issues of when and how to test for identification for gifted education programs are closely related to each other. I believe giftedness can (and should) be identified in early childhood but possibly with different methods as compared to identifying giftedness in children at the 2^nd or 3^rd grade level.

“Parents should become familiar with the signs of giftedness even before their child starts school,” writes David Palmer, author of Parents’Guide to IQ Testing and Gifted Education. “Early testing and identification can be a controversial subject, but many advocates of gifted children believe that they should be identified as soon as possible so that their unique needs and talents can be acknowledged and nurtured right from the start.”

At our school, Quest Academy, we rely both on parent identification and a formal scheduled observation (following the EarlyScreening Profiles method) of the pre-school child. For entry into Kindergarten, we rely on parent identification, observation during actual “shadow” or “visit” days at our school in addition to an assessment tool known as the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. For students older than Kindergarten age, we transition to the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). This approach is consistent with the Quest Academy Belief Statement that “giftedness is best identified and cultivated by means of thorough and multifaceted assessment.”

To help parents of two- to four-year olds determine if their child is gifted, my biggest piece of advice would be not to short-sell parental judgment and observations of one’s own child. Parents, particularly first-time parents, are reluctant to trust their instincts. Having said that, it is common practice to identify young children by means of parent rating scales, among which the “Gifted Rating Scales” is well researched and proven to have high reliability (up to a 0.97 test-retest reliability coefficient). The Gifted Rating Scales includes a special Preschool/Kindergarten form (GRS-P), which includes five scales with 12 items each. According to Steven I. Pfeiffer, one of the developers of the GRS-P, the scale is based on a multidimensional model of giftedness (see my previous blog entry entitled "An Evolutionary Perspective on Giftedness"), looking at intellectual, academic, creative, artistic, and motivational domains. The Gifted Rating Scale for children above the age of 6 also has shown great predictive accuracy when compared with results achieved on the latest edition of the WISC IQ test.

There is surprisingly little research that sheds any light on the early childhoods of eminent or highly gifted adults, thus providing little – if any – conclusions as to what might be similarities or commonalities of childhood experiences of those who became eminent in adult life. In Critical Issues and Practices in Gifted Education (ed. By Jonathan A. Plucker & Carolyn M. Callahan), Nancy Robinson cites research that concludes that “the eminent persons studied had exhibited precocity during their early years, some of them to astonishing degrees, and many had received strong encouragement from their families.”

Many of us have heard that Albert Einstein hardly spoke at age three, thus possibly not identified by parents as gifted. Indeed, Einstein’s parents were concerned about his lack of speech, but yet there was evidence of giftedness such as Einstein’s early childhood fascination to build tall houses or his keen interest as to why a compass needle always pointed north.

To help parents determine if they want to pursue identification of giftedness in their pre-school-age child, David Palmer recommends taking a closer look at “language skills, learning abilities, and emotional and behavioral traits.” Fully quoting from his book, Parents’ Guide to IQ Testing and Gifted Education, please take note of more specific information.

Language Skills:

·         Highly developed vocabulary/ability to learn new words easily

·         Tendency to speak quickly

·         Long and complex sentences with appropriate grammar

·         Early reading, but only if given some instruction and opportunity

·         Frequent questioning, particularly as relates to what the child hears and sees

·         Understanding and carrying out multi-step directions

·         Understanding and participating in adult conversation

·         Using different language for different audiences i.e. speaking with adults and speaking with peers

Learning Abilities:

·         Picking up ideas quickly/picking up skills effortlessly

·         Occasionally becoming focused on a special interest such as bugs, space, or animals and independently seeking out more information on those topics

·         Asking insightful questions

·         Excellent memory/easy recall

·         Reading often

·         Requiring little direction or instruction when learning a new game

·         Early development of motor skills

·         Creative thinking – coming up with their own solutions

·         Concentrating on a topic for a prolonged period of time (if the activity is unchallenging, the opposite will occur)

·         Taking joy in discovering new interests

Emotional and Behavioral Traits

·         Endless source of energy/high activity level

·         Talking and thinking fast (child is asked to “slow down”)

·         Taking charge

·         Enjoying time alone

·         Relating to older kids and adults

·         Appreciating natural beauty and art

An evolutionary perspective on giftedness

By Benjamin Hebebrand, Head of School, Quest Academy

A historical study on the subject of giftedness clearly underscores the notion that our understanding of giftedness is continuously evolving. This evolution is congruent with the very idea that we teach our students in school – continued study and research lead to better and more comprehensive understandings.

