ALTAS CAPACIDADES
GIFTED AND TALENTED PEOPLE
Different kinds of Talent
SIMPLE TALENT
Shows high proficiency or competence, above the 95th percentile, in a specific area.
COMPLEX TALENT
It shows a high capability, above the 80th percentile, in three or more cognitive abilities.
INTELLECTUAL EXCEPTIONALLY GIFTED
It shows a high level, above the 75th percentile, in all areas: logical reasoning, perceptual management, memory management, verbal reasoning, mathematical reasoning, spatial aptitude and creativity.
High Capabilities / High academic performance
Often, High Capabilities are often confused with “high academic performance”
We think that these are hardworking children, who write and read perfectly, who show interest in following the class, obtaining high academic marks.
However, many times intelligence implies just the opposite:
- Restlessness (both physical and mental)
-Rebellion and difficulty accepting rules when not reasoned.
In fact, gifted people are sometimes confused with ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder with or without Hyperactivity)
Dispelling Myths
The main difference between a brilliant student and gifted one is the great sensitivity demonstrated by the latter.
In order to understand what these children really are, you have to get rid of the myths that have been present in our society for years
Generally they are not:
- High performance people, on the contrary, show frequent school failure.
- Motivated children, if they do not receive special education, are usually bored and unmotivated.
- Children with Attention Deficit Disorder do not need medication, they are just bored.
- Hyperactive children do not need medication. They need to do interesting activities.
- Children with Challenging Negativist Disorder. They rebel because nobody understands them.
- Children with Avoidance Disorder. They avoid others because they reject them.
- Sick children. Giftedness is not a disease; it is a gift.
- Problematic children, if they give problems it is because they need help.
- Children who do not need anything, have Special Educational Needs according to Law.
- Impossible children, need love, attention and support to be happy, like everyone else.
OFTEN:
- They learn to read very soon and have great ease with numbers.
- They are in their world, abstracted in their things and are quite clueless.
- They are very sensitive.
- They think fast, learn fast and have a good memory.
- They are very demanding of themselves and others.
- They are mentally hyperactive, and have many interests at once.
- Children with low self-esteem, withdrawn and / or behavioral problems, and poor resistance to frustration.
Giftedness Useful Info
-They tend to question rules and authority.
-They are imaginative, ask a lot and have a special sense of humor
WHAT SIGNS CAN INDICATE PARENTS THEIR CHILDREN ARE GIFTED?
There are talented, smart, early children and only a group of these children will be exceptionally gifted. We cite some characteristics that can warn parents about the possible presence of Giftedness:
- They emit phrases when others do not even say a word.
- They can show great sensitivity to certain issues, even becoming exaggerated for their age.
- They ask a lot of questions, some can be complicated.
- They are motivated by intellectual challenges.
- They usually get bored and demotivated in class.
- Normally, they relate better to older children and adults.
- Sometimes, they worry too much about things.
- They have an early talent.
- They look at details that usually go unnoticed
- They easily understand data, information, relationship between concepts.
- They have a great memory and learn easily.
A different approach to learning
The brain of these children has a greater logical capability, which lets them reasoning better and learning much faster. They have a different way and pace of learning that does not always fit with the current teaching system (curriculum according to age). Many of them have skills that do not stand out in the current school, they have interests that they cannot deepen into because the curriculum does not contemplate them at that time (such as astronomy, chemistry, physics, history, philosophy ...)
Distinctive feelings
Gifted people have a special sensitivity. Due to their emotional intensity, they are usually accused of melodramatics. However, the emotions they feel are real. For them a grain of sand is really a mountain.
These children “have a capability to get deeply emotional. They develop strong ties with people, places and things. ” (Research psychologist and psychiatrist KazimierzDabrowsky)
90% of these children have a very high sensitivity, as well as a high sense of justice (American psychologist research LetaHollingworth)
OVEREXCITABILITIES
Talented people are usually characterized by extreme sensitivity aused by various stimuli. This type of nature is described as overexcitability or extrasensitivity.
Overexcitabilities are innate intensities that indicate a high capacity to respond to external or internal stimuli.
