talented children

Definition of Giftedness

There is currently no clear and well-established definition of giftedness. However, like in this case, there are people and children who are gifted with various abilities ranging from skill to skill. Children, for example, can be endowed with a wide range of abilities that can be divided into two categories. Children can be intellectually gifted, which means that they will perform better in class on tests and exams than other students in the same class. These children will benefit from greater and faster comprehension of what is taught to them. The same children are benefited in that they can immediately apply what they have been taught and can think through a variety of problems that come their way. Therefore, the paper seeks to check on all the aspects attributed to the gifted children.

Intellectual Giftedness and IQ Levels

In other terms, these kinds of children who are intellectually gifted will be able to perform much better than other children when it comes to tests and any other activity that requires the use of intellectual skills. Thus based on the above facts, intellectual giftedness can be described as children whose level of IQ is higher as compared to that of the same children within the same age group and age bracket (Moon, Sidney, and Hall 2). There is a standard IQ level is a fraction of 100 but those whose levels go up from 130 are advantaged intellectually, and they are the ones that can be placed under this category of being intellectually gifted.

Identification of Intellectual Giftedness

To identify intellectual giftedness in children, many institutions have come up with a variety of means and techniques that they employ to identify giftedness. Many systems are known to use achievement tests that they give to children consistently over time. Additionally, institutions still operate on observation skills where the children are observed while they carry out their various activities in their daily routine, and it is from this observation that children can be seen how they perform their regular activities. Those seen to be extraordinary in how they conduct themselves as far as studies are concerned then observed further to determine whether they are gifted. There is also the use of studying portfolios of students’ work, and others are known to offer IQ tests to children all in a bid to establish and identify those that are gifted.

Handling Intellectually Gifted Children

In order to identify whether a child is intellectually gifted, it is essential for the caregiver or the guardian to know how to handle and deal with the child. In most cases, these categories of children who are intellectually gifted are not very good with co-curriculum activities. Furthermore, these children are not entirely famous in schools as they are most likely to be despised by the rest thus they tend to keep to themselves. They prefer to stay indoors in most cases as the other children see them as a threat to them, and what they are good in (which is in class activities) is not entirely liked by many children. All these considerations put in place, it is vital for parents to know how to handle and deal with this category of children. Parents, once they know that their child is gifted, they have to have the proper skills on how to serve such a child as dealing with one can be very challenging. Serving such a child is in the best interest of the young one as the parent is looking to ensure that the child gets to maximize his/her potential.

Special Needs of Gifted Children

These children also have special needs as they differ from the others, thus special care by the parent will go a long way in shaping the child’s future and achieving their desired goals. One of the ways to serve such children can be the exercise of patience by the parent because these kids quickly lose patience as they always want to be in control of everything they engage in. Situations might arise whereby the child is not in control and such a situation the parent can step in and help the child by talking to share his/her emotions. They can train the child how to control the emotion of frustration by even teaching them to close their eyes and take a relaxed deep breath. Such a child will also want to perfectly perform as they feel they are different from their peers, thus a parent can help by assisting the child in finding a hobby (Silverman and Linda 17). This will help the child to know that it’s not always about being perfect but there are other things he/she can do other than performing better than everyone else.

Enrolling Gifted Children in Specialized Schools

Furthermore, parents can best serve these children by taking them to schools that take gifted children enrolled. In such a case, the child will not feel out of place as they can associate with those that are like them. It will eventually advantage the child to even become better in their particular area that they are gifted. For instance, those children that are exquisite with mathematics can be taken to schools that enroll children gifted in the subject, thus the child ends up benefiting. All these measures are done considering that what is being done is to make the child have a better comfortable life and still live in harmony with the others.

Giftedness in Co-curricular Activities

The other category of gifted children is for those that are gifted in co-curriculum activities such as sports like swimming and athletics. This group of children is usually very outstanding in sports as compared to the rest. For instance, in the case of those that are good in athletics, you might find a child to be an excellent runner with an outstanding and distinguishable pace as compared to the rest of the child. Others too might be superb in swimming from a very early age (Sumner 45). As in the former case of a child who is excellent in athletics regarding running, it is critical for the guardian of such a child to know how to deal with this child and how to serve him or her best (Sumner and Calvin 4). The first step for the parent is to identify whether the child is as talented or rather as gifted as he/she might feel. Identification can be made through continuous observation of the child while the child is in the field participating in running. Once the child has been observed, his/her performance can be compared to the other kids within different areas to establish his level of giftedness. Another way to identify such a gift in a child is continuous assessment of a child and to see if the child has passion in athletics.

Serving Gifted Children in Co-curricular Activities

Once the child has been identified as gifted in athletics as a runner, it would certainly be essential for the parent to know how to deal with such a child and how to serve him/her best. The first way to help that child would be to enroll him in a sporting complex facility that trains the child on how to develop their abilities. The child can be well trained by professionals on how to become better in athletics and become a better athlete who can make even a living out of athletics. Such a child is most likely to be famous in school as children who are outstanding in sports are very famous with the rest (Silverman and Linda 5). It would be thus very essential for the parent to serve the child to ensure he/she does not develop arrogance as the fame can get to the head thus ruining the child’s ability in the end. The parent can offer consistent guidance and support to the child to help him best.

Conclusion

In conclusion, children have different abilities, and those that are outstanding ought to be well brought up and served by the guardians. Thus it is essential to ensure that a lot of consideration is given to gifted children particularly.

Works cited

Moon, Sidney M, and Alex S. Hall. “Family Therapy with Intellectually and Creatively Gifted Children.” Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, vol. 24, no. 1, 1998, pp. 59-80.

Sumner, Calvin R. “Gifted Children.” Psychiatric Services : a Journal of the American Psychiatric Association, vol. 48, no. 12, 1997.

Silverman, Linda K. “Parenting Young Gifted Children.” Journal of Children in Contemporary Society, vol. 18, pp. 1986, pp. 73-87.