In examining this evolution of our understanding of giftedness, it is evident that a broad analysis of the past 100 years of the study of giftedness has offered several periods or movements of understandings of giftedness. It is only logical that these movements also have shaped our ideas about best practices in identifying and teaching gifted students.

It is my view that the evolution of these movements has resulted in a broader, more multi-faceted view of giftedness – appropriate, in my opinion, given the fact that I believe that a) giftedness to some degree can be nurtured; and b) that gifted learners deserve to be assessed and taught in multiple dimensions. In my opinion, this historical evolution of the conception of giftedness has made the field of gifted education enriched by a diversity of opinions. There may also be those who believe that the ideas of giftedness have become diluted and thus have lost focus as a result of ever-broadening conceptions of giftedness.

In the Handbook of Gifted Education, edited by Steven I. Pfeiffer, cognitive scientists Scott Barry Kaufman and Robert J. Sternberg have identified four “waves” of conceptions of giftedness. The following is a brief summary of these four waves:

·         1) Domain-General Models

This wave essentially conforms to the idea that it is one’s general intelligence that is indicative of giftedness. Giftedness is viewed as “a single entity.” Most often, this view espouses the idea that giftedness can be measured in a single test such as an IQ test. This particular wave of thought may best be represented by English psychologist Charles Spearman, who in 1904 termed pervasive ability as general intelligence (the “g” factor), while he termed a specific ability as “s.” He recognized and determined that a “wide variety of cognitive tests tend to positively correlate with each other.”

·         2) Domain-Specific Models

This wave – as its name implies – holds to the notion that abilities may be domain-specific. In 1938, Louis Thurstone identified “seven different mental abilities that he claimed were statistically independent of each other.” These seven abilities related to both verbal comprehension and fluency, number computation, perception speed, inductive reasoning, spatial visualization, and also memory – some of these components are now included in the most recent editions of intelligence tests. This wave also includes Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory that divides into linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. Another major contributor to this wave of thought is the work of J.B. Carroll, who in 1993 outlined three strata of intelligence of a) “highly specialized skills;” b) “somewhat specialized abilities” such as fluid intelligence (depends on the functioning of the central nervous system); crystallized intelligence (based on prior experiences and cultural context); general memory and learning; broad visual and auditory perceptions; broad retrieval ability; broad cognitive speediness; and processing speed; and c) one ability such as the “g” factor which “underlies all aspects of intellectual activity.”

·         3) System Models

As the name implies, this wave espouses the view that giftedness is an interrelated system “which is dependent on a confluence of psychological processes operating together." A widely- -applied model that fits this idea of an interconnected system is Joseph Renzulli’s “three-ring definition,” first introduced in 1978. His three characteristics are a) well-above-average ability; b) creativity; and c) task commitment. Renzulli’s system brings to light the idea that giftedness is defined in more "active" terms – as he states, giftedness should be thought of in terms of “the creative and productive people of the world, the producers rather than consumers of knowledge.” Broadly stated, it's not just what you know, but what you produce and create. Renzulli’s model opens the door to the idea that intelligence alone is not sufficient in defining giftedness;  non-intellective factors need to be considered as well.

·         4) Developmental Models

External or environmental factors such as family, school, or peers are introduced to the idea of intelligence in the sense that these “external factors might interact with the internal factors of the individual to produce gifted behavior.” Francoys Gagne introduced in 2005 the Differentiated Model of Gifted and Talented, which proposes that gifts are transformed into talents. This transformation includes a) environmental impacts such as the home, school, parents, mentors, coaches, activities, encounters, and specific life experiences such as academic competitions; and b) non-intellective factors such as a child’s motivation, temperament, resilience, persistence, and endurance (training).  In my opinion, this wave most closely aligns itself with the idea of teaching to the “whole child.” Kurt Heller’s recent Munich Model of Giftedness views talent factors as predictors that are to be transformed into performance areas (i.e. achievement criteria). During this transformation, moderators come into play in the form of a) non-cognitive personality characteristics (i.e. coping with stress, test anxiety, or achievement motivation); or b) environmental conditions (quality instruction, classroom climate, or critical life events).

In providing this overview of these four waves, it is my aim that gifted education practitioners understand that a child’s giftedness is far more than general test scores – in fact giftedness may be domain-specific or may include one’s creativity and productivity, and may also be greatly influenced by a child’s personality and environment. Please post your thoughts, informing us of your conception of giftedness.

