My Child is Intelligent, but how can I Determine if he/She is "Gifted"?
There is a clear distinction between an intelligent child and a "gifted" child. A "gifted” Child is identified by an outstanding result in an Intelligence Test. An Educational or Clinical Psychologist usually conducts this test.
A gifted child has the potential to achieve highly both at school and throughout life. There can be social and behavioral implications to be considered by the parents of a "Gifted" child.
Children "gifted" with very high intelligence are usually identified by intelligence tests, and an outstanding result on an intelligence test implies a potential to achieve highly both at school and in adulthood.
Whether or not this potential is realized depends partly on factors such as persistence and motivation, which in turn can be influenced by what is experienced in the school or at home. For instance, very intelligent children can sometimes be so bored with the work of the normal classroom, that they develop disruptive behaviour and stop achieving at their true level, or even stop achieving at all. A gifted child might become the class clown, or the leader of a group of young miscreants, or in some cases, become very lonely and depressed and the butt of teasing and bullying.
Although gifted children are in the minority in most schools, it is a mistake to believe that all gifted children can cope without help, so to cater for their special needs should be an important part of every school's curriculum. Schools should provide opportunities for gifted children to be stimulated in their academic work, whether this is by extension work for individual children, extension work for a small group of gifted children, or withdrawal programs for whole classes. Radical acceleration for an individual child is not favoured by teachers or by most experts in the field, since it can bring social and emotional problems, but acceleration in a group (as in some Melbourne state secondary schools) is usually very successful.
The most common problem in the home is when parents, in their anxiety to do the best for their gifted child, build too much importance into "giftedness", so that the child is forever striving to live up to the expectation of gifted behaviour. Again, often the child stops achieving altogether, because the struggle is too great. In extreme cases, the child believes that the parents' love is dependent on his/her giftedness, which often leads to extravagant "gifted" behaviour, making the child unpopular both with the parents, and at school.
The problems arising with gifted children are never caused by their "giftedness" per se, but by the attitudes and behaviour surrounding them. For assessment of intelligence, for uncovering problems at home and at school, for counseling distraught parents and for giving advice to teachers regarding ways to alleviate problems, it is necessary to consult a psychologist trained and experienced in dealing with gifted children.
