Being gifted/nature of this forum

[boongirl]

I would like to start a thread, with the possibility of making it a sticky, that contains not our opinions of what it means to be a gifted child (since this is a parenting board) but rather referenced definitions on being a gifted child and the nature of gifted children. The purpose of this should be for MDC members to be able to learn more about giftedness and related aspects. There is so much debate about what gifted means, in real life and here at mdc, that I merely want to provide parents with a lot of resources they could use to help them understand better what it means to be gifted.

Please do not cut and paste lists. Links to list would be great.

Definitions, in brief, followed by links, would be especially nice.

Brief descriptions of great websites and gifted organizations would be outstanding.


Let's keep this thread as objective as possible. If you disagree with anything posted in it, please do not comment to the poster but rather follow the link to the organization/reference and address your concern to the appropriate parties. Or, PM the poster. But, please leave debate out of this thread.

Thank you

[boongirl]

I will start.

Gifted Child Today (http://www.prufrock.com/client/client_pages/prufrock_jm_giftchild.cfm) is a great magazine and Prufrock Press, its publisher, is a great source for gifted resources.

At that site, Susan K Johnson wrote an article (http://www.prufrock.com/client/client_pages/Definitions_and_Characteristics/Definitions_and_Characteristics_of_Gifted_Students .cfm) about the definition of giftedness in children:

“gifted and talented students” means a child or youth who performs at or shows the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment,

Ms. Johnson has much more to say about the definition of giftedness, all of which has been excerpted from a book edited by her, entitled: Identifying Gifted Students: A Practical Guide
Editor: Susan K. Johnsen, Ph.D.

The Prufrock has much more to offer parents and educators of gifted children, including blogs.

[alegna]

Very brief links- more details another day:

What is gifted- Hoagies
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/identification.htm

American Association for Gifted Children at Duke
http://www.aagc.org/

What is Gifted by National Association for Gifted Children
http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=574

10 Common Gifted Education Myths
http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=569

[boongirl]

Hoagies' Gifted Education Page (http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/index.htm) is a thorough, enormous, and easy to use source of information for both educators and parents.



What is giftedness? There is no universal definition. Some professionals define "gifted" as an intelligence test score above 130, two or more standard deviations above the norm, or the top 2.5%. Others define "gifted" based on scholastic achievement: a gifted child works 2 or more grade levels above his or her age. Still others see giftedness as prodigious accomplishment: adult-level work while chronologically a child. But these are far from the only definitions Most definitions agree: gifted children are a population who have different educational needs, thanks to their unique intellectual development. What we're not so sure of, is how to identify them, and what this different education should look like.

This site also has blogs, boards, and information about gifted conferences. There are also links to Hoagies' pages for kids and teens.

[boongirl]

The Council for Exceptional Children considers gifts and talents to be an area of exceptionality. (http://www.cec.sped.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Gifts_and_Talents&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=37&ContentID=5628)



We suggest that you wrestle with the term in your own way, looking at giftedness as a concept that demands the investment of time, money, and energy. This will help you discuss giftedness more meaningfully with other parents, school administrators, school board members, or anyone who needs to understand the dynamics of the term.

The attempts to define giftedness refer in one way or another to so-called "inborn" attributes, which, for lack of a better term, are called intelligence.

Significant efforts have been made to measure intelligence, but, because the concept is elusive, test constructors simply aim at testing what they feel are typical manifestations of intelligence in behaviors.

We recommend that you do not become bogged down in probing into the concept of intelligence. Its intricacies and mysteries are fascinating, but it must not become a convenient synonym for giftedness.

[boongirl]

The National Association for Gifted Children (http://www.nagc.org) says the following:

The quick response is that there is, as yet, no universally agreed upon answer to this question. Giftedness, intelligence, and talent are fluid concepts and may look different in different contexts and cultures. Even within schools you will find a range of personal beliefs about the word "gifted," which has become a term with multiple meanings and much nuance.

NAGC does not subscribe to any one theory of the nature of human abilities or their origins. We assert that there are children who demonstrate high performance, or who have the potential to do so, and that we have a responsibility to provide optimal educational experiences for talents to flourish in as many children as possible, for the benefit of the individual and the community.

