What Makes Gifted Kids Different?
Parenting and Teaching High-Ability Children
If parents were to sit down with their gifted child and ask how he or she wants to be treated, the answers might be surprising.
Parents and teachers always have an innate ability to sense when something is different about a particular child. Maybe he is growing taller a bit too quickly, or maybe she has a flair for music that her peers do not. But something seems to be different. Sometimes being different means that a child has a more developed multiple intelligences element. Sometimes, however, it means that he or she is gifted, and then there are some things that teachers, moms and dads really need to know.
An important step in determining if a child is gifted is testing. As a central ingredient of raising a bright child, parents should take the time to research intelligence tests to determine which would be the best indicators of their child’s cognitive abilities for possible entry into a program for gifted learners to receive a modified and accelerated educational program that includes differentiated education.
There are several cognitive ability tests used in schools and in private educational professionals’ offices. In general, these tests measure the child’s mathematical and verbal, and sometimes perceptual abilities. Once the family has completed testing for giftedness and the answer has come back as positive, then the real challenges begin.
Gifted Children can be Vulnerable
If moms and dads have recently discovered that they are parenting or teaching a high-ability child, they need to spend a little time doing some research. No matter how devoted one may be as a parent, or how dedicated one is as a teacher, gifted kids need special care and attention. There are some things that the kids want adults to know.
For example, a gifted child will most likely be more sensitive about him or herself and about the conditions of others. Gifted children have a pretty good understanding that they are different from the other kids, and the closer to the teen years they become, the more the differences can become discomforting. While they will try to do as much as possible to blend in, the last thing they need is for a parent or teacher to put them on a pedestal for their gifts and talents.
In many cases, high-ability children don’t feel that being gifted is any big deal and don’t want the attention. This can be a difficult lesson for the parents who have always been proud of their child and want the world to know how special they are, which is why it is critical that parents and kids talk as much as possible and share their feelings and concerns. Gifted children can also have a very highly developed sense of right and wrong and become sensitive about what is happening in the world and at home. Again, communication is important so parents and teachers can help them find ways to address their concerns and make a difference.
Gifted Children Learn Differently
Parents will begin to wonder what’s happening when their gifted child either comes home with no homework, or has way too much of it for one evening. There might have been a few extra minutes at the end of one class to complete the work, or there might have been an optional assembly that seemed more interesting than the normal class that he or she decided to attend even though it meant piling on some extra enrichment homework that night.
There is no end of the kinds of differences that a teacher can encounter in a given class. Children can come from different backgrounds, economic situations, homes in which different languages are spoken, and numerous other diversities in the classroom. However, being gifted cuts across all of these distinctions, and can constitute a unique learning style in its own right.
Gifted children tend to learn and think more in themes than they do academic subjects, which could explain why the report home from the teacher says that she was ‘daydreaming’ in class, or he acted like the ‘class clown’ during math.
Being the parent or teacher of a gifted child takes extra work, and there are other things your child wants you to know as well.
