A Special Focus on Young Gifted Children.

Historically, young gifted children have not received the same attention from educators, policy-makers, or researchers that older high-ability students have. Deeply entrenched beliefs and practices in the field of early childhood education resist the idea that gifted children need special services in the early years. Many educators still emphasize the importance of socialization and shy away from anything that appears to pressure young students into high achievement. In addition, giftedness is not easy to identify in young children and relatively few teachers feel comfortable differentiating instruction to meet their needs in the classroom. Most gifted programs begin at age eight or nine when identification of student ability is easier and where there are more educators sensitive to the needs of high-ability students (Cohen & Jipson 1998).

These articles present a strong case for early identification and intervention. The authors here have studied and worked with young gifted children and have seen the hunger for new challenges transform into disinterest, the extraordinary capacity for reflection and creative thinking, energy, and enthusiasm gradually surrender to frustration and boredom as they sit in classrooms that fail to meet their educational needs. Miraca Gross' article brings an urgency to the discussion of early identification and intervention and addresses the negative consequences that can result when schools do not recognize highly gifted young children. By the time these children reach the eligible age for gifted programs, many of them have lost so much of the original spark and have learned to ignore their own talents and interests as no longer worthy of attention. As Patricia Weber's article demonstrates in the experience of a young second-grader, a gifted child's abilities can easily become invisible when the demands of the classroom cause him to tune out and become a behavior problem, and, when neatness takes precedence over originally of thought. Both these articles underscore the importance of investigating deeply entrenched biases and prejudices that prevent schools from recognizing and encouraging young gifted children in the classroom.

Early identification is often the hurdle that stops many educators from taking the first step to help their gifted students. Physical, social, and cognitive development in young children is rapid and uneven. For this reason, identification demands alternative selection procedures, often combining testing with other methods such as nominations by parents and teachers, evaluations of school work (which could include artistic and creative achievements as well as academic assignments in class), portfolios shared by parents of children's projects at home, and interviews with parents and community members. In this regard, Cathie Harrison shares her own experience in art evaluation to show how teachers can identify gifted students based on their drawings. Ibrahim Kolo from Nigeria describes how Nigerian schools combine testing with teacher nomination to select talented preschoolers. Naomi Sankar-DeLeeuw provides some useful insights on how parents and teachers in an Australian community view early identification and the different options for intervention available to young gifted students. Talent shows itself in a variety of ways as long as schools are willing to use different strategies for identifying it (parent and teacher observations and portfolios of children's work, for example).

Once parents and teachers have established that a child is gifted, they need to consider how to respond to the special challenges she presents. A few examples from parents I know may illustrate the point:

      When my son was three years old, we took him to a forest preserve, where
   they had an exhibit on a woolly mammoth. The display included actual bones
   found on that site. Later on that day, at home, we were amazed to see that
   he created a replica of the skeleton, using his wooden brio train tracks!

      As a toddler, our son had an incredible curiosity about fans. This
   expand to furnaces and air conditioning. He inspected every "unit" within a
   five block radius. Once he felt satisfied--years and years later--he's
   expanded his interest to anatomy and space as well as music!

      My daughter is in first grade but goes to second grade for math. The
   teacher was discussing the commutative property of addition with the class
   that 3+5 is the same as 5+3. She then asked about subtraction--was 5-3 the
   same as 3-5. The other students all said the 3-5 was impossible, but Emily
   said it was possible and the it was "under zero." She said, "two under
   zero." She had invented negative numbers all by herself.

      We first noticed Elizabeth was unusual at age two when, upon hearing
   Copeland's Rodeo on TV used as an ad, identified the title and composer
   after hearing it for the second time. Elizabeth (age six) does fifth grade
   reading .... She writes great poetry and creates her own experiments and
   math problems.

Clearly, the regular school curriculum cannot meet the educational needs of children such as these. Researchers and educators in the field of young gifted children have found that the response to this kind of talent must involve a creative and multidimensional curriculum. At the same time, it should not exceed their cognitive development. Young gifted children need opportunities to pursue ideas across content areas, to experiment with them in unique ways, and to invent theories they can test within a pattern of growth that seeks to extend to new levels.

The regular classroom is the placement for the majority of young gifted children. With federal cuts to gifted programs and special services, many school districts have turned to the regular classroom teacher to meet the needs of its gifted population. A couple of articles here drew on recent scholarship and their own expertise to offer some clear directions on how to challenge young gifted students in the classroom. Using Piaget's equilibration theory, LeoNora Cohen explains the unique cognitive development of gifted children and how they seek equilibrium by acquiring a knowledge of the concepts and principles they are learning. Martha Morelock and Karin Morrison analyze a multidimensional curriculum model that offers many options for learning, appropriate to the advanced abilities and thinking capacity that talented young children possess. Both these articles have implications for teachers and provide useful guidance in designing and implementing learning activities in mixed-ability classrooms.

Parents of young gifted students also play a critical role in intervention, as Sankar-DeLeauw's article showed. They are the children's first teachers and are in a unique position to enhance the talents of their children in vital ways. Peggy Snowden and Linda Christian present an important study of the parenting styles one population found most effective for young gifted children. From their earliest years, gifted children need to feel free to be themselves and it is the parents who first nurture this freedom. Through guidance and encouragement, they can help build their inner strength and resiliency that will endure. For students who attend schools where no services exist for young gifted children, a creative and nurturing home is a refuge where they can safely engage their talents free from the fear of criticism and pressure to conform.

Creating and assessing curricula and programs must follow the discoveries scholars and educators have made about what these exceptional children need and how their learning styles dictate their interests and methods of acquiring knowledge. Using a real case as an example, Nancy Hertzog and Susan Fowler explore the process of evaluating a gifted program for young children that absorbs the recent developments in gifted education and early childhood. The article points to the complexities involved in creating a consensus among administrators, parents, and teachers about what young children need and the best design for developing their interests and talents. Any assessment of services for young gifted students, whether it be differentiated instruction in the classroom or a special self-contained program, must ultimately lie with the children in question--their growth, enthusiasm, and excitement for learning.

REFERENCES

Cohen, LeoNora M., and Jipson, Janice A. (1998). Conceptual models: Their role in early education for the gifted and talented child. In J.F. Smutny (Ed.), The Young Gifted Child: Potential and Promise, and Anthology (pp. 390-419). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.

Smutny, Joan Franklin, Walker, Sally Yahnke, and Mechstroth, Elizabeth A. (1997). Teaching Young Gifted Children in the Regular Classroom: Identifying, Nurturing, and Challenging Ages 4-9. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing, Inc.

Joan Franklin Smutny is Director of the Center for Gifted at National-Louis University, Evanston, Illinois. She teaches graduate courses in gifted education and directs programs for hundreds of children and young people, ages 4 to grade 11. In 1996 she was awarded the NAGC Distinguished Service Award for contributions to the field of gifted education. She is author and co-author of several books including Teaching Young Gifted Children in the Regular Classroom (Free Spirit), and editor of The Young Gifted Child: Potential and Promise (Hampton Press). ent Based on