The percentage of children who qualify as being considered gifted is dependent upon the measure which is being used. Estimates of those who are enrolled into gifted programs place the number of gifted students, in the United States, as falling between three and four million. More rigorous measures would tend to produce more conservative estimates of this population.
Regardless of the actual numbers of gifted children, however, it can be agreed that gifted children are a minority. And, as a minority, it is important that their unique needs be properly accounted for. One way to support gifted children in achieving their best life experience is through dispelling some of the common, and incorrect, stereotypes which surround them.
Myth #1: They Are Good at Everything
Asynchrony describes the obtainment of certain milestones, while missing some corresponding components. Gifted children can often struggle with asynchrony while in the classroom. Your gifted daughter may be completing advanced level computations, but still be struggling with forming a complete sentence for her language arts assignments.
Your musical prodigy may practice penmanship skills akin to a kindergartner, or your avid reader may feel dismayed at simple arithmetic. Unrealistic expectations of parents and teachers in regard to overall mastery can become a source of frustration and discouragement for the gifted child.
As if the possibility of excelling at one academic topic while struggling with others isn’t enough, gifted children are also prone toward lagging behind their peers in matters of social and emotional development.
While the gifted child’s nose is buried in a book, their age-group peers are busy learning the nuances and unspoken rules which dictate social success. The gifted child can become particularly aware of this asynchronous difficulty during the adolescent years, which is the period when they begin to be vulnerable to the presence – or absence – of social acceptance.
Myth #2: They Don’t Need Any Assistance
While independent learning is certainly a hallmark of the gifted child, the reliance on his or her abilities as a self-directed learner can be devastatingly overextended. As mentioned in the previous myth, being gifted doesn’t mean that all tasks are considered equal.
In addition to often requiring direct intervention in regard to social learning and academic areas outside of expertise, a gifted child can also struggle with maintaining vision and motivation. In the absence of focus, the intensity which drives a gifted child onward can end up being directed toward less desirable pursuits, even resulting in problems such as depression and delinquency.
Myth #3: Advancing Gifted Students Is Bad for Their Development
When encountering arguments for not advancing a gifted student to further grade levels, the most common point made is regarding the potential of negative impact on social development. It is argued that placing a child in an environment outside of his or her own age group will contribute to social awkwardness. If you have been paying attention, thus far, you will already be able to spot the error in this assumption.
For the gifted child, academic peer relation is more important than age peer relation. Being around those of a more mature emotional state – combined with the possessing of cognitive prowess which enables academic relation – can actually assist the gifted child toward becoming more comfortable in his or her own skin. This phenomenon is often what leads a gifted child toward preference of hanging out with adults over socializing with kids of their own age.
Myth #4: All Gifted Children Get Good Grades
It is often the case that academic concepts come easily, and naturally, to a gifted child. As such, they are often identified, in the early years of elementary school, by their top scores on report cards. Many parents and teachers are later dismayed when witnessing a gifted student’s decline in these objective forms of assessment.
There are a multitude of reasons why a gifted child may not be performing according to expected academic standards. A gifted child can become accustomed to the ease by which knowledge is gained, and simply give up when the going gets too tough. A gifted child can forsake academics – in the intense manner in which other pursuits are invoked – for the purpose of exploring social dynamics.
A gifted child who is suffering from depression may see no logical reason to bother with classwork, or a precocious, gifted, child may decide to challenge norms by rebelling against the conventions of standardized measures of academic success.
Myth #5: They Are Role Models for Average Children
There is often the idea that placing a gifted child within a group of less-intellectual peers will assist the entire group in achieving academic success. In reality, this arrangement can be stressful for all involved. The gifted child ends up taking on an isolated role, while the average students simply dismiss the idea of comparison.
There is a learning concept which asserts that, in order for optimal learning to take place, the standards must only be set a few degrees higher than what has already been obtained. The basis for this concept is that we need prior knowledge to be established before adding onto it.
For the child who is gifted, the foundational pieces of the learning puzzle have likely been established for quite some time, and asking them to recall – and transmit – such foundations to their average peers is over-burdensome. Likewise, expecting average students to catch up, without those basic pieces already in place, is like asking them to fly to the moon.
Myth #6: All Children Are Gifted
While all children can certainly be considered special, the ascription of giftedness is becoming overutilized within our culture. Traditionally, the term has referred to someone who possesses abilities that are remarkably advanced in relation to those within their age category. These areas of exception are defined in measurable, empirical, terms.
The disputes which are arising as a result of parents who wish to assert their children as being gifted – without any empirical measure of such – is contributing to considerations of changing the term for describing the experience, entirely.
