Accelerated Development - as a research area…
- not had as much attention as other areas of atypical
England - ‘gifted’ and ‘talented’
- registers both - attracting funding?
- schools are encouraged to identify children that are gifted and talented –> intellect, arts and sport
- developing guidelines for teaching gifted and talented children
> giving a label - people can give support?
problem - reserv lists - what if you aren’t in the top 5?
what is the effect of this?
Accelerated Development - not as much of a easy ride as people think?
IT IS just as challenging and difficult when you are above your peers academically
- not the same intellectual level - problems socially and emotionally?
- may not want to interact if you aren’t on the same level
- we normally choose friends who are on similar levels
- potential serious problems in childhood - bullying, isolation etc
History of Intelligence testing
- Darwin
- theory of evolution
- individuals of a species differ from each other
History of Intelligence testing
- Galton
- looking at Darwin’s work
- if this applies to animals, how does it apply to humans?
- most intelligent humans - naturally rise to the top?
- positions achieved in society due to our intelligence levels?
- intelligence - inbuilt / innate features
- discovered that talent ran in families
- devised and distributed questionnaires
- ran twin studies too - similarities found, supporting his belief in the influence of nature on intellect
History of Intelligence testing
- Problems with Galton
Talent running in families
- due to the opportunities people had instead?
- finances to go and get educated?
- the environment you are in mainly helping out for this rather than being purely innate
History of Intelligence testing
- Binet
- no pre-conceived definition of intelligence
- challenge - psychological and educational
- compulsory education in France - investigating this
- using AGE - subnormal children could be defined in terms of how far they were behind in years
- level that a child scored at - mental age
- caveats to IQ testing
- scores - not defining, used to detect mentally retarded children
Developing these tests to help people!
History of Intelligence testing
- Terman
- Stanford-Binet test
- ignored caveats - can determine range of abilities
- single numbers can represent the level of intelligence that an individual
- IQ = mental age / chronological age x 100
- amount of deviation from mean score = amount of advancement or delay in development
Assessing what they have rather than Binet’s original thought of what someone needs!
Terminology of Intelligence
Intelligence, IQ etc - all entered into everyday language
- clever, retarded, dumb etc - commonly heard
- issue of labelling again - can be used as insults? or praise? or attention-seeking?
IQ ranges
120-110 - superior intelligence 110-90 - normal or average intelligence 90-80 - dullness 80-70 - borderline deficiency 69-50 - moron or defective 49-20 - imbecile below 20 - idiot
Defining intelligence - what is and is not…
HIGHLY debated topic!
- what can be classified as ability
- what isn’t classified as ability
Nature vs nurture debate - how much is genetics, how much is environment
Defining Intelligence - different proposed ideas
G or S intelligence - Spearman
- general or specific intelligences for certain functions
Emotional intelligence
Multiple intelligences
Entity or incremental
- over the lifespan or do we build it up over?
- are we born with it all or do we develop it?
–> what is the impact of this in how we treat gifted and retarded children??
Following up on gifted children
- Joan Freeman (2013)
- follow-up study
- LT effects of families and educational provision on gifted children
- major difference - those labelled gifted had significantly more emotional problems than either of the matched control groups
- by mid 40’s - high scholastic achievements had not reliably delivered outstanding life success
- BUT - overall, the higher the intelligence, the more successful the individuals were likely to be as adults
Vital aspects of recognisable success, whether gifted or not –> hard work, emotional support and a positive personal outlook
Correlations with perfectionism and high intellect
- may disengage?
- feel as if they don’t have to put the work in
- ‘safety blanket’ of high intellect
Misconceptions about gifted children
- Eklund et al (2015)
Identifying emotional and behaviour risk among gifted and non-gifted children
Significant differences found:
- parents and teachers identified a higher number of boys and non-gifted children at risk
- children demonstrating emotional and behaviour risk - gifted demonstrated elevated internalising behaviour
- suggestion - higher cognitive abilities may be a protective factor –> gifted children demonstrated higher academic performance regardless of risk
Misconceptions about gifted children
- Eklund et al (2015) - AFTER THOUGHTS
- doesn’t quite corroborate with what we would have thought….
- BUT - it does sow that there are similarities between gifted and non-gifted children - DO WE REALLY NEED TO KEEP DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN THE TWO?
Childhood behaviour is so complex
- inter-rater differences found here
- continual need for multiple informants of childhood behaviours!
Misconceptions about gifted children
- Schectman and Silektor (2012)
Israeli study - compared the social and emotional difficulties of gifted children in comparison to non-gifted children
Gifted:
- higher on - need fulfilment, empathy, academic self-concept and lack of emotional anxiety
- lower on - self-disclosure and physical self-concept
- most variables - scored similarly
- need fulfilment - linked to loneliness
- gifted children - not very different from non-gifted
- still some differences on BOTH sides but nothing major pulling the 2 groups away from each other
- specifics that need to be worked on which is the same for most groups studied!
Asynchronous development…
- hallmark of highly able children
- uneven standards of intellectual, physical and emotional maturity
- e.g - child may have the intellectual ability of a 10 year old but the emotional maturity of a 6 year old
- unfair advantage sometimes?
> intellectual advantage but may not have the same emotional maturity!
Identification
- ability is not always easy to spot
- revolving door of opportunity?
> need to constantly provide opportunities
> has to be wide and diverse
US - Specific streams for gifted and talented children
- for example, Ohio
- all public schools are required to identify gifted students in kindergarten through to the 12the grade
- superior cognitive ability - 2SDs above the mean or above 95th percentile
- specific academic ability in a field - performing in the 95th percentile
- creative thinking ability - scores 1SD above above the means
- visual or performing arts ability - demonstrating to a trained individual
Standardised Tests available
Cognitive Abilities Test Woodcock-Johnson-III (WJIII) Weschler-Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV) ACT test, Scholastic Aptitude test EXPLORE test
What IQ score from standardised test qualifies a student for gifted services?
130-140
National Association for Gifted Children - USA
- tests and assessments
Common assessment tools for identification BUT SHOULD NOT SERVE as the sole source of information!
- tests - often exclude certain groups - English Language Learners (ELLs), disabled or from low-income backgrounds
- multiple assessments (both objective and subjective( - best way to ensure that no gifted learned is overlooked!
Challenges that testing brings…
- Card & Giuliano (2015)
Longstanding concern about gifted education in the US in the under-representation of minorities and economically disadvantaged groups
Standard process - based on referrals from parents and teachers
- what about children who don’t have the same opportunities / access to this (money!)
- may be equally as gifted but just not have the access
Introduce a universal screening programme?
- led to large increases in the fractions of economically disadvantaged and minority students placed in gifted programs
–> parents and teachers often fail to recognise the potential of poor and minority students and those with limited English proficiency
Challenges that testing brings…
- Grantham & Ford
Case study of Danisha - qualitative report
- 15 year old, African-American female 9th grader
- from minority background
- immediately started underachieving - felt disconnected from her own community and the one she was trying to join!
SHOWS:
- we should just identify and put into programmes
- we need to help people transition/settle into them!
