FILAMER CHRSTIAN UNIVERSITY

College of Arts and Sciences

Accredited Level II- ACSCU –ACI
Roxas City, Capiz

SNED 5
Gifted and Talented Learners

Characteristics of Gifted and Talented Children and Youth

The previous discussions clearly indicate that giftedness and talent are a complex condition that
covers a wide range of human abilities and traits. That is why it must be clearly understood that
giftedness and talent vary according to social contexts. Some students may excel in the
academic subjects but may not show special; talents in the arts. On the other hand, students
who show outstanding talent in sports and athletics., visual and performing arts or those with
leadership abilities may show only average or above average performance in academic subjects.
Highly gifted students, according to Silverman’s studies (1995) have IQ scores 3 standard
deviations or greater above the mean. The IQ score is greater than 145, or 35 to 55 points more
or even higher than the average IQ scores of 90 to 110. Among American children, there is only
1 child in 1001 or 1 child in 10,000. Silverman found the following characteristics among these
highly gifted individuals:

 Intense intellectual curiosity

 Fascination with words and ideas
 Perfectionism
 Need of precision
 Intense need for mental stimulation
 Difficulty conforming to the thinking of others
 Early moral and existential concern
 Tendency toward introversion
There are times when the characteristics of gifted and talented persons are misinterpreted as
bordering on abnormal behavior, aggressiveness, antisocial behavior, and the like.
Shaklee (1989) listed the identifiers of young gifted and talented children as follows:

 Exceptional learner in the acquisition and retention of knowledge:

a. Exceptional memory
b. Learns quickly and easily
c. Advanced understanding/meaning of area
 Exceptional user of knowledge in the application and comprehension of knowledge:
a. Exceptional use of knowledge
b. Advance use of symbols – expressive and complex
 c. Demands a reason for unexplained events
d. Reasons well in problem-solving – draws from previous knowledge and transfers
it to the other areas.
 Exceptional generator of knowledge – individual and creative attributes
a. Highly creative behavior in areas of interest and talent
b. Does not conform to typical ways of thinking, perceiving
c. Enjoys self-expression of ideas, feelings or beliefs
d. Keen sense of humor that reflects advances, unusual comprehension of
relationships and meaning
e. Highly developed curiosity about cause, future, the unknown
 Exceptional motivation – individual motivational attributes
a. Perfectionism: striving to achieve high standards, especially in areas of talent and
interest
b. Shows initiative, self-directed
c. High level of inquiry and reflection
d. Long attention span when motivated
e. Leadership – desire and ability to lead
f. Intense desire to know

Creativity as the Highest Expression of Giftedness

Creative ability is considered as central to the definition of giftedness. Clark (1986)
refers to creativity as the highest expression of giftedness. Stemberg (1988) suggests that
creative, insightful individuals are those who make discoveries and devise the inventions that
ultimately change society.
There is no accepted definition of creativity. In his studies on creativity, Guilford (1988)
enumerates the following dimensions of creative behavior:

 Fluency - the creative person is capable of producing many ideas per unit of time.
 Flexibility - a wide variety of ideas, unusual ideas, and alternative solutions are offered.
 Novelty/originality - low probability, unique words, and responses are used; the
creative person has novel ideas.
 Elaboration - the ability to provide details is evidenced.
 Synthesizing ability - the person has the ability to put unlikely ideas together.
 Analyzing ability - the person has the ability to organize ideas into larger, inclusive
patterns. Symbolic structures must often be broken down before they can be reformed
into new ones.
 Ability to reorganize or redefine existing ideas - the ability to transform an existing
object into one of different design, function, or use is evident.
  Complexity - the ability to manipulate many interrelated ideas at the same time is
shown.
A foremost authority on creative thinking and author of psychological tests on creativity,
Torrance (1993) found in a 30-year longitudinal study that high-ability adults who were judged
to have achieved far beyond their peers in creative endeavors possess the following ten most
common characteristics:
1. Delight in deep thinking
2. Tolerance of mistakes
3. Love of one's work
4. Clear purpose
5. Enjoyment in one's work
6. Feeling comfortable as a minority of one
7. Being different
8. Not being well-rounded
9. A sense of mission
10. The courage to be creative

