Gifted children FAQ
I think my child
is gifted. What information or resources do you recommend?
My gifted child is
bored/underachieving/misbehaving in school. What should I do?
How do I pick a school for my gifted
child?
My child's school does not offer anything special
for gifted children. What can I do?
How do I go about testing my young
child?
I think
my child is gifted. What information or resources do you
recommend?
My
gifted child is bored/underachieving/misbehaving in school. What should
I do?
When any of these things occurs, the environment is wrong for
the child; it is not that something is wrong with the child. Parents
should investigate what is going on in school that doesn't fit the
learning, emotional and personality needs of their child. If the child
is not given appropriate instruction paced correctly for him or her,
these behaviors may continue.
How do I
pick a school for my gifted child?
This depends on where you live, what you can afford and how much you
want the school to do compared to your family's role. You should take
into account your child's intellectual level, the overall intellectual
average of the school and the flexibility of their instructional
program. You should educate yourself on giftedness and school choices,
and always visit the schools you are considering.
My child's
school does not offer anything special for gifted children. What can I
do?
Most schools have very little in place for gifted children. The schools
that have gifted programs often group same-age gifted children together
for enrichment classes for about one hour a week.
Parents need to educate themselves on the needs of their child based on
their child's level of intelligence and personality. They should use
this information to work with the school to enact appropriate changes.
If that doesn't work, the parent should look at different schools or
homeschooling. If you choose homeschooling, you may do some of the
instructing yourself, pay tutors to do it at your home or in the school
during the school day, or convince the school to allow your child to
work on materials you've set up instead of some of the regular classes.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but persistence and education will
pay off.
How do I go
about testing my young child?
This is a difficult question to answer. All available tests are standard
score tests based on a ranking of all children who take the tests. The
test will only tell you how many other children your child outscored; it
will not tell you "how gifted" or how different your child's thinking
and reasoning are. The old Stanford-Binet LM is still the only test that
can do that, but you must give your child the standard score test first
or schools may not accept the results due to the age of the
SBLM.
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