Children Who Are Gifted & Talented

Presented By: Ellen Watson

A Definition of Gifted and Talented(According to the National Association for Gifted Children)

A gifted person is “someone who shows, or has the potential for showing, an exceptional level

of performance in one or more areas of expression”.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

• Linguistic—one that desires to explore; love of words; comprehension of spoken and written language.

William Shakespeare

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences(continued)

• Logical-Mathematical—analyzes, assesses, and investigates objects and problems. Likes to carry out mathematical operations and handle long chains of reasoning.

Isaac Newton

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences(continued)

• Musical—skills in producing, composing, performing, listening, discerning, and sensitivity to the components of music and sound.

Ethan Bortnick, age 5

Mozart

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences(continued)

• Spatial (Artistic)—accurately perceives, recognizes, manipulates, modifies, and transforms shape, form, and pattern.

Leonardo da Vinci

Akiane Kramarik, age 12

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences(continued)

• Bodily-Kinesthetic—orchestrates and controls bodily motion. Challenged by difficult athletic activities and has precision in movement.

Tiger Woods

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences(continued)

• Interpersonal—ability to understand others and inspire, instruct, or lead others and

respond to their actions, emotions, motivations, opinions, and situations.

Virginia Woolf

Dalai Lama

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences(continued)

• Intrapersonal—knowledge and understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses, styles, emotions, motivations, and self-orientations.

Gandhi

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences(continued)

• Naturalist—notes the differences that are key to discriminating among several categories or species of objects in the natural world.

Jane Goodall

Charles

Darwin

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences(continued)

• Existential*--captures and ponders the fundamental questions of existence; capacity to raise big questions about one’s place in the world.

Martin Luther King Jr.

*unconfirmed ninth intelligence

Does being labeled “talented” or being identified as “gifted” guarantee an academic road

of success???

NO! Not at all!

Myths About Gifted Children

• Gifted children are generally white, middle-class children.

• Boys and girls achieve equally.• The gifted are frail, weak, and

sickly.• The gifted burn out early: their

gifts don’t last.• IQ Tests are the best way to

identify gifted children.• Gifted students earn good

grades and are excited about school.

• The gifted student will have emotional and social problems.

• The gifted don’t need help.• A high IQ is a good predictor of

future success.

• Gifted students are often perfectionists and idealistic.• Gifted students may experience heightened sensitivity to their own expectations and

those of others.• Gifted students are asynchronous. (must focus on one thing at a time)• Some gifted students are sequential learners and others are spatial learners.• Gifted students may be so far ahead of their chronological age that they know half the

curriculum before the school year begins.• Gifted children are problem-solvers.• Gifted students often think abstractly and with such complexity, they may need help

with concrete study and test-taking skills.• Gifted students who do well in school may define success in getting an “A” and

failure as any grade less than an “A”.

Characteristics

Things To Make You Go “Hmm”…

• Einstein was 4 years old before he could speak, and 7 before he could read.

• When Thomas Edison was a boy, his teachers told him he was

too stupid to learn anything.

• Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school.

• Abraham Lincoln entered The Black Hawk War as a

captain, and came out a private.

• Winston Churchill failed the 6th grade.

“No matter what kind of children you have in your class, if you see all of

your children as gifted and talented, then they truly WILL be gifted and

talented.”

~Mrs. Brown