The idea of this post is to show some characteristics shared by gifted children in their early ages in comparison of other children. For doing that I have found an article whose objective is to examine and compare the different development characteristics of gifted children during the preschool period in relation to the other students.
To get started, it is important to know that the development of each child is unique. However, gifted children have developmental differences in comparison with average children in physical, cognitive, linguistic and social/emotional areas (Bildiren, 2017).
I think that it is very important to know how to identify these characteristics in order to look for the best school plan for their educational needs. If they are not correctly identified or they are ignored, as Naila mentioned in her post (ACCELERATION: More than grade skipping) it is possible that children lose their interest in school because they get bored and therefore losing their potential to learn.
The main characteristics of gifted children mentioned by their parents in the study are:
In the 0-2 age period:
Differences in perception in comparison with non-gifted children (e.g. interest in the outside world, curiosity)
Early walking
Early talking (e.g. use more words, have larger vocabulary, perceive better what is said and asked of them)
In the 2-4 age period:
Perception (e.g. they perceive a new situation very fast)
Early reading and use of computer and abstract thinking characteristics (only some of them)
In the 4-6 age period:
Early reading and writing (e.g. they learnt how to read and write by themselves, without their parents help)
Mathematical ability (e.g. solve math problems alone)
When they evaluated the findings of the three groups, they found that the common characteristics are perception, memory, wonder, painting skill and behaviours that are more mature than their ages (Bildiren, 2017).
To accompany these findings, I also found a video where parents of different gifted children explain their experiences and mention some of the above characteristics. Moreover, it appears an educational psychologist that talk about the importance of identifying a gifted child to get a formal assessment when approaching school age.
What do you think about these characteristics, it is important to identify them correctly? Do you know others?
Bibliography:
Ahmet Bildiren (2017): Developmental characteristics of gifted children aged 0–6 years: parental observations, Early Child Development and Care, DOI: 10.1080/03004430.2017.1389919
Raising Children Network. (2018, març 27). Gifted and talented children: signs and identification. [Vídeo]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpvXe6dsb5M
Judit Capell
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