Gifted and Talented

 Giftedness and Talented 


Gifted or talented: terms describing individuals with high levels of intelligence, creativity, outstanding abilities, and capacity for high performance

Descriptors of gifted and talented individuals
  1. demonstrate high intellectual abilities
  2. Score well on tests of intelligence
  3. Learn more quickly than peers
  4. Apply complex thinking skills
  5. Achieve significantly higher than their classmates academically
  6. Tend to become leaders
  7. Are sensitive
  8. Are successful

Challenges
  1. overcoming the assumption that they do not need special attention or unique educational programs to reach their full potential and develop their talents
  2. No national mandate requiring states to provide special programs or services to gifted and talented students exists
  3. Gifted individuals often do not reach their potential because their educational programs did not meet their needs

Underrepresentation
  1. diverse students do not have equal access to honors or to special programs for gifted students
  2. Fewer African-American, Hispanic, and Native American children receive educational services for gifted students than would be expected from their percentage of the general student population
  3. The identification process is biased and favors students from, and talents encouraged in, the dominant culture

Tips for Effective Instruction
Creating success for gifted students with learning disabilities
  1. views such students as gifted first and having a disability second
  2. Provide access to an enriched curriculum in education of the gifted
  3. Allow accommodations through technology
  4. Facilitate a collaborative team approach including general educators, special educators, educators of the gifted, and related service professionals
  5. Find opportunities for gifted peers with learning disabilities to interact with each other
  6. Apply a curriculum that incorporates the theory of multiple intelligences
  7. Allow test accommodations
  8. Accelerate when appropriate
  9. Provide opportunities for students to talk about stress and emotional difficulties either in groups or with professionals
  10. Provide students with role models and mentors who are also gifted and have learning disabilities

It takes considerable effort and planning to meet gifted students needs. Teachers working together must:
  1. have open and ongoing communication
  2. Defined the educational problems that individual students or groups of students are facing
  3. Research the problem and identify approaches that might be effective
  4. Identify backup or alternative solutions
  5. Pool resources
  6. Develop a plan of action
  7. Decide on a meeting schedule and keep it
  8. Determine how to evaluate the solution’s effectiveness

Parents and families have important roles to play. Parental involvement is instrumental in improving attitudes about school and to improve self perception. They can help their children stay focused, even when school assignments are not challenging by adding enrichment activities to homework. Parents and families must set high expectations and not create undue pressure to overachieve. Support and encouragement to not drop out of school and to participate in AP courses, enrichment activities, and gifted education makes a difference in lives of children, even when peer pressure suggests alternative paths. Parents and families also need to guide gifted children in making appropriate choices and in holding realistic expectations for themselves and others. Families make a difference by maintaining open lines of communication through family meetings, talking with their children about values and how to balance life‘s events, and helping them determine what is important and what is not. 

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