Article:
Having studied the publications of teachers, psychologists, and researchers based on media materials on this issue, we can conclude that giftedness as a scientific problem has existed for more than 100 years, but in recent years in Russia there has been an active development of this concept in the practical work of teachers and psychologists. Who are gifted children and how to work with them?
The documents of the national educational initiative “Our New School” note that a support system for talented children should be created. Simultaneously with the implementation of the general education standard, an extensive system of searching for and supporting talented children, as well as accompanying them throughout the entire period of personal development, must be built.
It will be necessary to create both a special support system for mature, talented schoolchildren, and a general environment for the manifestation and development of the abilities of each child, stimulation and identification of the achievements of gifted children. In addition, it is indicated that within the framework of the system of supporting talented children, it is advisable to support a creative environment and provide the opportunity for self-realization for students of each secondary school. To do this, it is necessary to expand the system of Olympiads and competitions for schoolchildren, the practice of additional education, various kinds of student conferences and seminars, and work out mechanisms for taking into account individual achievements of students (student portfolios) during admission to universities.
Who is a gifted child?
A gifted child is a child who stands out for his bright, obvious, sometimes outstanding achievements (or has internal prerequisites for such achievements) in a particular activity.
Today, most psychologists recognize that the level, qualitative originality and nature of the development of giftedness are always the result of a complex interaction between heredity (natural inclinations) and the social environment. At the same time, the role of psychological mechanisms of personality self-development cannot be ignored.
Some psychologists believe that gifted children in a regular school do not receive proper understanding from adults and peers, and are subject to ridicule and almost bullying.
Among modern concepts of giftedness, the theory of the famous American specialist in the field of studying gifted children, Joseph Renzulli, can be called the most popular. In his opinion, giftedness is a complex result of the superposition of 3 factors:
- above average abilities
- creativity,
- involvement in the task.
Is it good to be gifted?
Of course, a child’s development cannot be limited only to the family. But not every type of giftedness is related to school and finds conditions for development there. For example, the so-called social (leadership) talent, for obvious reasons, is not always encouraged by teachers and even parents. They simply don't know what to do with such children.
Early manifested talent in the arts (musical, artistic, acting) or in sports probably has no direct relation to school either. Often such a child does not feel very comfortable at school: due to constant employment, he communicates less with classmates, and often misses classes due to concerts or competitions. Such children often have emotional problems due to high competition with other children in their “specialty.”
What makes talented people different?
Researchers interact with talented individuals, understanding how they differ from ordinary citizens. Talented individuals experience dissatisfaction with the results of their work, as a result of which they strive for self-improvement, self-education and a change in thinking in order to achieve their goals. Geniuses refuse many offers, concentrating on the desired results.
Pianist G. Neuhaus noted that geniuses and talents are born. Despite this, people create a culture that varies in breadth, democracy and loyalty of manifestations. Favorable conditions allow people with inherent potential to become geniuses, talents, and achieve success. For this reason, social society and the specifics of upbringing determine the possibilities for the manifestation of inherent potential and talent.
There is an opinion that nature rests on the children of talented parents. This opinion is confirmed by experience. Talent is inherited to a small extent. Research has led to the following conclusions: mental skills are closer to biological parents, which is due to the hereditary pattern, and not to adoptive parents. Similarity in potential and inherent inclinations does not appear in every situation, and the similarity decreases as a person grows older, who is faced with a different upbringing scheme, experiences personal events, and undergoes changes based on external factors.
Results are achieved not only on the basis of natural abilities, but also under the influence of motivation, conditions for the manifestation of existing potential. Pensioners get a chance to show their talent, although during their life there were no favorable factors for discovering inclinations. Over time, retirees achieve success they never dreamed of before.
Giftedness at school
Other types of giftedness are important for success in secondary school. There are children with a pronounced ability to learn, to assimilate the educational material offered to them. Moreover, they demonstrate this ability regardless of the difficulty of the subject and their own interests. This is the so-called academic giftedness . Children with this type of giftedness have a much easier school life, and their successes make their parents happy. And subsequently it is easier for them to get a good specialty and achieve success in their work. It is generally accepted that such children usually do not reach any special heights.
