Is My Child Gifted?

I’ve often heard this question from parents!  Most gifted children are flying “under the radar” and seem relatively normal in their natural habitat.  Perhaps a teacher or friend has suggested there is something unusual about this kid that warrants investigation.  Maybe the parent has observed a “spark” of brilliance during certain activities.  We won’t know unless we test them, so let’s test them!  Sometimes, however, it is pretty obvious that a child should be tested.  For example, one kindergarten teacher summoned me in a panic to observe a young lady in her class.  It was the first week of kindergarten, and she was teaching the children to identify the shape and sound of various letters.  However, when she had them sit at her feet to read them a story, this little girl would read the whole paragraph on the next page when she showed them the illustration!  Another child in my program asked her parents for a calculator two weeks before she started first grade and used it to teach herself multiplication.  Her reasoning was that she would now be on the big kids’ playground, and it would be so embarrassing if a fourth grader asked her a multiplication problem, and she didn’t know the answer!  My favorite example though, is a family that came to me to see if their daughter should be in a gifted first grade program.  Not only was she reading fluently by the time she was three, she had written and published a book when she was four.  I still had to test her, but the high score in verbal was no surprise at all!

It is impossible to determine for sure whether a child qualifies for the “gifted” label without giving them certain assessments, but there are certainly some indicators that would hint at the probable testing outcome.  Here are some questions to consider when trying to decide whether to nominate your child (or your student) for gifted testing.

• Does this child catch on very quickly compared to other children of the same age? A gifted child can usually comprehend a new concept with 1-3 repetitions; an average child usually requires 8-12.
• Does this kid laugh at your jokes? Gifted children tend to be more sophisticated in their appreciation of plays on words and more quick to understand satire than their age-mates.
• Does this child seek out conversations with adults and older children? When I had playground duty, there was a kid who would come chat with me during recess about current events, school activities, the satirical sayings on his t-shirt, etc.  I nominated him for gifted testing—and he qualified!  Gifted children are hungry for stimulating conversations with others…..but the kids their own age often don’t share the interests and information base that they have, so they turn to older individuals for companionship.
• Does this child have a very long attention span for things that interest him/her? Does he/she have expert knowledge in an area of special interest? It is not unusual for me to learn a great deal about dinosaurs, the history of soccer, the customs of lizards, the Marvel Universe, etc. when talking with a young gifted child.  They develop special interests and soak up every detail about that topic like sponges.
• Is this child one of the youngest in the grade? Or, if they are hanging out with older kids, would it be hard to identify them as younger?  Gifted children can often function academically at a level 2-3 years above their grade.  Contrariwise, does the child have areas in which he/she functions far below the level he/she usually achieves?  Gifted children are extremely asynchronous in their development:  It is not unusual for a gifted child to be able to compute math problems several grades above his age group, discuss global warming as knowledgably as an adult, and break down in tears because he can’t locate his favorite pencil.
• Is this child extremely intense? A gifted child can become so engrossed in an activity that he/she won’t stop for meals, sleep, etc.  He/she may not be able to stand having labels in clothing or loud noises.  He/she can be very dramatic and emotional, too, perhaps crying in class because of one or two missed answers on a quiz or falling apart because he/she can’t understand a new concept.  I know one little boy who didn’t like the first day of kindergarten and determined he wouldn’t go back.  He had to be dragged into class the rest of the week, pretended to be sick, pretended to sleep in class, and even wet his pants so he would be sent home.  After all that, he decided that school wasn’t so bad after all and became a model citizen.

If these questions and anecdotes sound familiar, do consider getting your child tested for gifted services.  Remember that scores  of 97% or higher in one of the three areas (verbal, quantitative, and non-verbal) would qualify the child for gifted services.  Even if your child doesn’t qualify, you will have the knowledge of where his/her academic strengths lie and how your chld’s strengths compare to other children of the same age.  And, if he/she does qualify, then you have the option of requesting gifted services to help personalize his/her learning.