Gifted and Talented Children

Excerpt

Children labeled gifted and talented are those ‘‘with outstanding talent who perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experiences or environment’’ (US Department of Education 1993, 3). Children who evidence such exceptional abilities compose 3 to 5 percent of the school-aged population (depending on how ‘‘gifted and talented’’ is defined). These children may be advanced in their intellectual ability; demonstrate academic acceleration, usually in multiple domains; and/or evidence extraordinary creativity. Other characteristics commonly associated with giftedness include a high level of language and reasoning skills and exceptional long-term memory (Pfeiffer 2012a). Gifted and talented children are frequently described as being perfectionistic, idealistic, and highly sensitive to their own expectations and those of others, and having more advanced problem-solving and linguistic skills when compared to their same-age peers (Webb et al. 2007).