Other schoolchildren are distinguished by special intellectual talent: the ability to think, compare, highlight the main thing, draw independent conclusions, make predictions, etc. But, unfortunately, the success of such children most often depends on their attitude, interest in the subject and its teacher. They may study unevenly (either “five” or “two”): brilliantly in one subject and “so-so” in another.
A special type of giftedness is creative talent .
This does not only mean abilities in visual, musical or literary activities. Creative talent is, first of all, a non-standard perception of the world, originality of thinking, and a rich emotional life.
What prevents you from discovering your talent?
Almost every person has some kind of talent, but most don’t even know about it and don’t try to find their calling. This is explained by several reasons, such as:
- Laziness. You can talk a lot about whether laziness exists and what its nature is, but the fact is a fact: most people are simply lazy to look for their calling. They dream, make plans for the future and become increasingly immersed in procrastination, trying not to think about the years left behind.
- Submission to external conditions. Not every person can boast that they chose their profession. Often this choice is made by parents, explaining to the child that he should think about his future well-being. And with this attitude, many people live their whole lives, choosing not what they want, but what will bring big dividends in the future.
- Lack of variety. Often people do not find their calling only because they do not even know about the existence of a profession in which their innate abilities could manifest themselves to the maximum.
- Lack of courage. Sometimes a person realizes that his calling has nothing to do with his current profession. But he is afraid to give up everything and start building a new career from scratch. Meanwhile, many famous people achieved success only because they once took a risk and completely changed their field of activity. For example, Anton Chekhov is considered one of the greatest playwrights in world literature. But would we know this name today if he had not decided to quit his career as a doctor?
- Habit. We are designed in such a way that we get used to everything: to our profession, to the people around us, to the conditions of our lives, to mediocrity, everyday routine and lack of diversity. And habit prevents us from leaving our comfort zone, because we are unconsciously afraid that by changing one minor detail we will have to change everything else.
Of course, there are other reasons, but these are the most obvious and most common. Even if you don’t set yourself the task of finding your calling, it’s still worth going through this list and dealing with the listed obstacles - life will only get better from it.
What is life like for gifted children at school?
No easier than any other child. At the same time, children with a specific type of giftedness may have different adaptation problems. Perhaps the easiest to adapt to in school are the “academically gifted.” They delight parents and teachers with their successes. They don’t have any special problems communicating with their peers - they are always ready to explain something, help, even “let them copy it off.” And their extracurricular interests usually do not differ from the interests of their classmates.
“Intellectuals” are treated condescendingly at school. They admire their abilities in one area (for example, physics or mathematics) and sometimes forgive complete failure in something else (for example, illiteracy in writing). They often delight the school with their brilliant successes at competitions at various levels. These children are often so absorbed in their intellectual hobbies that they do not feel much need for attention from their classmates. Although they may also have quite persistent selective attachments (for example, among admirers of their “talent”).
Sports and musical abilities in children are revealed quite early. If such schoolchildren achieve very high results in their field, they almost cease to attend a regular public school due to their busyness. Classmates and teachers are left to admire their achievements from afar. Such children often experience emotional distress due to high competition in their “professional” environment.
Some psychologists believe that creatively gifted children in a regular school do not receive proper understanding from adults and peers, and are subject to ridicule and almost bullying. Therefore, the solution is to “place” them in special schools for the gifted.
However, not all experts agree with this point of view. If a child is talented, this does not automatically mean that he will be incompetent in communicating with his peers. Sometimes such children show arrogance towards the children around them (“What should I talk to them about?”) or towards their teachers (“What can they teach me?”). In this case, communication problems will arise. But this is rather a cost of family upbringing, and not at all an attribute of creative talent. Most often, children with artistic, artistic, and poetic abilities enjoy well-deserved admiration in their home class, fame at school, and all kinds of support from teachers.
Fast development
What does the concept of giftedness include at an early age? A gifted child first appears between three and five years of age. This is the time when the formation of his personality takes place. The baby begins to realize his abilities and talents, realizing that he is doing something very well. The child, comparing himself with his peers, begins to realize that he is different from them.