NAGC's own favorite definition is: A gifted person is someone who shows, or has the potential for showing, an exceptional level of performance in one or more areas of expression.

[meemee]

here are some of my favourite links (by the way both sites have a wealth of info so check out the whole site)

http://www.sengifted.org/
(supporting emotional needs of the gifted)

http://www.educationaloptions.com/levels_giftedness.htm
(Dr Deborah Ruf's - Level of Giftedness)

http://www.tasgifted.org.au/
great australian site - has helpful bulletin board too.

hi boongirl u didnt want links with no descriptions. but there is so much info in these sites that i cant really post just little snatches from the page. since my dd's has emotional issues and sensitivity i will look for my fav. sensory processing disorder sites too - even though it strictly isnt a gifted issue but happens with a lot of gifted children and post when i have time.

[boongirl]

The National Research Center on the gifted and talented (http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt.html), headed by Dr. Joseph Renzulli and funded by the Javits Act. (http://www.ed.gov/programs/javits/index.html) defines giftedness as:



Students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities.

[boongirl]

The Council for Exceptional Children has a division just on the topic of gifted children. It is called TAG (http://www.cectag.org/), The Association for the Gifted.


There is also The World Council for Gifted and Talented Children (http://www.worldgifted.ca/index.html). I have visited this site before, when I was teaching, but it won't work for me right now. Probably does not like my emac. If you can access it, they have a lot of valuable information for parents and teachers.

[boongirl]

The Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (http://cty.jhu.edu/index.html)

“CTY will be recognized by students, parents, the education community, and policymakers as the world leader in the education of pre-collegiate students of high academic ability. CTY’s programs will serve all qualified students regardless of their ability to pay.” –– CTY Vision

CTY conducts an annual Talent Search, during which teachers and guidance counselors in over 10,000 schools nominate students from grades two through eight who have scored at or above the 95th percentile on any nationally normed test.

The CTY Talent Search is open to students who have scored in the 95th, 96th, 97th, 98th, or 99th percentile on any reasoning section of their most recent or next-most-recent nationally-normed test. The student only needs one acceptable test or subtest score.

[boongirl]

Just a reminder:

Please refrain from making personal comments in this thread. I would like it to be purely objective and therefore a very useful resource for parents of gifted kids to use this info to make up their own minds about the nature of giftedness. The info and links we provide here should be completely objective, neutral, and devoid of your personal feelings on the nature of giftedness.

Thank you

[meemee]

i dont think i understand what you are trying to do here. who is this sticky for? for people who look at the general gifted term in the 'every child is gifted' outlook? and so are you also including resources for parents with gifted children too.

if that is so then i think it would be easier to create two topics. one simply labeled 'what does being gifted mean' and another 'resources for parents of gifted children', or even 'is your child gifted' - or something like that to cover those who suspect and those who have tested (covering all ages of children). i think one of the questions we will see as more people discover this forum is 'is my child gifted' at 14 months or so or even younger and really there are no expert opinions i can see apart from Dr. Ruf at least that i know of. there are lots of other links which gives suggestions what to look out for - all with a disclaimer that each child is different.

as usual when a forum is created new it will bring in the general view but if i remember right none of them appeared on the gifted topics while it was appearing on the special needs forum. just having a sticky on The Purpose Of This Forum should at least tell visitors what is expected of them in this forum just like they have on the vaccination forum. has anybody decided if this is a no debate forum? i think it should be one. who decides? didnt cynthia mention something about this on one of the posts here?

i see links here appearing under different topics which would be really helpful to me for instance if they were also listed under one heading. and yes boongirl it IS a good idea to have a little explanation apart from just links.

for example something like this link which is not by experts

http://members.tripod.com/%7egleigh/gftskills.htm
good general information on a 30% advancement from the norm for infants to toddlers i think

how do i know if my child is gifted - gives more subtle indicators
http://helendowland.terminus.net.au/How%20do%20i%20know%20if%20my%20child%20is%20gifte d.htm

:shrug: what say ye all?!!!

it seems to me the purpose of the forum should be written asap. who is going to bite the bullet?!!!

