Kids & Parenting

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Childhood Giftedness
Part II
Characteristics and Prevalence
© 2015

by

Stephen A. Peterson


In Part I, a brief history and identification of giftedness was covered. Part II will cover the characteristics and prevalence of childhood giftedness.

CHARACTERISTICS

Giftedness has been defined by childhood behaviorists as a complex human condition that have been found to cover a wide range of talents, abilities and traits. What is generally agreed upon is the various definitions of giftedness is both an academic as well as a social construct that varies from culture to culture, from society to society. In high technological societies, abstract skills are generally more highly valued. Abstract skills are also referred as thinking skills such as being able to solve mathematical problems quickly, recall a chemical formula once it is explained, or being able to envision a bridge before it is built. Societies, such as agricultural, hunting and gathering or pastoral, often referred as low technological societies, tend to value one’s use of muscle and manual skills over one’s abstract skills.

Some children exhibit mastery in areas that do not match societal stereotypes. These children may not be exceptional in academic, but they may have special abilities in areas such as sports, dance, music, the arts or leadership. Gifted individuals are found across race, gender, culture, linguistic variations and may be among persons with disabilities as well. Individuals behaviorists considered gifted include the following:

• Those able to rapidly acquire, retain, recall and use usually large amounts of information.
• Those able to relate one idea to another.
• Those able to make sound judgments.
• The ability to perceive the operation of large systems and structures that most cannot recognize.
• The ability to acquire then manipulate abstract symbols in a rapid manner.
• The ability to solve problems by reframing questions then creating new and/or different solutions.
Creativity

Central to identifying giftedness is their ability to be creative beyond what is usually observed. Creative and insightful individuals make discoveries and inventions that generally change society for the good or bad. Talking to many parents/caregivers over the years, each expresses a notion that the know creativity when they see it. Yet, as of 2015 with nearly one hundred of studying human creativity, there remains no unified theory with respect to human intelligence or human creativity.

Joseph P. Guilford, in his article “Creativity and it cultivation (1989), spent roughly 30 years studying creativity among children, adolescents and adults. He described what he found as “cognitive creative behavior” or “divergent production” being:

• Fluency—Creative persons are able to produce many ideas in a brief period with a multitude of solutions.
• Flexibility—Creative persons create a variety of ideas, unusual ideas with a multitude of solutions.
• Novelty—Creative persons create unique, precise words with precise responses that are novel.
• Elaboration—Creative persons are able to provide precise detail.
• Analyzing Ability—Creative persons are able to organize ideas into larger, inclusive patterns.
• Ability to Re-organize or Redefine Existing Ideas—Creative persons are able to transform an existing object, pattern into one of different design, functional or uses.
• Complexity—Creative persons have the ability to unify many parts of ideas into one then make it operational.

Challenges

Although many gifted children become gifted adults who become physicians, lawyers, great artists and performers, many more do not. In a socio-cultural environment, many more fail to achieve expected potential. A critical phase in the lives of every school age child is their interest in school. Research for nearly sixty years, find children’s’ interests in school is highest between kindergarten and third grade. It is also during this period, many children’s’ is lost. This is especially the case for gifted children.

Gifted children require the cooperation of teachers, administrators and parents/caregivers in order for these children to be successful in school, in the main. The key is for gifted child to receive curricula that will challenge their information processing skills, their ability to retain information and to do so at a rapid rate. When this not available to gifted children, they become often disruptive behavior problems in the classroom, even drop out of school in the later years. Gifted children are truly our forgotten children to this day. Neglect in our schools and ignored by policy makers, their abilities and their needs misunderstood, many gifted children attempt to make the best of their situations. In order to reverse these trends, it is necessary for parent(s)/caregiver(s) to become involved and advocates for their gifted child’s education.


PREVALENCE:

The number or percent of children found to be gifted is not clear. The National Association for Gifted Children estimate that there are 3 million gifted children in K through 12 representing roughly 3 to 5 percent of the childhood population in the United States (2014). These figures were based on results of intelligence testing. However, if student regarded as highly talented in the arts, sports and other non-academic endeavors are included estimates for the prevalence of giftedness can range as high as 15% to 20% of the total school age population (National Association of Gifted Children, 2014).

Children in non-academic programs were found to be the most underserved youth in American education. These children are often ignored and their skills and talents never realized. Schools, teachers, policy makers mostly concentrate their efforts on bringing up the lowest achieving students. The highest achieving students are left to get along as best they are able. These conditions are as a result of teacher shortages, funding as we as ignorance on the part of administrators and policy makers to the needs of these children.

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