Many gifted children go unnoticed in school. Many are identified, but not until the second or third grade. Parents who think their children may be gifted will want to know before that and may want to consider alternate placement options like private preschool programs or early grade acceleration.
Early testing and early identification of giftedness are somewhat controversial, but those in favor of it believe that early is better so that unique talents – as well as unique needs –be acknowledged, supported, and nurtured right from the beginning.
Identifying giftedness is important but it is also important to identify special challenges a gifted child is facing. There might be emotional, social, or behavioral differences that these children exhibit early on. They may be easily distracted and inattentive. They may have trouble focusing. Or they may be focusing to an obsessive degree and ignoring common sense awareness of their surroundings – which is usually a strength.
It is possible that these gifted children may also have disabilities like ADHD or Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) such as Asperger’s Syndrome. Understanding the gifted child as being twice-exceptional (2E) is critical to parents who want to make sure their child is given the proper intervention at school and not misunderstood because of a missed diagnosis.
Is Your Child Gifted?
Until your child can be formally tested, you will have to use your powers of observation and some understanding of certain things to look for that are common among gifted children.
Giftedness is a combination of influences coming from both genetic and environmental factors. Gifted children have advanced cognitive skills and they process information faster than their same-age peers. They pick up on clues, perceive situations, have great awareness, intense focus when self-directed, acquire language skills early, have great working memories, and love to learn new things.
The brains of gifted children tell us something about their advanced abilities. They exhibit a denser than normal network of neural connections that transfer information faster, much like cars on a superhighway. The highway is smoothed by repeated opportunities within the environment to use those neurons as often as possible. Parents who understand this advanced ability will give their children more chances to read or write or take on more difficult challenges and participate in problem-solving activities.
But gifted children are unique and develop in different ways and at different times. They may not want to read at an early age. Albert Einstein didn’t read until age seven, and he learned to speak at a late age. Parents need to observe their children to see where they might be different from other children in some significant way. It might be in some field like art or science or music. It might be in the way they communicate or show leadership.
Here are some areas where parents might be able to identify giftedness in their young children.
Advanced Verbal Abilities
Gifted children may speak in recognizable sentences and understand them earlier than other children who typically do this at age two or later. The vocabulary of gifted children develops very quickly and language skills appear to be very sophisticated as the children approach school age.
Gifted children learn new words easily and begin to speak earlier. They use longer sentences and appropriate grammar. Many of them learn to read before entering school. They are very inquisitive and keep asking questions. Parents hear a lot of “why?” questions along the way. Gifted children can’t get enough information because they are striving for a full understanding of the things they see and hear.
Observing how a gifted child speaks can give very good clues that they are more advanced than other children. They speak in different ways to different audiences, changing their words to fit the situation. They use more mature words when speaking with adults than they would in speaking with their brothers or sisters. They pick up on nuances of speech and understand more than their parents think they do.
Cognitive Strengths and Motivational Learning
All children are curious to some degree, wanting to know the world around them and how they fit in. This comes with time and experience. But gifted children condense the time with a higher level of motivation to learn, spurred on by their love for learning and insatiable appetite for information and explanation. They are like intellectual sponges eager to absorb all that they can.
Gifted students need little direction and little repetitive practice to learn something new. They move through material quickly. They pick up on parental directions and preferences and don’t have to be reminded to do something. They have great memories and abilities to synthesize information and apply it in different situations.
They learn new games quickly but might prefer to read more, especially if the alternative is physical exercise. The feel they can learn more from reading. But when they do play, many gifted children have advanced motor skills and can do well with puzzles, Legos, blocks, or transformer toys.
When interested in a topic, gifted children can remain focused for a long period of time, satisfying their hunger for in-depth information. They may be studying in their own preferred way rather than following a parent’s or teacher’s direction. They may resist moving on to another topic.
They may also abruptly stop what they are doing and change to another topic on their own because they are stimulated by newness and have a general interest in the world at large in all the areas of knowledge that are within their reach.
They are likely to make connections between seemingly disparate subjects. They see the bigger picture and how things relate to each other. They may ask their parents questions that are surprisingly intelligent (and for which the parents may not have answers).
Emotional Intensity, Depth, and Complexity
Gifted children can be very emotional. They are sensitive and feel more deeply than other children. They are hard on themselves and don’t need parents or teachers to admonish them too severely when they do something wrong. They may overreact in an emotional outburst. They strive for perfection and fear failure on their own, which may lead them to withdraw from striving at all – parents can watch for this reaction at home.
Gifted children have empathy for others and have a sense of fair play. They can react emotionally if they feel they – or someone else – is being treated unfairly. They prefer and favor the company of adults or older children with whom they identify with, as well as communicate more easily with. Gifted children often try to speak as fast as they think and are cautioned to “slow down.” They can resent having to slow down in any way and can resent classmates who are too slow.
The possible disabilities noted above can also cause great distress. There are emotional attachments to all of the learning and physical impairments a gifted child may face.
Another observation that can be made at home is related to the gifted child’s love of art and nature. They love sunrise and sunset, flowers, oceans, animals, and trees. Possibly reflecting their creative talent, they tend to appreciate different forms of art like paintings, sculpture, or music.
Parents don’t necessarily need assessments or gifted testing results to identify giftedness in their children, however, it would probably be a good idea once they are in school. But simple observation of these trends and tendencies may be enough to get an early glimpse at home of the great things that will be coming for gifted children.