By Alan Haskvitz

What is giftedness?

Many parents believe their child is gifted. The problem is there are many areas of exceptionality, and sometimes overachievers or bright children may seem gifted to the inexperienced observer.

To further complicate matters for an inexperienced teacher or parent, Professor Howard Gardner gives us at least seven very encompassing categories in which a child may be gifted.

• Linguistic. This means a child is very verbal and excels at reading and writing.
• Logical-mathematical. This area involves the ability to see patterns and relationships; these children enjoy games of strategy and experiments.
• Bodily-kinesthetic. These children are athletic, have good motor coordination and enjoy being active.
• Spatial. This type of giftedness appears in those good at puzzles, drawing, building and thinking in images.
• Musical. These children are discriminating listeners and enjoy singing, drumming and keeping rhythm.
• Interpersonal. These learners become leaders. They communicate well, understand the way others feel and are not embarrassed to take charge.
• Intrapersonal. These gifted traits are revealed in shy, but motivated children.

Review a fairly comprehensive look at Gardner's beliefs in the article, "Multiple Intelligences: A Theory for Everyone."

Helping the Gifted Child

So how do you help a potentially gifted child? After spending 30 years in the classroom teaching these students, I saw four factors emerge:

1. Gifted children are a diverse and frequently stubborn group, who sometimes use their intelligence to avoid being seen as intelligent.
2. They are competitive and enjoy being best in the fields they feel confident about. However, they are reluctant to try new things for fear of failure.
3. They are manipulative and tell you what they think you want to hear. If they are doing poorly and believe parents will try getting them out of a tough class, they will make sure evidence they present parents is overwhelmingly in their favor.
4. They may resent being in classrooms where gifted students have to do more work, rather than different work.

Indeed, many schools encourage skipping grades to help challenge gifted students. This is a mistake if the child cannot accept the social ramifications. In addition, and this is very important, it puts students at a real disadvantage when taking SAT tests. That extra year of preparation and maturity could be worth many points and make the difference between the school of choice and the others. Remember, with grade inflation, many students have straight-A averages. SAT scores and community and extracurricular work separate students from the pack. So, the best way to help a gifted child is to challenge them and expand their interests, while providing depth in their gifted areas.

However, there is a downside when challenging a gifted youngster. To provide the depth of knowledge needed to keep a truly gifted child interested requires a parent to make two decisions:

• First, do you want to challenge the child in other areas and risk activating their stubbornness?
• Second, are you willing to accept the fact your child may fail?

These are not easy decisions to make. Many parents delight in displaying honor-roll stickers and place a tremendous weight on grades, rather than learning. In addition, parents want to see happy children and tend to bulldoze anything that may jeopardize this.

Internet resources

Fortunately for parents and teachers who want to expand a child's scope and challenge their abilities, the Internet has a vast array of excellent resources. However, because of the living nature of the Web, it is important to review these sites in case they have been purchased by those whose purpose may not match yours.

Obviously, the best place to start is Reach Every Child.

Find links to authors for the linguistic learner at REC Authors.

For the child who enjoys sports, access a list of the major sports teams.

For the student who likes cars, get a list of the major auto companies.

For dancers and artists, find arts and entertainment links.

Try mathematics resources.

There are plenty of other resources at Reach Every Child, but sometimes a parent needs more specific help. The government maintains a compilation of information on many subjects. It is called ERIC. Use this link, type in what you're looking for, and the search engine will provide the latest research on the topic. There is a charge for duplicating articles, but there are some good ones. Type in my name to see projects my students have worked on recently.

In addition, the following resources may be useful. Select from:

• Identifying gifted children
• Encouraging gifted learners
• Periodicals and organizations related to giftedness
• Comparing Bright and Gifted Learners (chart)

Identifying gifted children

Austega's Gifted Resource Centre
This is a rather comprehensive site, which features the usual links plus those that help with choosing a school, types of curriculum and the newest publications about giftedness.

Bloom's Taxonomy
When working with a gifted child, you should have some knowledge of Bloom's Taxonomy, which deals with levels of learning. A parent can use this link to prepare questions for their child to learn the quality of the child's thinking. It is a must for any teacher of gifted children as it provides a focus for enrichment activities.

Education: Gifted and Talented Students
This site links to articles on the gifted child and related subjects. I strongly recommend you look at the one on emotional intelligence. Many gifted children refrain from adapting socially and have emotional problems. The two most consistent reasons are fear of being labeled "different" by peers and an attitude of superiority that creates aloofness and a retreat into books and solitude.

Is Your Child Gifted?

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Encouraging gifted learners

Hoagies' Gifted Education Page
This is perhaps the largest site dealing with gifted children. It is very well done.

Learning Disabilities and Giftedness

Odyssey of the Mind
An invention competition that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college

Underachievement among Gifted Minority Students: Problems and Promises

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Periodicals and organizations related to giftedness

Gifted Children Monthly

GT World

Imagine
From Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth

National Association for Gifted Children

Prufrock Press
Prufrock Press publishes the following and more: JEG (Journal for the Education of the Gifted) and JSGE (Journal of Secondary Gifted Education).

Understanding Our Gifted

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Comparing bright and gifted learners (chart)

http://www.tagfam.org/whoisgifted.html
Janice Szabos, Challenge, 1989, Good Apple, Inc., Issue 34