Motivating the Gifted Learner

I admire the work of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck on the subject of motivation. It has been about a year since Dr. Dweck spoke at Quest Academy. There has not been a day since that talk that I have not thought about how best to motivate gifted students.

Fixed Mindset versus Growth Mindset

At the very core of Dr. Dweck’s work is the idea that intelligence is not a fixed trait. She quotes Alfred Binet, the inventor of IQ testing: “A few modern philosophers…assert that an individual’s intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism…With practice, training, and above all, method, we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgment and literally become more intelligent than we were before.” Indeed, with years of her research, Dr. Dweck has expanded on Dr. Binet’s assertion by referring to two different mindsets.

The fixed mindset -- rooted in the belief that one’s qualities are carved in stone – leads to behavior and actions that are risk-averse in that kids experience the first sign of failure as an indicator of their abilities or rather lack of abilities. The growth mindset, on the other hand, is attributable to an approach that one’s qualities and abilities can always improve or grow as a result of one’s efforts. In essence, Dr. Dweck advocates that the development of a growth mindset is key in fostering a child’s motivation. One such way to instill a growth mindset is to focus less on the results but rather the processes of learning, primarily among them the effort a child invests on any given task. Praising a child’s final grade or cumulative score on a standardized test may reinforce the fixed mindset, while praising a child’s effort, innovative and creative thinking, or passion invested in the task is more likely to signal to the child that the process of working (well) is highly valued.  I have always maintained that as a function of good and hard work, the results will be just fine.

“Do I want to do this?” and “Can I do this?”

At the very core of a student’s sense of motivation, we are most likely to encounter two fundamental questions: “Do I want to do it?” and “Can I do it?” The first question points to the need to assign students tasks that are meaningful, valuable, and relevant, while the second question points to creating tasks that correspond to a child’s ability. At our school, we root each learning-specific topic in a conceptual context (see previous blog on this topic). Similarly, at our school we invest time to determine what students already know or what they do not yet know in advance of a new learning unit. This way, teachers can differentiate for student ability, preferably at a level that is just above their demonstrated level.  

Practical Strategies to Motivate Gifted Students:

Deliberate attempts to engage students, including elementary school-aged children in the higher cognitive thinking levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation are sure ways to motivate gifted students. I offer a few practical strategies to motivate gifted students:

·         Inquiry leads to curiosity: Taking time out during the day and simply meeting with students to contemplate intriguing questions is a good practice. Using natural or authentic moments is an added bonus. On the season’s first snowfall, have students generate questions about snow. Investigate together.

·         Compare, Contrast, Contradict, and Create Controversy: Imagine the teacher walking into a third grade classroom, asserting that “learning other languages leads to a poorer command of one’s own native language.” Soon, students will be working in teams investigating this controversial statement.

·         Encouraging students to make hypotheses: This should not only happen in the science classroom, but in every classroom. Encouraging student guesses is good practice as long as timely feedback is provided.

Other Ways to Encourage Students:

·         The sense of accomplishment: Students benefit by the experience of authentic accomplishment. One initial accomplishment sets the stage for further accomplishment. Students need to be able to recognize their own competence by experiencing the feeling of accomplishing a task or solving a problem. An ideal outcome is a sense of meta-cognition, whereby students can think about their own thinking.

·         The teacher’s confidence in students: Students perform better when they know that their teacher wishes them conspicuous daily success.

·         The teacher’s passion: Enthusiasm is infectious.

·         Variety of Instructional Strategies: A classroom that always features rows of student desks is a recipe for…boredom. The classroom must be fluid.

·         The teacher’s genuine care for students: This is self-explanatory. When we feel that someone cares to get to know us, we do better.

·         Student Autonomy in the Classroom: Differentiating to student ability is great -- as is differentiating to student interest. Giving students choices is a sure recipe to increase their ownership in the learning.

Please take some time and share with me and others who read this blog your thoughts and strategies to motivate gifted students.

IQ Testing and Admission to a Gifted Education Program

Admission to a gifted education program at a school such as Quest Academy most frequently requires an assessment of the applicant. As such, one may be tempted to conclude that educational institutions are being selective and primarily concerned about screening students out. I would much prefer to look at the assessment as an opportunity to screen students “into the program,” or in other words determining if there is a good fit between the program and applicant designed to set the applicant up for success. The word “admission” really conveys the idea of “working toward the mission,” implying that the work of admitting students into a program is all about alignment with the mission or cause of the program.

