6A Jennifer Cika - Response to Agostino Ragozzino

     I enjoyed reading your paper. I really feel that gifted children are left out, so to speak when it comes to education. Many school are so focused on the “regular” population or the “special needs” population on the other end of the spectrum (for example EBD, Learning Disabilities etc.) that they lack involvement with students who need supplemental material to keep up with how advanced or ahead they are. This in turn makes these students perform negatively or act up because they are bored, with no material to challenge them.

     When I worked with high school students we had a student that was gifted. He was also diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder and placed in our Emotional Disturbance classroom. Any work that he was given he got done quickly, he got bored, he was not challenged because there were many other students who needed more help than he did at times. Because he was bored he acted out, cause distractions, got into fights and would not listen to anything he was told. His first year with us was a struggle. Once we got to know him and we realized that he needed to be challenged and given more engaging activities and planned accordingly most of his behaviors stopped. This makes me wonder how many children are labeled as troubled are really gifted and need to be challenged more.

1    1.  What defines a gifted child?

     A gifted child is defined as one who shows evidence of high achievement capabilities in many     areas. These areas can be intellectual, creativeness, artistic, and high intelligence in many academic areas in school.

2    2. What are the characteristics of a gifted child?

     Gifted children’s characteristics can be different depending on the child. There is no one characteristic that is the same for every child. They can be the typical child that seems to be a perfectionist or an atypical student that may appear to be lazy, unorganized and sometimes unmotivated. They may have unusual alertness, have an excellent memory, have a large vocabulary and advanced comprehension and enjoy solving problems. They may be highly sensitive and vivid imaginations.

3    3. What assessments are used to identify a gifted child?

     The assessments that are used to identify a gifted child are the Iowa test, Bateria III Woodcock Munoz, Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales5th edition and the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test 2^nd edition. 

4    4. What myths exist regarding gifted children?

     Some myths in regards to these children are that they do not need help with their schooling, that the teachers challenge all children, accelerated placements hurt them, gifted children are happy and popular, and that they have a disability.

      5. What resources are available for gifted children? Their parents?

     Some resources for gifted children are differentiation in the regular education classroom, cluster grouping, grade acceleration, resource session outside of the regular education classroom, grade acceleration for specific content, and individualized services.

Some resources for parents are The National Association for Gifted Children, Mensa for Kids and The Gifted Child Society.