Gifted children often perceive "average" tasks as mundane or mediocre, and are extremely unmotivated to work on them. They are often labeled as procrastinators, lazy, underperforming, and even unintelligent by teachers, who do not appreciate their giftedness and are not able or willing to help such children to make use of their gifts. The exact opposite is found to be true when a teacher finds a way to reach the children at their level. Sometimes that involves unlocking the children's talents in an unrelated medium, for example teaching them that the social labels that have been applied to them for years do not apply. In a real-life example, a student had been labeled as a poor performer for many years. The teacher that "changed his life" showed him that he had the ability to succeed in an area he had never before tried: the child was gifted in mathematics, but the teacher showed the child he also had the ability to write emotive, deep poetry. This helped the child realize that some subjects other than mathematics could be far from mundane, and that he could succeed in those areas too. Sometimes breaking the labels that have been applied to the student their whole lives of, "You're different" / "You are a procrastinator" / "You never turn in your homework" / "You can't do this" is the first step in helping the student, because it allows them to actually believe in themselves, and they begin to apply their talents to areas other than their core interests.
The Columbus Group (1991) offers this definition: "Giftedness is asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm. This asynchrony increases with higher intellectual capacity. The uniqueness of the gifted renders them particularly vulnerable and requires modifications in parenting, teaching and counseling in order for them to develop optimally."
Many people believe giftedness is a quantitative difference, as measured by IQ tests, but a number of people have described giftedness as a fundamentally different way of perceiving the world, which affects every experience of the child. As one 'gifted' child said: "giftedness is not something one can turn on when needed; it is there 24/7".
These differences do not disappear when children become adults or leave school. Gifted adults are seldom recognized as a special population, but they still have unique psychological, social, and emotional issues related to their high intelligence, as illustrated by one woman's story.
A number of gifted children develop the INTP personality profile of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): description 1, description 2. The characteristics of this profile include the tendency towards social rebellion, the intense ability to focus etc.
Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of a gifted child is that whatever they do, they do to extremes. This explains the perfectionism, the performance, the focus, the level of achievement when they apply themselves, and even the complete and perpetual procrastination of what is perceived to be mundane!
Savant:
Savants are children that preform exceptionally in one field (usually
math), but are retarded at others (usually verbal skills). The autistic
savant is one of the most fascinating cognitive phenomena. "Autistic
savant" refers an individual with autism, having remarkable skills
not exhibited by most other persons.
Historically, such individuals were called 'idiot savants,'. In a 1978 article in Psychology Today, Dr. Bernard Rimland introduced a more appropriate term 'autistic savant,' which is the current term.
Levels of giftedness:
IQ testers use these classifications to describe differing levels of giftedness.
The following bands apply with a standard deviation of s = 15 on a standardized
IQ test.
- Bright: 115+, or 1 in six (84th percentile)
- Moderately gifted: 130+, or 1 in 50 (97.9th percentile)
- Highly gifted: 145+, or 1 in 1000 (99.9th percentile)
- Exceptionally gifted: 160+, or 1 in 30,000 (99.997th percentile)
- Profoundly gifted: 175+, or 1 in 3 million (99.99997th percentile)
Unfortunately, most IQ tests do not have the capacity to discriminate accurately at higher IQ levels, capable only of determining whether a student is gifted rather than distinguishing among levels of giftedness. Although the Wechsler tests have a ceiling of about 160, their creator has admitted that they are intended to be used within the average range (between 70 and 130), and are not intended for use at the extreme ends of the population. The Stanford-Binet form L-M, though outdated, is the only test that has a sufficient ceiling to identify the exceptionally and profoundly gifted. The Stanford-Binet form V and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Fourth Revision, both recently released, are currently being evaluated for this population. Mensa has some tests specially designed for gifted people, but they are only for adults.
