Educating the gifted child
A gifted child often develops intellectually at a much faster rate than they develop physically, emotionally and socially. Their abilities may be broad or limited to specific subjects, and this uneven development can shape how they experience school, friendships and learning.
‘Gifted’ or ‘more able’?
For years, the most able children were called ‘gifted’ (learners who have particular academic abilities) or ‘talented’ (learners with particular abilities in the creative arts or PE). However, the terminology has long been debated, with some educators and parents viewing it as elitist or overly simplistic.
These days, the labels used to describe those with the highest learning potential vary from school to school. Ofsted uses the term ‘most able’, but you may also come across ‘more able’, ‘highly able’ and ‘high achiever’ which are felt to be more inclusive than ‘gifted’.
How can you tell if your child is gifted?
The most able – or gifted – children are those who have the capacity to achieve or perform at the very highest levels. There isn’t a set of government standards, or boxes to tick, which point to your child being ‘gifted’. However, a gifted child may:
Have a wide vocabulary and perhaps talked early.
Ask lots of perceptive, insightful questions and learn more quickly than others
Be extremely curious and able to concentrate for long periods on subjects of interest
Be interested in topics normally associated with older children
Get bored and fidgety when not intellectually challenged
Have a wide general knowledge and curiosity about the world
Enjoy problem-solving, often missing out intermediate stages and making original connections
Have an unusual and vivid imagination
Have learned to read at an early age
Show strong feelings and opinions and have an odd sense of humour
Set high standards and show perfectionist tendencies but lose interest when asked to repeat work
Be more comfortable communicating with adults than with their peers
If you think your child is developing significantly in advance of their years and peers, it’s worth talking to their teacher who will have a good understanding of age-related expectations.
You could also contact the charity Potential Plus to fill out their questionnaire on key characteristics of more able children. Children aged 4.5 and over can also have a full assessment. The results could be useful not just for you, but your school.
Challenges facing gifted children
It is very easy to destroy the self-confidence of any child, particularly when they are very able. Their experiences with their teachers, peers and parents are crucial, and it is always important to look for the indicators which suggest that a difficult, unhappy or bored child has hidden talents.
While many people might assume it’s a blessing having a gifted child, the reality is that rapidly grasping what others cannot frequently leads to boredom, frustration and inappropriate behaviour.
Some of the problems facing a gifted child include:
Success does not necessarily equal popularity; gifted children can struggle socially in cultures uncomfortable with celebrating achievement
Gifted children are often misdiagnosed, bullied or disaffected
Their intellect is more advanced than their social and emotional development
They may find it hard to mix with peers whose thinking processes differ from their own
Classroom work may feel painstakingly slow but they keep their head down as they don't want to seem arrogant and precocious
Fast workers are often told to ‘do more of the same', but repetition is anathema to a brain that picks up ideas quickly
If teachers do not understand how a gifted child thinks and works, boredom may lead to disengagement, school avoidance or disruptive behaviour
No wonder the more able child may find their world very confusing at times.
How can parents help a gifted child?
Gifted children need challenging learning experiences both at school and at home. Evening, weekend and holiday time activities, which include children of a wide age range, can help to ground the child’s emotional and social development.
Gifted and talented learners often like to find things out for themselves. Providing access to a computer with the internet can assist independent learning skills – with all the appropriate safeguarding in place.
Extending your child’s knowledge of the world can help. Discuss issues raised by the news, TV programmes and films. Visit museums, art galleries and the theatre.
Consider the potential problems listed above, seeking solutions to any that your child is facing.
British Mensa provides support to families with highly able children.
What support should gifted children expect from school?
In the past, the top 5 to 10 per cent of primary school children were labelled as ‘gifted and talented’ and allocated specific funding to support their needs. These days, there are no formal guidelines on how best to provide for these children, let alone a national funding framework. This means provision for gifted children varies from school to school.
That said, all schools should have a written, and openly available, policy on how their most able are managed. The policy should include how children are identified and what measures are put in place to stretch and challenge them at every stage of their school career. School inspectors expect to see evidence that the policy is working.
Every school should also have a dedicated person (sometimes part of the learning support department) to oversee how this policy is implemented. This person should encourage best practice among all teachers and ensure the children are stimulated and stretched both in the classroom (‘teaching to the top’) and perhaps via a special enrichment programme.
The school should also support the emotional and social needs of gifted children with particular attention given to recognised difficulties surrounding friendships, perfectionism and low confidence.
For some parents the most obvious solution is putting the child in a higher year group. But while this strategy works well for some children (as can moving up for certain subjects) it is not a panacea: older children can be hostile to a younger child joining their peer group; the child may have the academic but not the social skills to cope; and many secondary schools are unwilling to admit children out of their proper year group.
The charity the National Association for Able Children in Education works with education providers to support the provision for more able pupils.
What about pre-school?
Parents may encounter issues at toddler group, playgroup or pre-school nursery because staff do not recognise that the child can easily do the things the other children are only attempting. It can be particularly problematic when they get bored, sometimes playing up as a result.
This is best managed by parents flagging the possibility of their child being more able and discussing with staff how to include extension tasks.
Gifted children and neurodiversity
Some gifted children have SEN (autism, dyslexia, dysgraphia, auditory retention problems etc) which can compound any problems they’re already experiencing.
If you think this may apply to your child, you may want to have them assessed. The assessment will provide you with additional information about your child’s intellectual ability and potential which can help you plan the best way forward.
If their abilities are not recognised and encouraged early, there is a risk that a very able child will become withdrawn, will merge into the crowd or will develop a disruptive pattern of behaviour. These may all result in their ability going undetected for many years. It is often when schools undertake a formal assessment on the basis of poor behaviour that the truth is revealed – the child is a high ability low performer.
