What is giftedness?

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Giftedness is involuntary - a natural gift. It gives no cause for claims of elitism.

Out of every hundred children, approximately five can be classified as "gifted", yet only a small proportion may be identified as such in school.

Some may be very lonely because their interests do not match those of their peers. They may have difficulties at school because of their unconventional behaviour and questioning attitude. They can become distressed through frustration and boredom, or through imbalance between their intellectual and emotional development. They may deny their intelligence and underachieve so as to become more acceptable to their peers. They may become troublemakers.

We need to recognise and cater for gifted children to ensure this does not happen.

The following are some signs of giftedness :

an early interest in surroundings super-sensitivity to surroundings strong curiosity and powers of observation an extensive vocabulary an exceptional memory may talk early and fluently the ability to read early - often self-taught can choose to concentrate for long periods the propensity to ask shrewd/unusual questions the ability to grasp ideas quickly a "quirky" sense of humour

Eligibility for Joining a branch of the NZAGC

Parents/guardians may personally recommend that their children be eligible for membership. They must provide details to the Membership Secretary with their application, showing why they consider their child is gifted.

Guidelines

Some formalised testing that indicates the child is working or able to work at or above the 95th percentile; e.g. school reports or tests, extra-curricular activities, etc.

Specific information about the child's learning, social behaviour or development indicating ability in the gifted category, e.g. reading well at three years of age.

Examples of the child's work, e.g. writing, art, maths.

The ability to competently handle cirricula standards set for an age two years or more above the child's age.

An educational psychologist's report. Click here for some specialists.

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Other Sites

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The following links provide further information about identifying gifted children.

Characteristics of Giftedness Scale:
http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/Articles/Characteristics_Scale.htm - a review of literature on a method for determining giftedness which has been developed specifically for parents by the Gifted Development Centre in America.

Identification of Gifted Children:
http://www.nswagtc.org.au/info/identification/index.html - a comprehensive article by the New South Wales Association for Gifted and Talented Children, which includes definitions of giftedness, references to research papers, and characteristic traits.

Definition of Giftedness:
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/giftedness_and_gifted.html - an ERIC digest.

Characteristics of Creative/Gifted Children:
http://www.nfgcc.org/character.htm - a checklist of some characteristics of gifted children put out by the NFGCC (National Foundation for Gifted and Creative Children).

Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness:
http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~nrcgt/sem/semart04.html - a system used to screen students for gifted and talented programmes,by the director of the National Research Centre on Gifted and Talented at the University of Connecticut, J.S. Renzulli.

Discovering Mathematical Talent:
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/math_talent.html - an ERIC digest.