Different of Gifted Child

Gifted children have SPECIAL NEEDS.

They are NOT like other children and ignoring their giftedness leads to later emotional problems. This is because gifted development is asynchronous, meaning different aspects of the child’s development progress at different rates – for example, a particular 7 year old child may be reading at the level of an average 10 year old, doing maths at the level of an average 14 year old, but only have the emotional maturity of a typical 4 year old. This uneven development can lead to serious problems if not understood and handled correctly. It is therefore important to identify your gifted child as such.

Giftedness is not limited to only child prodigies and the profoundly gifted. Another big area of misunderstanding about giftedness is we tend to think of the gifted as those prodigies or those profoundly/exceptionally gifted – however, “gifted” typically applies to the top 2% of the population, with a “qualifying IQ” of 130.

This means that statistically 1 in 50 are gifted, not such a rare occurence after all – but also not so common considering there still remain 49 out of 50 not classified as such.
Mildly, moderately, highly and profoundly gifted children are as different from each other as mildly, moderately, severely and profoundly retarded children are from each other, but the differences among levels of giftedness are rarely recognized.
When one child in the family is identified as gifted, the chances are great that all members of the family are gifted.

Giftedness can be observed in the first three years by rapid progression through the developmental milestones. These milestones should be documented and taken seriously as evidence of giftedness. Early identification of advanced development is as essential as early identification of any other exceptionality. Early intervention promotes optimal development.