Therefore, applicant testing to gifted education programs is appropriate and mutually beneficial to the applicant and the mission of the gifted education program. Missions of such programs vary – an orientation toward “academic achievement” or “intellectual development” or a “challenging curriculum” or an “emphasis on creativity” may point to different objectives within various gifted education programs. Thus, gifted education programs turn to an admission process that fits their mission – testing may be designed to assess an applicant’s cognitive ability as opposed to an applicant’s achievement level.

The work of assessing a student’s fit with a particular gifted education mission is important. It should, therefore, be transparent. “IQ testing and selection for programs is thought by some to be a mysterious and secretive domain understood only by the chosen few. It shouldn’t be,” according David Palmer, Ph.D., author of Parents’ Guide to IQ Testing and Gifted Education. Selection into any program such as a high school varsity sport or a regional or state Science Fair frankly involves some subjectivity on the part of the assessors – selection to a gifted education program should include objective testing. “The administration of an individually administered comprehensive IQ test offers a more valid and reliable picture of a child's learning needs,” according to Palmer. Many but not all gifted education programs require submission of an individually administered IQ test as a final criterion, possibly in conjunction with teacher recommendations or previous academic records.

While typically the majority of applicant parents understand the normative bell curve scoring between 90 and 110 to indicate the median range of scores, we find that not as many understand what is actually being tested on an IQ test. There are numerous publishers and therefore numerous versions, all of which are updated both in terms of content and re-calibration of raw scores into scaled scores (so that the median scores always fall into the 90-110 score range). In his book Palmer outlines a few general areas that most IQ testing instruments share in common:

·         Verbal skills: Palmer defines this as “the ability to understand and use words, to understand verbally presented information and answer comprehension questions, and the capacity to analyze and solve puzzles or problems in which verbal skills are involved.” This area of testing includes more open-ended questions.

·         Visual (or Nonverbal or Perceptual) Problem Solving: This component, according to Palmer, will test for “the ability to solve visually presented problems and puzzles, recognize visual patterns, and identify visual details.” This testing component includes more performance-oriented tasks that usually have one correct answer.

·         Memory Index: This testing component measures “the ability to hold words, numbers, patterns, and symbols in the mind long enough to solve a problem or produce a response,” according to Palmer.

·         Problem-Solving Speed: IQ testing determines one’s “ability to think and act quickly and to use available information to swiftly solve a problem,” according to Palmer.

As you read between the lines of these testing descriptions, you may be able to recognize that while various testing components do not measure specific academic skills (i.e. skills that are taught in school), it is generally agreed that all IQ tests serve as a good indicator for student success in school. In a previous blog, I wrote about a new definition of giftedness that speaks of a trajectory of potential in elementary school years to one of achievement in teenage years to a stage of eminence in adult life. I view IQ testing as a measure of one’s potential. There is evidence of students being “prepped” for these tests, as Dr. Kirk Erickson, a northwest Chicago suburban psychologist and IQ testing practitioner, points out. “You can practice online performance area tests such as certain designs and puzzles – and that may add a few points, but it won’t help the student. Attempts to prepare the student are a disservice to the student because the few extra points earned would not really be points that reflect her true score, potentially placing a student in the wrong program.”

It is important that testing results be reviewed and explained by a psychologist. Typically, IQ testing results are accompanied by narrative reports, but a face-to-face meeting with the psychologist to interpret the scores is important. Dr. Erickson believes that the spread in scores among the various testing components is worthy of deeper analysis. Should scores be vastly different from each other (a score differential of about 15 points or more would qualify as such), Dr. Erickson would point toward asynchronicity. While a Verbal Skills score may indicate a score of 145, a Problem-Solving Speed score may be at 125, which in isolation is a score well above average. Such a range in scores, according to Dr. Erickson, may be explained by “brain development in that one area of the brain is not as developed as others or it may point toward a learning disability.” Dr. Erickson would be the first to recommend “additional testing to determine a learning disability.”

Anytime assessments are performed to qualify students for entry into any given program, we should take great care in making that selection process live up to a high standard of consistency. In my opinion, IQ testing adds a consistent measure in determining the suitability of applicants to a gifted education program. As such, we should remove any mystery from such testing.

The nurture of potential

All over the country and I dare say the entire world, parents, psychologists, teachers, scientists, policy makers and professionals across all disciplines are re-examining and re-defining the ideas of giftedness and gifted education. In a relatively young nation such as the United States, real and occasionally romanticized portraits of gifted individuals abound -- the lives of politicians such as the framers of our Constitution, entrepreneurs such as railroad and automobile magnates or technology gurus such as the recently departed Steve Jobs are scrutinized in an effort to learn more about giftedness. I suppose the thinking is that if we understand their lives by tracing their childhoods and their educations, investigating their support systems such as family and relationships with others, or studying their character traits, we may be able to stumble across a few commonalities that somehow can lay the basis to unlocking the gates to giftedness and thus lay the foundation to a model of...gifted education.

