What makes a child unusually fidgety and restless? Obsessive and a perfectionist? Quiet and solitary or downright disruptive? You might associate some of these traits with autistic spectrum and other disorders, but do you ever link such characteristics to a child with exceptional intelligence?
Early signs of high ability in children are many and varied, but the ones listed above are common, and the more able the child, the more characteristics that can be displayed.
Early years practitioners need to be alert to such signs, for by identifying a 'gifted and talented' child early, practitioners can then:
- develop a deeper understanding of the child and provide for their cognitive and emotional needs
- ensure that the negative behaviours associated with such children are addressed
- support their parents who, far from 'hot housing' their child, are probably feeling daunted by their child's abilities (see case study).
IN PROFILE
Gifted and talented children vary enormously in both personality traits and talents. They do not tend to crawl, but walk and talk early. They are unusually alert and inquisitive, with heightened senses (some have an intolerance to texture, light, taste, noise and smells), high powers of concentration, a vivid imagination and an insatiable appetite for knowledge, as seen through their great love of books.
They tend to have a maturity beyond their years, reflected in their higher-level thinking skills and advanced language, which enables them to talk in sentences and debate at an early age.
They are able to learn something the first time, and to make mature connections between the various aspects of that learning, so giving them an unusually profound understanding of the world; many teach themselves to read.
As well as scoring highly in Intelligence Quotient (IQ), exceptional children often have a high Spiritual Quotient (SQ), a measure of a person's spiritual intelligence, covering attributes such as self-awareness, intuition and empathy.
With their exceptional abilities, however, can come potential difficulties. Exceptional children may become easily bored, be impatient with children they perceive to be of lesser intelligence, be unwilling to listen and overly ready to challenge authority - resulting in their being disruptive and appearing bossy, rude and arrogant.
Their hunger for knowledge can lead them to be over-excitable and to ask question after question until they have exhausted the subject - and the adult - and then move quickly on to the next subject, when the process starts all over again.
Conversely, some gifted children become quiet and solitary, choosing to overcome their boredom by daydreaming and creating imaginary worlds far more interesting than an uninspiring nursery.
Common to many high-ability children is their asynchronous development, where the cognitive brain matures much faster than the social and emotional brain (which matures at the child's chronological age, or even immaturely).
A consequence of this 'out of sync' development is that the child struggles to gel with their peers, preferring the company of older children or adults able to discuss and debate on their level.
Asynchronous development can also cause difficulties with handwriting and the processing of information. With the child's motor development lagging behind their cognitive and thinking skills, the content of their written work can be extremely mature while their scribing is extremely poor.
Life can be difficult for the profoundly gifted child, and the more able the child, the more isolated or disruptive they may become if they lack the support of knowledgeable and understanding adults.
PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT
Parents and carers are invariably first to notice their child's abilities at an early age. Health visitors, doctors and nursery staff may also pick up on the child's rapid development.
Assessment is generally seen as inappropriate for a child until the age of six, when they can be referred to an educational psychologist.
Up to that age, parents and early years professionals should keep careful observations of the child and devise a programme of play and learning that will best suit the child's social, emotional and intellectual needs, and prevent their abilities from becoming stifled.
How this should be done depends on the age of the child, and whether they are happy or presenting problems to parents and/or the setting.
Many of the steps that a setting can take fit within the principles of good practice within the EYFS, such as developing a good working relationship with the child's parents and being prepared to listen to their concerns and anxieties.
Intellectual development
Provide enrichment to address the child's hunger for knowledge by
- creating a stimulating environment, with a wide range of materials and equipment
- tapping into the child's current interests and topics that fascinate them, for example space and dinosaurs
- being aware of the possible breadth of a child's talents, such as the talented musician or soccer player
- planning a broad curriculum with plenty of challenging activities and opportunities for higher level thinking
- providing opportunities to fire their imagination
- engaging in discussion with the child and in higher-level open-ended questioning
- avoiding repetition. Able children grasp something first time, so repetition is pointless and leads only to boredom and underachievement. What these children need is to be taught how to learn and to find different ways of doing something.
10 QUESTIONING TECHNIQUES
To provide sufficient challenge in your questioning, consider the following:
1. Awareness - Why did that happen?
2. Perseverance - Can you improve this?
3. Risk-taking - How could you improve this?
4. Sensitivity - How do you feel about this?
5. Curiosity - What might happen next?
6. Imagination - What are the problems with that?
7. Fluency - How can we find more?
8. Flexibility - Suppose the opposite happened?
9. Originality - Can you invent a way to change it?
10. Elaboration - Can you list all the things you know about it?
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Nurturing a gifted child's social skills is possibly the most important aspect of caring for them, and every effort should be made to support them in managing social situations and learning important life skills.
- Recognise the extent to which gifted children may be intolerant of their less able peers and struggle to make friends; encourage them to be caring, compassionate and tolerant.
- Model how to be a good friend, to share and take turns.
- Remember that their peers may find them arrogant and precocious, so be alert to signs of bullying or the child being ostracised.
- Many of the gifted child's interests may be too advanced and games too complex for their peers, so encourage all children to engage with the gifted child's interests to try to combat isolation.
- Provide opportunities for movement, particularly for those who need to be constantly on the move, as this helps to develop immature areas of the brain.
- Some gifted children do not know how to play, preferring to be on the computer, constructing something or with their head in a book. Encourage the child to 'have a go' at other activities, find a like-minded buddy where possible, bring out board games for interaction with friends and to promote social skills.
- Elaine Hook is an education consultant and Gifted & Talented specialist, working with SANDE Associates (tel: 07929 918971)
FURTHER INFORMATION
- Gifted & Talented in the Early Years: Practical activities for children aged 3 to 5 by Margaret Sutherland (Paul Chapman Publishing)
- The Out of Sync Child by Carol Stock Kranowitz (Skylight Press/Perigee Books)
- Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children and Adults by James T Webb, Edward R Amend and Nadia Webb (Great Potential Press)
- National Association for Gifted Children, www.nagcbritain.org.uk
- National Association for Able Children in Education, www.nace.co.uk
- The Young Gifted & Talented programme, www.ygt.dcsf.gov.uk
CASE STUDY
Sofia was an alert, bright, mischievous toddler. She could never be left alone, as she always had to try things out. She didn't fit in with her peers and found it hard to play; she always had her head in a book.
Her mother felt exhausted and daunted by Sofia's constant and often difficult questions, such as 'Who made God?' and 'When did the very first drop of water appear?' Her mother also felt isolated, as family and friends struggled to understand.
At primary school, Sofia challenged the teachers, could be rude and was labelled precocious. Her mother sought the help of an educational psychologist and at six years, Sofia was assessed and was identified as gifted in verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, language, reading, writing and spelling. She was performing in these areas at the level of a 12-year-old.