A person can own one or more of these. "He who manifests various forms of OE sees reality in a different way, stronger and from more points of view"
Dabrowski identified five areas of intensity:
-PSYCHOMOTOR (high excitability of the neuromuscular system, includes a “capacity to be active and energetic.” When they feel emotionally tense, they may talk compulsively, act impulsively, behave badly and overreact, show nervous habits, over-strain)
-SENSITIVE (experience exacerbated through the 5 senses. You can find the labels of the clothes, the noise of the class or the smells of the cafeteria as something so disturbing that the duties of the school go to the background)
-INTELLECTUAL (incredibly active minds, have the need to seek understanding and truth, to acquire knowledge, analyze and synthesize. They tend to love theory, think about thinking and moral reasoning, often translates into a great concern for moral and justice issues. They can get so excited about an idea that they interrupt their interlocutor at inappropriate times)
-IMAGINATIVE (great imagination regarding the association of images and prints. They mix the truth with fiction and create their own private worlds with imaginary companions to escape boredom. They find it very difficult to be attentive in class when creativity and imagination are secondary regarding a rigid education. They may have difficulties in finishing the tasks if some incredible idea comes to mind and leads them to an imaginary world)
-EMOTIONAL (very intense and enhanced feelings, complex extreme emotions, identification with the feelings of others and a strongly affective expression. They have great capacity for deep relationships, show strong connections with people, some places and things. They can include physical responses such as pain of stomach and concern about death and depression. These children are often accused of "overreacting" to situations. The intensity of their feelings can interfere with their daily tasks)
Identification
It is very important to identify the Giftedness as soon as possible in order to carry out an evaluation and meet their needs, both educational and emotional, that the child may have.
Often, having a report confirming the existence of these High Capabilities helps parents understand many attitudes and eliminate other suspicions. The objective is not the "label", but the attention of the child's needs.
The formal identification of High Intellectual Capabilities is carried out through the performance of a test battery.
Developing Potential
The High Capacities have great potential to develop, however, so that this potential develops in fullness and becomes a tangible talent, it is necessary that the school and family work together, having as a priority to strengthen the character and personality of the child, offering the necessary stimuli and challenges. Keep in mind that some gifted children with exceptional skills may NOT show exceptional levels of performance, due to various circumstances such as; poverty, discrimination, cultural barriers, disabilities, learning disorders, motivation, emotional problems, etc.
When these potentials are not worked, different emotional problems can appear, leading to having children medicated and mistakenly treated for ADHD, Asperger, Challenging Negativist Disorders, etc., when they are simply gifted and feel misunderstood.
Some inherent difficulties to Giftedness
LOW PERFORMANCE SYNDROME
It is the state in which it is considered that a talented person suffers to live fully and takes refuge in negative acts for their condition. There are acts such as loss of interest in classes, isolation or disinterest in developing their abilities. Low-performance syndrome can also be the result of emotional or psychological factors, such as depression, anxiety, perfectionism or self-sabotage. This state must be evaluated and treated by a psychologist.
DISYNCHRONY SYNDROME
Gifted children usually have asynchronous development, since their intellectual development is ahead of their growth. As a consequence, cognitive and emotional functions can develop unevenly. They may be able to understand determinative events or ideas at the level of an adult, but not to manage the emotions that this causes, since, due to their young age and little experience, they still do not have the necessary tools to do so.This asynchronous development It can make them seem more immature than they are. They can move faster through the stages of cognitive development.
The aspects of the dyssynchrony syndrome that occurs inside the child are of three orders:
Disharmony between the intellectual level and the emotional level of the child.
Dysynchrony between the lexical sector and the graphic sector in the small ones, since the former is better than the latter because the psychomotor evolution is slower because it is linked to the child's real age, causing them problems in learning to write.
Internal lag in two points of the intellectual domain, such as language acquisition and reasoning. The mental age of the former is generally much lower than that of the latter.
Low Performance Consequences
Equality is not giving everyone the same, but giving everyone what they need.
These are some of the consequences that occur when children are underperforming because their needs are not met:
- lack of empathy and assertiveness
- Low self-esteem, lack of confidence in themselves
- absence of motivation, boredom
- emotional disorders
- depression, anxiety
- feeling of absence and loneliness
- Social isolation
- atrophy their intellectual tools
- At home there may be tension and aggressive responses
- create family dependency relationships
We attend the consequences, forgetting the causes. We confuse qualification with effort
Bibliography: Wikipedia, Diagnostico y Evaluación de los más capaces, El Mundo del Superdotado
