I n n d d e e x  x

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1.  Introduction  3

2.  Definition  3

3.  Identification of Gifted and Talented Children  4

3.1  Checklists  4

3.2  Rating scales  5

3.3  Standardized Tests  5

4.  Problems  6

4.1  Social rejection  6

4.2  Underachievement  6

5.  Supporting the Gifted  8

5.1  Enrichment versus Acceleration  8

5.1.1  Enrichment  9

5.1.2  Acceleration  10

5.2  Support by parents  11

5.3  Organisations  12

6.  Conclusion  13

7.  Bibliography  14

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1. Introduction

When Ian was about two years old he announced to a family friend “You know, my father is a mathematician and my mother a physiotherapist”, at this age he was already reading and counting (Gross 1993, p. 16).

Usually children learn how to read at school, they are being taught how to identify the different letters and how to build words with them. How is it possible that Ian could learn all this much earlier and completely auto didactically, simply by observing his environment?

Ian is not alone with his extraordinary abilities. “Ogilvie identified 3 per cent of children as being broadly gifted” (George 1995, p. 3) that means as a consequence that a primary school with 300 children comprises approximately 9 broadly gifted children. But what does the term gifted mean?

2. Definition

The word gifted itself leads us to its roots. In the middle ages people believed that somebody extremely talented must have been given this special ability by a kind of supernatural power, e.g. by God. Giftedness was considered to be innate not something that developed.

Although this concept of a given talent is out of date now, there is still no absolute definition of the term gifted; neither do we know why some children show these extraordinary talents. Definitions for the term gifted vary and each of them put emphasis on different aspect.

“Children and youth with outstanding talent perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience or environment. These children and youth exhibit high performance capability in intellectual, creative, and/or artistic areas; possess an unusual leadership capacity, or excel in specific academic fields. They require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the schools.

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Outstanding talents are present in children and youth from all cultural groups, across all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavour.” (George 1995, p.2)

As there is no generally accepted definition of giftedness, due to the astonishingly heterogeneous group of gifted children, it is not easy to describe giftedness or to find a proper definition.

3. Identification of Gifted and Talented Children

There are many different ways to identify gifted children. They can be categorized into three major areas: Rating scales and checklists, standardized tests and teacher appraisal. Each method has its specific strengths and weaknesses that shall be commented on briefly.

3.1 Checklists

Checklists are mainly designed to be answered or done by parents or early year caretakers. As most parents are not educational professionals a checklist to support them to think about the individual features of their child’s development might be helpful. Moreover such a checklist can initiate communication with the teacher and help to acknowledge talents or weaknesses parents or teachers were not aware of before. Checklists are not designed to give a clear yes or no to the questions whether a child is broadly gifted or narrowly talented but help to become aware of a child’s strengths and weaknesses and may thus stand at the beginning of a careful assessment.

There are many checklists for teachers and parents or caretakers but they must be handled with caution as a gifted child does not necessarily show these “symptoms”.

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3.2 Rating scales

Rating scales are designed more specifically than checklists and usually contain sub- scales such as musical abilities or mathematical knowledge. In 1971 Renzulli and Hartmann designed a rating scale basing on having reviewed literature on gifted children. It contains 37 items and is designed to be done by teachers, additional reading is not required. (compare to George 2003, p. 13)

3.3 Standardized Tests

While rating scales and checklists base on the teacher’s or parent’s observations standardized tests base on how the child himself or herself performs when doing an oral or written test. Standardized tests may be very useful as they can give objective results and thus can encourage teachers and parents either to modify their expectations or to confirm their initial impressions. (George 2003, p. 15) When thinking about standardized tests IQ tests come to our mind immediately. In general children are considered to be highly intelligent when they score 130 IQ points or more. But can intelligence be measured in a scale? Critics claim that IQ tests “rely heavily on the test taker’s performance on a series of rapid fire, short answer or multiple choice questions based largely on the linguistic and mathematical areas. What results is a snapshot of the individual’s capabilities at a precise point under an often stressful situation in a limited range of intellectual abilities.” (George 2003, p.45)

Howard Gardner’s theory about multiple intelligence (Gardner 1983) supports critics in their fear that other abilities besides mathematical or linguistic strengths might be underestimated. As standardized IQ tests mainly rely on mathematical and linguistic competences other strengths of a let us say more narrowly talented child may be easily overseen. A highly musically gifted child must not necessarily show a general high IQ score. Thus it is absolutely necessary that none of the here introduced assessment methods stand alone. Each child deserves a careful

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