Students with SGT Who Are Underachievers

One of the many myths surrounding children with gifts is the “cannonball” theory. The idea,
simply put, is that such children can no more be stopped from achieving their potential than a
cannonball, once fired, can be diverted from its path. Like most simplistic ideas about human
beings, this one, too, is wrong. There is a subgroup of children referred to as underachievers
with SGT, students whose academic performance consistently falls far short of expectations
despite high cognitive abilities (for example, a consistent C average or dropping out.)
A substantial proportion of students never achieve the level of performance that their
scores on intelligences and aptitude tests predict for them. In the Terman longitudinal study,
researchers identified a group of 150 men who had not achieved to the level of theory apparent
ability and compared them with 150 men who had done well (Terman and Oden, 1947). In their
self-ratings and in ratings by their wives and parents, four major characteristics separated the
underachieving men from the achieving men: greater feelings of inferiority, less self-confident,
less perseverance, and less of sense of life goals. More striking was an examination of teacher
ratings that had been made on the men twenty years earlier, while they were in school. Even at
that time, their teachers believed that the under-achievers lacked self-confidence, foresight,
and the desire to excel.
A recent study looked at the predictors of underachievement for gifted students
(McCoach and Siege, 2003). Five factors were examined: academic self-perception, attitudes
toward school, attitudes toward teachers, motivation/self-regulation, and goal valuation.
Shortcomings in the last two factors, lack of motivation and academic goals, were the best
predictors of underachievement. Interestingly, the academic self-perceptions of underachieving
students with gifts were high; they knew that they could do the work, and their attitudes
toward school and teachers were mixed. The authors recommended that “teachers and
counselors who work with underachievers with SGT should assess whether these students
value the goals of school and whether they are motivated to attain those goals” (McCoach and
Siegle, 2003). The authors further pointed out that if these students’ value neither the specific
task they are given (such as solving problems in algebra
) nor the outcome of completing the task (an A in math), their motivation is likely to be low.
It is difficult to change the maladaptive behavior patterns of students who for eight to
ten years have been developing precisely the wrong approach to academic stress or challenge.
This goal of change requires great intensity of effort on the part of both the student and those
trying to help that student change. The best-known educational intervention strategies have
established either part-time or full-time special classrooms for underachievers with SGT (either
Tier II or Tier III in the response to intervention [RTI] model). In these classrooms, as reported
by Reiss and McCoach (2000), “educators strive to create a favorable environment for student
achievement by altering the traditional classroom organization. A smaller student-teacher ratio
exists, teachers create less conventional types of teaching and learning activities, teachers give
students some choice and freedom in exercising control over their atmosphere, and students
are encouraged to utilize different learning strategies”.

Culturally Diverse Students with SGT

A consensus is growing about what is needed to support students from different cultural
environments to succeed in school. For many students and their families, such support would
include a range of health and social services and teachers with broad training in special
education methods and understanding of the child’s cultural milieu (Callahan, 2007; Ford,
2002).
Just about every research project cites as positive forces in such families a home
environment characterized by warmth and stability of mother-child interactions, opportunities
for learning (reading books and being read to), and a neighborhood with play resources and
security for children and youths (Ford, 2007). A strong partnership between school and families
can encourage these favorable conditions for educational success (Colemen and Shah-Coltrane,
2010).
Kitano (2007) specifically urges “universal access to high-quality early childhood
programs for those who face extreme poverty in the first four years of life.” Such programs
would include a multicultural curriculum early literacy development, and support for creative
thinking, as well as health and social services.
 Van Tassel-Baska (2004) has summarized the need for special curriculum units for low-
income students with SGT who may have a greater interest in social acceptance and a lessen
interest in reading, abstract ideas, and long-term academic performance.
Van Tassel-Baska proposed curricula that place emphasis on openness to experience and that
allow creativity and fluency in thinking, opportunity to express ideas through the arts rather
that verbally, preference for hands-on applications, and preference for oral expression. The
problem-based learning (PBL) approach contains many of these characteristics and has been
shown to be effective with low-income populations with SGT.

Children with Disabilities Who Have SGT (Twice Exceptional)

A student’s inability to see, hear, or walk does not mean that he or she does not have special
gifts and talents (Hua and Coleman, 2002). It only means that the child stands a good chance of
having special talents overlooked. Coleman (2002) studies the coping strategies used by
students who had both gifts and learning disabilities. She found that the students who had SGT
and learning disabilities had constructive coping strategies, whereas the students with average
ability and learning disabilities often displayed learned helplessness, escape/avoidance, and
distancing.
Another condition in which giftedness and another exceptionality may be mixed in
autism. Although the majority of children identifies as autistic have average or below-average
ability, a subset of children, sometimes those diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, can be
highly intelligent (Attwood, 1998). This high intelligence takes on special flavor with such
children, who can be encyclopedic in their knowledge but very poor in their social relationships.
Their theory of mind function (the ability to perceive intentions and thoughts of others) remains
a serious problem for them. They need special help in social adaptation, regardless of their
academic proficiency. There are similar examples of students with SGT who also have vision
impairment (Helen Keller), hearing loss (Beethoven), and orthopedic disabilities (Stephen
Hawking) that need to be identified for a special education program.

Reporters: Tumanday, Abigail Kate B.

Aguas, Mariah Karylle R.