What You Should Know About Children's Giftedness

What makes a child gifted and talented may not always be good grades in school, but a different way of looking at the world and learning.

Definition

Children with enhanced ability or potential in one or more areas compared to other children of similar age are called Gifted Children. They may come from different social, economic, ethnic or racial backgrounds. 

All these children excel in their abilities to think, reason and understand and to help them develop their potential to full, they need special educational programs, services and support.

Reason To Get A Child Tested For Giftedness

Getting your child tested for giftedness is beneficial for both; the parents as well as the kid.

 It helps to recognise the strength of a child at an early stage which enables their parents to provide extra support and guidance that is required for the development of their child’s abilities into talents. This also helps the parents to choose the special training programs that their child needs so that his strengths emerge completely.  

Giftedness is sometimes accompanied by certain weaknesses in children. These need to be handled as well. Gifted Assessments enable the parents and teachers to know if the child is suffering from any learning disability and needs special care in specific areas or not.

When done at the right age, children with learning disabilities are sent for special accommodations in school at an early stage. Hence the child as well as the parents learns to manage them well in a way that they do not have much impact on the overall development & growth of the child.

Right Age For Getting Assessed

This is an important aspect to be considered. Although the characteristics of a gifted child become visible at quite at an early age, it is suggested by the experts, to wait until the age of six before getting any testing done.

Psychological Experts believe that the IQ of children does not completely develop before this age. Therefore it is difficult to expect that any of the tests done before this age will give accurate results.

However, you should keep track of various developmental milestones. In case you notice certain signs or symptoms which show that a child may be gifted, you should keep them stimulated and engaged in various learning activities.

You could have extra classes in letters and reading. If you find your child interested in numbers, you can choose to engage them in numbers and math activities.  You can also plan visits to science museums and nature preserves if your child has a scientific inclination or art museums & galleries if they love art.

Many people also choose to enrol their children in Music programs at a very young age. For children, it is an important tool to develop their senses and learning abilities further. 

Types of Tests in Gifted Assessments 

There are two types of tests for these assessments: IQ Tests and Achievement Tests. Both tests come with their own set of advantages and disadvantages. It is often suggested that a combination of these tests is taken to get the most accurate results.

• IQ Tests:  There are individual as well as group IQ test to measure the ability of the child. Some of them are Otis-Lemmon, Independent IQ tests, WISC-IV, Stanford-Binet, and Weschler Intelligence Scale etc

• Achievement Test: These tests measure the special ability child excels in. They measure their special talent and motivation. 
  
  

Like in any other test, there are chances that the test may give inaccurate results. Also, Giftedness is dynamic and may change over time. Hence it is essential that the test are conducted by qualified experts with care and precision.

Conclusion

A Gifted child is born with a lot of responsibilities for his parents. If his parents are careful to note their child’s special potential at the right age, they are able to get the best programs for their child.

Toronto Psychological Services offer counselling, assessments and therapies for various mental health diseases and disorders. They help in the early detection of gifted abilities of your child so that you can give them the right guidance and help through their growing years. 

Whether it is Marriage Counsellor or an Anger Management  Expert,  you can find various trained professionals on their website.