A clear sign of giftedness is progressive development
If a child at 3-4 years old can already read syllables, then you should pay special attention to him. After all, this child has his own rhythm of life, and soon he will no longer be interested in communicating with his peers
He will reach out to older children or adults. With an ever-increasing pace of development, we can talk about genius.
Why are there difficulties in diagnosing gifted children?
Identification of gifted children is a long process associated with an analysis of the development of a particular child. Effective diagnosis of giftedness through any one-time testing procedure (based on intelligence, memory, etc.) is simply not feasible. The point is not only the impossibility of creating a comprehensive test, but the special property of giftedness as a systemic and developing quality of the psyche that determines a person’s ability to achieve outstanding results.
Psychologists recommend that instead of a one-time selection of gifted children, efforts should be directed toward their gradual, step-by-step identification and support in the process of education under special programs (in the system of additional education) and in the process of developmental education (in a general education school).
First of all, it is necessary to extremely reduce the likelihood of an error that can be made in assessing a child’s giftedness using both positive and negative criteria: since high values of one or another indicator are not always evidence of giftedness, then low values do not yet become evidence of its absence. This circumstance is especially important when processing and interpreting the results of psychological testing.
High scores on psychometric intelligence tests (Guilford, Torrance) may only indicate the degree of training and socialization of the child, but not his intellectual talent. In turn, low scores on the creativity test (Williams, Tunick) may be associated with the child’s specific cognitive position, but not with his lack of creative abilities.
Moreover, the problem of identifying gifted children has a clearly defined moral and ethical aspect, and it is necessary to adhere to the principles of humanistic diagnostics. Many life conflicts between the gifted and the non-gifted are rooted in the inadequacy (even frivolity) of the initial forecast of their future achievements. It should be borne in mind that childhood talent does not guarantee the talent of an adult. Consequently, not every talented adult showed himself to be a gifted child in childhood. Therefore, identifying a child as gifted or as ordinary at an early stage means artificially interfering with his fate, predetermining the subjective expectations of both himself and his parents.
Examples and types of talents
One of the most famous talent researchers is the American psychologist Howard Gardner, the author of the theory of multiple intelligences. Within the framework of this theory, he proposed to consider various types of intelligence as separate cognitive abilities. In addition, he noticed that with all the diversity of talents, they can be grouped according to a similar principle into 7 categories. Later, Gardner's classification was slightly modified, and today there are 8 types of talent. Let's look at each of these types separately and give examples for each of them:
- Digital. Talents of this type are characteristic of people with well-developed abstract thinking. Their owners find their calling in areas such as mathematics and other exact sciences, economics, software development and other areas that require a logical and mathematical mindset.
- Verbal. This type of talent implies the ability to clearly, competently and beautifully formulate thoughts, therefore it is usually found among lawyers, journalists and writers.
- Auditory (musical). This type is associated with the ability to perceive by ear, clearly distinguish and remember various sounds. It is found among musicians, sound engineers, linguists and other people whose work is in one way or another connected with the perception of sounds.
- Spatial. This type includes talents associated with the ability to imagine the position of objects in space, to understand the relationship of their shapes and sizes. They are inherent in artists, architects, constructors and designers.
- Physical. This type of talent is associated with bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. It implies a good understanding of one’s position in space, which is why it is often found among athletes and dancers.
- Intrapersonal. This type is associated with emotional intelligence, namely the ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions. Usually it is not directly related to the profession, but it implies that the person devotes a lot of time to self-analysis and copes well with it. People gifted with talents of this type show a high level of understanding in philosophy and a predisposition to practice yoga and various spiritual practices.
- Interpersonal. This type of talent is also related to emotional intelligence, but is directed towards other people. As a rule, its owners are sociable people with well-developed empathy who are able to find a common language with anyone. Interpersonal talents are characteristic of actors, psychologists, politicians and other people whose work involves communication or public speaking.
- Environmental talents. This category is related to understanding flora and fauna. Those with such talents become good trainers and veterinarians, and often work in agriculture.