Three prominent gifted education scholars recently published a lengthy report entitiled "Rehinking Giftedness and Gifted Education-- A Proposed Direction Forward Based on Psychological Science." The authors, Rena F. Subotnik, Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, and Frank C. Worrell and their comprehensive report do not disappoint, and for a pre-school - 8th grade school such as Quest Academy,  a portion of their proposed definition of giftedness holds particular promise in that it gives a school such as ours significant food for thought but also (re-)affirmation of how the faculty and staff of Quest Academy carry out their work in educating young gifted children.  

The authors state that "...giftedness can be viewed as developmental in that in the beginning stages, potential is the key variable; in later stages, achievement is the measure of giftedness; and in fully developed talents, eminence is the basis on which this label is granted."

As with most developmental processes, we seek an outcome. Although eminence is fluid in that eminence demands ever increasing degrees of innovation (e.g. eminence begets eminence), the authors in a way view eminence as the ultimate destination in giftedness or the ultimate pursuit of gifted education. Somewhere along this climb to the mountaintop, the authors suggest that achievement is the component by which eminence may be achieved. Achievements are validated by results in a variety of assessments such as performances or products. Implied is the notion that achievments are to be judged, presumably by those who are considered eminent or at least those who have "passed" or preferably "surpassed" the agreed-upon measures of achievement.

And thus, the authors steer us toward a starting point -- a point at which potential is to be developed, nurtured, and nudged toward achievement and ultimately toward eminence. Potential is the ground level. In examining potential in a scientific context, specifically in the scientific domain of physics, we view potential as "energy that is stored in a body or a system due to its position in a force field or due to its configuration." (Mahesh C. Jain - author of Textbook of Engineering Physics). The position within a force field speaks to environmetal factors (i.e. nurture), while the configuration rests in nature. In my opinion, the nature versus nurture debate is especially relevant when we speak about the development of potential.

Our work with young gifted minds is indeed about optimizing potential to prepare them for a culture and system of achievement. The fundamentally most important discovery here is that an initial and sole focus on achievement may be misguided -- learning at a younger age is much more than performing or producing. I recently asked one of the authors, Dr. Paula Olszewski-Kubilius (whom many Quest Academy teachers know as the main professor in the Northwestern University graduate-level gifted education certificate program), at what point we might switch our teaching perspective from a potential to achievement focus. She responded that each domain or field (e.g. the arts, philosophy, literature, gymnastics, mathematics, engineering) have varying switch points. I suspect that it is also different for each individual student.

Interestingly enough, Dr. Olszewski-Kubilius suggested as a general rule of thumb, it may be advantageous to develop a child's familiarity and comfort level with achievement by the time they enter high school. Thus, our work at Quest Academy was re-affirmed in that our faculty beginning at pre-school and through 8th grade start out with a focus on potential and each and every year offer carefully orchestrated and increasing degrees of achievement, never losing sight of the fundamental task of fostering and nurturing potential.

21st Century Literacies fit gifted students

Twenty-first century education is becoming…less fuzzy. Twenty-first century education is evolving. We are in the midst of a shift – we are “jumping the next curve,” as author Guy Kawasaki would tell us. To reach our 21^st century destination in education, we must not only embrace but more importantly guide the change that is occurring in the way our students are now learning and living.

One such way to guide our students is to lay out new literacy standards – and indeed, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has laid out 21^st century literacy standards. It is exactly work such as this that helps us wrap our arms around 21^st century learning. The jump to the next curve in this instance is to look at literacy standards in a new way – in a 21^st century way.

“Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable,” according to NCTE.

At a gifted education school such as Quest Academy, students show great interest in becoming technology-literate because these literacies require higher-order thinking skills beyond reading comprehension. Furthermore, these literacies enrich learning – they offer far greater possibility to advance one’s reading and writing on any one given topic.

NCTE has laid out six 21^st century skills, some of which I will attempt to expand on in the context of higher order thinking. According to NCTE, 21^st century readers and writers need to:

1.       “Develop proficiency with the tools of technology”

2.       “Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally”

3.       “Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes”

4.       “Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information”

5.       “Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts”

6.       “Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments”

Just looking at Standard 3, it is becoming clear that one’s writing needs to become more focused than ever before on one’s audience. Technology enables our writing to be “consumed” throughout the world and to be “filtered” for special audiences. Gifted students will relish the opportunity to compare and contrast communication styles across the globe or determine if a text needs to be designed and formatted differently for older and younger generations.