[boongirl]

This thread is about the nature of giftedness. The nature of giftedness is synonymous with "what does gifted mean?" Parents who are wondering what gifted means and whether or not they have a gifted child could use this thread to understand the concept of giftedness more and determine which, if any, of the descriptions of giftedness fit their child.

Also, the links could lead parents to discovering more information about giftedness, though not necessarily resources. Resources encompasses more than just the definition of giftedness. Resources are things you use to work with or teach or parent gifted kids. If you want to start a thread about resources for parents/teachers of gifted kids, please do so. I am sure people would find that helpful.

There is so much debate about what gifted means, in real life and here at mdc, that I merely wanted to provide parents with a lot of resources they could use to help them understand better what it means to be gifted.

In my experience, "the purpose of this forum" stickies are generated usually by Cynthia. That is not what this is trying to do.

[alegna]

In my experience, "the purpose of this forum" stickies are generated usually by Cynthia. That is not what this is trying to do.

My understanding is that Cynthia has asked us to do just that.

-Angela

[boongirl]

My understanding is that Cynthia has asked us to do just that.

-Angela

Well then, let's write it!

[alegna]

:thumb

We need a nice statement protecting us as well.... :irked:

-Angela

[meowee]

I always went by the old fashioned definition of giftedness... IQ 130 or above.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gifted

[meemee]

boongirl i have no idea why my second link is not working. it was when i posted that message. i have seen that link also referenced before so i know it is a valid link. maybe they were hacked or something. i'll check in a few more days.

your purpose of the forum looks good. have u asked cynthea to sticky yet? by the way she writes the intro to the forum like she did on teh vaccination one. but yes she did ask us to write the purpose.

angela i think in time the 'attacks' will disappear. what we have to do is really not reply.

what we really need is a moderator right now. once we get that with a bunch of locked threads i think most of the 'attackers' will get the idea. some stragglers will come in... this is a fairly new forum anyways.

meowee once a child is testable age yes it is v. easy to identify. but what about before. what should parents look for. just like sugarmama's "maybe someone here can help me" post and her listing of her child's capacities. there is not much info out there for younger children. i mean the davidson institute allows 4 year old to ask for resources. by that age you should have been writing key milestones down.

http://www.ditd.org/

[Cynthia Mosher]

Yes, I requested that the mothers of gifted children participating in this forum come up with some wording they would like to see posted as a sticky that defines the purpose of the forum. You can do that together and then present me with a final paragraph or two by PM that I will review and edit/add to as I see appropriate.

[WuWei]

I am so confused. I see many links which expound on the definition of giftedness to include:

1. general intellectual ability
2. specific academic aptitude
3. creative or productive thinking
4. leadership ability
5. visual or performing arts
6. psychomotor ability

How did the sticky become so limited in it's definition of giftedness? It seems whoever ended up writing it only wanted the characteristics of their own (intellectually) gifted child to "qualify" and that other exceptionally gifted characteristics to be excluded. This seems quite unfortunate for those of us with "Twice Gifted" children. Or those of us with multiply gifted and multiply exceptional children who may not have been IQ tested (as many of us outside the school system choose not to do).

Pat

[DaryLLL]

Yes. I came to this thread, as directed by boongirl, for more clarity on how the sticky was composed, and see that many above definitions include non-academic giftedness, and other defs insist that defining giftedness is difficult. Yet, members are asked to adhere to the sticky which has a narrow definition, made by a small group.

From links above:

"We suggest that you wrestle with the term in your own way"

"the concept is elusive"

"there is, as yet, no universally agreed upon answer to this question"

"an exceptional level of performance in one or more areas of expression." [not just academics]

"Students... who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity" [not just academics]

[mammal_mama]

This forum has been helping me to connect much of what I see in my six-year-old: intense temperament, sensitive awareness, creativity, physical coordination, and verbal and intellectual abilities. I see it all as part of a much bigger whole -- it's all a part of her higher cognitive functioning. I would like a sticky that presents a bigger picture of extreme giftedness than just the traditionally intellectual picture. High intellect is needed for originality and high performance in ALL pursuits -- be they artistic, musical, or whatever.