Exceptionalities - Gifted

Recognizing the Characteristics of Gifted Children
from the Rhode Island State Advisory Committee on Talented and Gifted Children Website
The ERIC Clearinghouse on Handicapped and Gifted Children (1985) cites three types of characteristics of gifted children: general behavioral, learning, and creative characteristics.

General Behavior Characteristics
Gifted children's behavior differs from that of their age-mates in the following ways:

• Many gifted children learn to read early, with better comprehension of the nuances of language. As much as half the gifted and talented population has learned to read before entering school.
• Gifted children often read widely, quickly, and intensely and have large vocabularies.
• Gifted children commonly learn basic skills better, more quickly, and with less practice.
• They are better able to construct and handle abstractions.
• They often pick up and interpret nonverbal cues and can draw inferences that other children need to have spelled out for them.
• They take less for granted, seeking the "hows" and "whys."
• They can work independently at an earlier age and can concentrate for longer periods.
• Their interests are both wildly eclectic and intensely focused.
• They often have seemingly boundless energy, which sometimes leads to a misdiagnosis of hyperactivity.
• They usually respond and relate well to parents, teachers, and other adults.
• They may prefer the company of older children and adults to that of their peers.
• They like to learn new things, are willing to examine the unusual, and are highly inquisitive.
• They tackle tasks and problems in a well-organized, goal-directed, and efficient manner.
• They exhibit an intrinsic motivation to learn, find out, or explore and are often very persistent. "I'd rather do it myself" is a common attitude.

Learning Characteristics
Gifted children are natural learners who often show many of these characteristics:

• They may show keen powers of observation and a sense of the significant; they have an eye for important details.
• They may read a great deal on their own, preferring books and magazines written for children older than they are.
• They often take great pleasure in intellectual activity.
• They have well-developed powers of abstraction, conceptualization, and synthesis.
• They readily see cause-effect relationships.
• They often display a questioning attitude and seek information for its own sake as much as for its usefulness.
• They are often skeptical, critical, and evaluative.
• They are quick to spot inconsistencies.
• They often have a large storehouse of information about a variety of topics, which they can recall quickly.
• They readily grasp underlying principles and can often make valid generalizations about events, people, or objects.
• They quickly perceive similarities, differences, and anomalies.
• They often attack complicated material by separating it into components and analyzing it systematically.

Creative Characteristics
Gifted children's creative abilities often set them apart from their age-mates. These characteristics may take the following forms:

• Gifted children are fluent thinkers, able to generate possibilities, consequences, or related ideas.
• They are flexible thinkers, able to use many different alternatives and approaches to problem solving.
• They are original thinkers, seeking new, unusual, or unconventional associations and combinations among items of information. They can also see relationships among seemingly unrelated objects, ideas, or facts.
• They are elaborate thinkers, producing new steps, ideas, responses, or other embellishments to a basic idea, situation, or problems.
• They are willing to entertain complexity and seem to thrive on problem solving.
• They are good guessers and can readily construct hypotheses or "what if" questions.
• They often are aware of their own impulsiveness and irrationality, and they show emotional sensitivity.
• They are extremely curious about objects, ideas, situations, or events.
• They often display intellectual playfulness and like to fantasize and imagine.
• They can be less intellectually inhibited than their peers are in expressing opinions and ideas, and they often disagree spiritedly with others' statements.
• They are sensitive to beauty and are attracted to aesthetic values.

Unexpected Characteristics of Gifted/Creative Children
from The National Foundation for Gifted and Creative Children Website

A. High sensitivity
B. Excessive amounts of energy.
C. Bores easily and may appear to have a short attention span.
D. Requires emotionally stable and secure adults around him/her.
E. Will resist authority if it not democratically oriented.
F. Have preferred ways of learning; particularly in reading and mathematics.
G. May become easily frustrated because of his/her big ideas and not having the resources or people to assist him/her in carrying these tasks to fruition.
H. Learns from an exploratory level and resists rote memory and just being a listener.
I. Cannot sit still unless absorbed in something of his/her own interest.
J. Very compassionate and has many fears such as death and loss of loved ones.
K. If they experience failure early, may give up and develop permanent learning blocks.

Gifted children may also withdraw when they feel threatened or alienated and may sacrifice their creativity in order to "belong". Many children that we test exhibit a high IQ, but they often exhibit "frozen" creativity as well. Often there is an ability to express their feelings initially. We work to assist the child to become open, flexible and to be able to accept failure by developing higher frustration levels.

Miles' Giftedness
Miles is smart. Very smart. He wants to enter the military academy on Barrayar and knows that his academic exams must make up for his problems on the physical tests. Barrayar has no equal opportunity for people with physical disabilities.

Although Miles does not make it into the Academy his first try (he breaks both legs on the obstacle course) he is subsequently let in by Imperial order. Unfortunately, this smacks of nepotism and makes it even more difficult to be accepted on his own terms.

Through his life experience he becomes a tactical genius in covert (undercover) operations and he has a special talent for picking personnel. His boss, Simon Illyan, Chief of Imperial Security, isn't sure if the talent is merely spotting who is perfect for the job or in making that someone perfect for the job. Ah well, whether in the recognizing or making, Miles is good at what he does. Unfortunately, he takes the position that any order worth doing is worth exceeding! He has a terrible time with authority, which can be a problem for someone in the military, as you might well imagine.

Links to other Gifted Sites

National Association for Gifted Children

The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented

Gifted Child

 

Other Miles' Exceptionality Pages

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