09/25/98

Identifying Gifted Children

The 1980 Connecticut General Statute, Section 10-76a-2, defines "gifted and talented" as follows:

A child identified by the PPT (Planning and Placement Team) as:

1. possessing demonstrated or potential abilities that give evidence of very superior intellectual, creative or specific academic capability, and

2. needing differentiated instruction or services beyond those being provided in the regular school program in order to realize their intellectual, creative or specific academic potential. The term shall include children with extraordinary learning ability and children with outstanding talent in the creative arts as defined by these regulations.

"Children can be extremely gifted in music or art without having exceptional overall IQs. The best evidence for giftedness operating independently of IQ comes from savants, individuals with extremely low IQs who are nonetheless able to perform at dazzling levels in a few well-structured, formal domains, notably calculation, piano playing, realistic drawing and chess."

The U.S. Office of Gifted and Talented provides the following characterization of gifted preschoolers (age 2-5):

• Uses advanced vocabulary for age
• Has the ability to make interesting or unusual shapes or patterns through various media: blocks, play dough, crayons.
• Has the ability to assemble puzzles designed for older children.
• Uses a sense of humor used in general conversation.
• Understands abstract concepts such as death and time.
• Masters of new skills with little repetition.
• Demonstrates advanced physical skills.
• Demonstrates advanced reasoning skills through explanation of occurrences.

Factors commonly used to identify gifted children in schools include:

• Grades
• Teacher nomination
• Achievement test scores
• Intelligence tests
• Parental nomination (highly reliable yet used less often)
• Self or peer nomination

Other considerations related to identification of gifted students:

• Children from poor socio-economic backgrounds and/or minority racial backgrounds are significantly less likely to be identified as gifted in school-based screening programs.
• Children most likely to be nominated are compliant, hard workers who rarely challenge the teacher's authority.
• The extremely bright or the creative, curious and questioning students, who may be stubborn, rule-breaking, egotistical or otherwise high in nuisance value, may not be the teachers' favorites, but they sometimes are the most gifted.
• Giftedness and eligibility for gifted programs may not be synonymous. Eligibility can change from year to year for the same child, even though the child's talents remain the same.

Many school districts have eliminated special programs for gifted students. In Connecticut, even if a student is identified as gifted via the PPT process, the schools are not required to provide a special program for that student.

Please send questions or comments to bbruno@snet.net.