Standard 4, for example, is already pre-loaded with classic higher-order thinking skills such as analysis or synthesis. Let’s suppose for a minute that 2^nd graders have been assigned to research Martin Luther King’s life – a simple “google search” will steer them to a myriad of excellent…and – quite frankly – horrible web sites. Among the top five Google searches for Martin Luther King is a site entitled martinlutherking.org that includes racist statements. The site is camouflaged to “trick” kids. Kids need to learn to judge web sites in addition to knowing how to find out who publishes web sites.

Standard 6 speaks of ethical responsibilities – the topic of ethics itself is rich material for gifted students. The Internet can serve as a platform for gifted students to change the world to a better place. Creating web sites or games that promote ethical and service-learning related ideas are terrific opportunities for gifted students to put their creativity and intellect to practical use.

The gifted education community, in my opinion, would be wise to endorse these 21^st century literacies. They represent rich and value-added opportunities for gifted students.

Social and Emotional Needs of Gifted Students

In anticipation of the November 16 community evening at Quest Academy featuring a presentation by renowned gifted education scholar and psychologist Dr. James T. Webb on the subject of “the social and emotional needs of gifted students,” I thought it wise to reflect on this topic. For ticket information, please click here.

“Students must be able to develop a healthy perspective about their own talents and limitations, and those of others; a positive self-image; a positive regard for the processes of learning and inquiry; and a commitment to a guiding set of moral and ethical values,” according to Drs. Dona J. Matthews and Joanne F. Foster, authors of Being Smart about Gifted Education.

Often we read of the hyphenated version of social-emotional needs. Clearly those two needs are interconnected in myriad complex ways, while sometimes it may behoove us to look at each issue as a separate need.

Having now worked as Head of School for almost five years at Quest Academy (www.questacademy.org), a school specializing in meeting the needs of gifted students, it is clearer than ever before that educating the “whole child” is, in my opinion, paramount in a school, where children have been identified and taught as gifted students. Dr. Webb would tell us that “cultivating courage, caring, and creativity are as important as academics and developing intellectual abilities.” Similarly, Dr. Kirk Erickson, who conducts testing for Quest Academy applicants, states:

"Having advanced intellectual and academic achievement skills are wonderful qualities, but they are not the only things that may predict success. Things like personal motivation, creativity, and work habits are but a few of the skills that are also important. One area that is just as vital, but often overlooked is social and emotional intelligence. The way we relate and interact with the world around us, and how we mange our internal sense of self is often the greatest measure of our potential as human beings."

So what is the “whole child?” Simply put, it is about addressing all the needs a child has – according to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), this encompasses:

•  a need for a healthy environment and learning about healthy lifestyle choices
• a physically and emotionally safe environment
• engagement in learning and connection to school and the larger community
• access to personalized learning
• a challenging environment shaped by a well-balanced curriculum

Maybe more to the point is the question what defines the “whole gifted child.” This is where it gets difficult as gifted students are not following generally agreed upon developmental milestones, particularly in their intellectual development. Gifted children just do not follow a predictable or “even” developmental pattern – they often follow an asynchronous pattern. In other words, a gifted child at age ten may have intellectual needs equivalent to a 15-year-old, social and emotional needs of a 13-year-old, and physical needs of a ten-year-old. Gifted children, in short, may find themselves at varying developmental levels and may experience polar emotional reactions such as excitement and anxiety or pride and self-doubt in almost one and the same moment. As a result of such asynchronous development, gifted children may be misdiagnosed – and indeed Dr. Webb frequently talks about gifted students being misdiagnosed in an environment, where the needs of gifted children are not recognized or validated.

Gifted children, in my opinion, deserve a different kind of education. This education must be shaped by teachers and parents who understand asynchronous patterns. It is in that spirit that I invite you to the November 16 evening (7 p.m.) with Dr. Webb here at Quest Academy. Dr. Webb will present to our faculty in the afternoon – in the evening, he will address parenting issues such as:

·         motivation and underachievement

·         discipline, power struggles, and self-management

·         intensity, stress and perfectionism

·         acquaintances, friends, and peers

·         complexities of modern parenting

·         misdiagnosis

·         finding a good educational fit.

We hope to see you there!