Lewis Terman Autism

Gifted education is very stressful for students in middle school, but if you start in elementary school with a gifted program it could be less stressful on your child. Gifted programs are good programs but there are things that could make your child feel pressured and they may want to leave the program. To get into the programs depending on the district you are in there could be discrimination to be accepted or recommended to test for it. This discrimination could be based on race, income, gender, or ethnicity, if you’re in a school district that lets you apply without being recommended then you won’t have to worry about this. Studies show that in Broward County they started with teachers recommended students and then changed their system to where any students could apply to the gifted programs and there was a major increase in low income, latino, and black students that were accepted.

One of the difficulties in identifying the needs of low-income students is the profound cultural barriers which exist that prevent their strengths and deficits from being identified. Children from low-income homes frequently have poorer vocabularies and a weaker basis of the type of knowledge that is frequently considered 'intelligence' on most forms of assessment. A low-income child's IQ may be high, even though he lacks a framework of accepted middle-class knowledge. "In January 2003, the National Academy of Sciences released a report on the seeming overrepresentation of minorities in special education and underrepresentation of those students in gifted education. The NRC reported that, nationwide, 7.47 percent of all white students and 9.9 percent of Asian students are placed in gifted programs. Meanwhile, 3.04 percent of African-American students, 3.57 percent of Hispanic students, and 4.86 percent of American Indian students are classified as gifted" (GT-minority identification, 2003, ERIC Clearinghouse). The discrepancy, the NAS believed, could not be solely explained by talent alone but was at least partially rooted in the methods of identifying students labeled as gifted. Biases in standardized and other tests identifying student strengths, combined with prejudices, however unintentional, amongst educators and administrators lead to under-identification of the gifted

[Students who are gifted] give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic or leadership capacity, or in specific academic field, and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities. ( No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 [NCLB], 2002, p. 526)

My experience the past two school year has disproven these two myths. Gifted students are not always high achieves and are not always welcomed addition to a classroom. They can have the same socially and emotional limiting problems and less than desirable characteristics as non-gifted peers. The bottom line is that gifted students are individuals with their own personalities and environmental influences. Their giftedness does not take these

terms of a discrepancy between a child’s school performance and some ability index such as an IQ score.” (Delisle & Galbraith, 2002). “Gifted children who do not succeed in school are often successful in outside activities such as sports, social events, after-school jobs, talent or hobby interests.” (Delisle & Galbraith, 2002). So we wonder what causes the underachievement.

There are many cognitive and affective characteristics of intellectually gifted adolescents which differ from those of their non-gifted peers. These characteristics have the potential to assist academic and social development, or conversely may present social and academic difficulties for the adolescents.

In addition, the article “Exploring Teachers' Experiences of Working with Gifted Students Who Underachieve”, explored a different side of underachievement in gifted

It could be argued that early identification of the gifted or talented child is essential for reasons such as, ‘the provision of appropriate learning experiences, determining appropriate educational provisions and also developing understanding and a sense of belonging’ (Harrison, 1995, p. 49). Harrison (1995) also claims that children can be classified as gifted or in three areas. The first area is physical development, whereby gifted children reach physical development milestones sooner than their same age peers. Secondly, cognitive development, where combinations of factors such as alertness, advanced play behaviour, exceptional memory, rapid pace of learning, mathematical ability and probing questions are all deemed to be highly developed. The final area is language development, where signs of highly developed language include early speech, interest in the sound of language, the use of complex sentences and extensive vocabulary and finally, creating rhymes and stories. Having discussed

For year’s teachers, parents and even students have struggled with the term gifted. What does it mean to be gifted or not gifted? Is there truly a set formula to determine who is or is not gifted? Many researchers have tried to answer these questions and many theorists have come up with theories regarding how to teach gifted children. According to Manning (2006), “Gifted students routinely exhibit academic and emotional traits that may be described as intense and, at times, even extreme.” These include a keen sense of humor, a set of very high expectations, and a need for consistency and unusual sensitivity toward others. She further defines that gifted students are not always the best students. Sometimes they are the class clowns or the ones who do not work well in groups. Teachers have to be willing to reassess their expectations for these students and find a way to connect to them that benefits everyone. Some strategies to consistently challenge gifted learners would include: proving problem solving opportunities, giving students the opportunity to design products, allowing students to acquire skills using multiple intelligences, and incorporating lessons that have abstract themes (Fasko, 2001). As Fasko (2001) discussed, these students benefit from Gardner’s multiple intelligence (MI) theory. Gardner’s theory proposes that there are seven independent forms of competence that include: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily kinesthetic,

The education of the gifted and talented student is often neglected in this country. The neglect is not done on purpose but it is sometimes due to the lack of information on the education of this particular student. Teachers must first understand the gifted and talented student, familiarize themselves on more appropriately educating the student and learn to work with parents, guardians and other teaching professionals to provide for the academic needs of the gifted and talented student.

According to Howard Gardner, our schools and society focus most of their attention on linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence. We regard the highly articulate or logical people of our culture. However, he has said that we should also place equal attention on individuals who are gifted or show strengths in the other intelligences. Unfortunately, many children who have these gifts don’t receive much reinforcement for them in school. Many of them, in fact, are labeled as having a “learning disability”, suffering from "ADD (attention deficit disorder," or are simply underachievers, when their own unique ways of thinking and learning aren’t addressed in a heavily linguistic or

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” Einstein said this quote in respect to the education system and it still holds true today. Einstein, even though he was a very gifted child, failed high school. While this might seem shocking, it still happens with gifted students today. Schools focusing more resources on the lower end of education is at the heart of this problem. Gifted students tend to be lumped in with regular students. Because schools overlook gifted students, gifted students aren’t challenged, become lax with learning, and become problematic.

Gifted and talented learners need and enjoy variety and challenge. This requires that lessons be variously differentiated by:

There are a lot of issues beyond gifted education in terms of identifications, perceptions, teaching methods, peculiarities and etc. Nowadays, different ways of supporting and organizing gifted children’s activities are being discussed by the majority of scholars. For instance, according to Kazakhstani scholars (Damitov et al., 2006; Damitov et al.,2009) the importance of practical activities, scientific and educational research is prioritized in several policy documents such as:

Concern for at-risk learners forces the education of high ability learners to take a backseat in traditional classroom. Standard instruction and curriculum based on a pacing and sequencing method does not always allow students to accelerate. By definition, the term “gifted” exemplifies exceptionality often regarding intellect, creativity and leadership. An identification of gifted suggests that an individual requires specialized services and curriculum that are not always addressed by traditional methods of education. High ability learners require a challenging curriculum and specialized educators to prosper academically. The negligence in discharging one’s exceptionality can often lead high-ability learners to foster resentment, boredom