Gifted and Talented Children Flashcards
What is the agreed upon definition of gifted children? How did this definition evolve?
Lewis Terman (1925), in a classic study on the development of intelligence, followed the development of more than 1500 children who scored genius range of intelligence. From his findings and others, an agreed on definition of giftedness has evolved.
Gifted children are those who demonstrate achievement or potential in any of the following areas, singly or in combination:
i) General intellectual ability (high IQ or achievement test scores)
ii) Specific academic aptitude (excellence in certain subject areas such as mathematics or science)
iii) Creative or productive thinking (the ability to discover new things and find new alternatives, the ability to look at life in new ways)
iv) Leadership ability (the ability to help solve problems)
v) Visual or performing arts (talents in art, music, dance, drama and related disciplines)
vi) Psychomotor ability (excellence in sports).
Do gifted children belong to a particular race?
Gifted children come from all levels of society, all races and all ethnic groups.
What are the options of education of gifted children and why?
Gifted children process information differently than non-gifted children. Options for educating gifted children include early admission to school, acceleration and enrichment.
What are the difficulties experienced by gifted children?
Some gifted children may have trouble in social adjustment and may also show emotional disturbances. They may also feel boredom with regular curriculum. High development rates may be perceived by other children as showoff.
If the talent of some gifted children is not nurtured and developed through guidance and enrichment, it will be a great loss to society as well as the individual who might have a successful and happy life otherwise.
Short notes on Enrichment for gifted children?
Enrichment is an attempt to broaden a child’s knowledge by a variety of methods.
It refers to the attempts made by the teacher within the classroom setting to add depth, detail and challenges to the curriculum for students at a given age.
Special activities may be provided like independent study with advanced text or independent small projects.
To be successful enrichment activities need a purpose and specified outcomes. These activities should be well planned and organised keeping in view the talent of the student and his maturity level; otherwise these will be boring and useless
to the children.
Role of Teacher for gifted students?
i) Teacher should readily provide resource materials like reference books and computers.
ii) Allow students to express their interests in the subject being taught in the class
iii) Students who have done extra research on subjects should be allowed to display it to others.
iv) Divergent thinkers should be allowed to speak and add to the class discussion. Then guide them to find more information.
v) Guests speakers may be called on to speak on a subject of particular interest
vi) Praise and encourage novel ideas and ways of completing assignments
vii) Student may be allowed to go to advanced classes, when the subject of his interest has been taught, where he had already excelled by self-study.
viii) Arrange the reading materials in the libraries to be used by the students
ix) Provide training to the artistic talents like music and painting or other arts.
x) Ensure that the gifted and talented student has a firm grasp of the core material as well as the enrichment curricula.
Integration short notes:
What?
During the past few centuries, schooling and educating the exceptional children have seen a movement of inclusion the children with problems (physical, behavioural,
social, perceptual, learning or intellectual) in the same classroom and school settings with their peers.
Why?
Integration is a process of providing equal opportunities to all the children by equalising and mainstreaming, thus eradicating the pain caused by exclusion.
How?
The assumption behind the integrated schooling is that of the refining instructional procedures to such a limit that they can be made suitable to each and every student’s needs. Secondly, while exceptional children learn and are educated with the normal children, their needs may be fulfilled by individualised instruction programs, providing the equipments and materials as per their requirements. The teacher must be sensitive
to the abilities and disabilities of children and trained to attend various problems in school children.
