Versions of the following conversation can often
be heard when young gifted children start school. "Bill
doesn't belong in kindergarten!" the parent cries. "Look,
he's reading at the fourth-grade level and has already learned
two-column addition." The teacher or principal, having already
decided this is a 'pushy parent,' replies, "Well, Mrs. Smith,
Bill certainly doesn't belong in first grade; he hasn't learned
to tie his shoelaces, and he can't hold a pencil properly, and
he had a tantrum yesterday in the hall."
The problem in this continuing controversy is
that both parties are usually correct. Some gifted children entering
kindergarten have acquired academic skills far beyond those of
their age mates. Such children master the academic content of
kindergarten when they are 3 years old. However, their physical
and social development may be similar to that of other 5-year-olds,
making an accelerated placement a mismatch as well. The usual
solution is to place a child like Bill in a program matched to
his weaknesses, rather than to his strengths. Bill usually ends
up in kindergarten, where his advanced intellectual development
becomes a frustration to his teacher, an embarrassment to his
peers, and a burden to Bill.
Educators justify this placement by saying, "Bill
needs socialization; he's already so far ahead academically,
he doesn't need anything in that area." There are two major
problems with this rationale. First, educators are essentially
telling such students that there is no need for them to learn
anything in school. The second problem is revealed by examining
the so called "socialization" experienced by a brilliant
5-year-old like Bill in a kindergarten class of 25 to 30 students.
A major component of early socialization involves a child's feeling
that she or he is accepted by others--teachers and children alike.
If the teacher does not validate a gifted child's advanced abilities
and intellectual interests by making them part of the ongoing
curriculum, the child experiences no feelings of acceptance from
the teacher. If, as is highly likely, this child makes the additional
discovery that she or he is quite different from most classmates
and that communication is extremely difficult because of differences
in vocabulary and modes of expression, then the child misses
peer acceptance as well. In fact, this first school experience,
which should furnish the impetus for future enthusiasm about
learning, can be a dismal failure for the brilliant child in
a lockstep kindergarten program. Often these children learn to
hide or deny their abilities, so as to fit in better with the
other children. Or, they may develop behavioral problems or psychosomatic
symptoms such as stomachaches and headaches, causing parents
to confront the school with justifiable concern.
Understanding Uneven Development
It is important to remember that these children
very often do not develop evenly. In fact, young gifted children
frequently show peaks of extraordinary performance rather than
equally high skill levels in all cognitive areas. The child who
learns to read at age 3 or who shows unusually advanced spatial
reasoning ability, for example, may not be the child with the
highest IQ or the earliest language development. Unique patterns
of development can be observed within a group of gifted children,
and uneven development is frequently evident in the pattern of
a single child. In some cases, it seems as though children's
abilities develop in spurts, guided by changes in interest and
opportunity. Reading ability, for example, might develop almost
overnight. Children who know all their letters and letter sounds
by age 2-1/2 may remain at that level for some time, perhaps
until age 4 or 5, and then in a matter of months develop fluent
reading skills at the third or fourth grade level.
Another area of unevenness in the development
of gifted young children is found in the relationship between
advanced intellectual development and development of physical
and social skills. Evidence seems to indicate that intellectually
gifted children's performance in the physical domain may only
be advanced to the extent that the physical tasks involve cognitive
organization. And, although intellectually advanced children
tend to possess some advanced social-cognitive skills, they do
not necessarily demonstrate those skills in their social behavior.
In other words, they may understand how to solve social conflicts
and interact cooperatively, but not know how to translate their
understanding into concrete behavior.
It is not uncommon to find gifted young children
experiencing a vast gap between their advanced intellectual skills
and their less advanced physical and emotional competencies.
For example, 4- and 5-year old children may converse intelligently
about abstract concepts such as time and death and read fluently
at the fourth-grade level, yet find it difficult to hold a pencil
or to share their toys with others.
Often these uneven developmental levels can
lead to extreme frustration, as children find that their limited
physical skills are not sufficiently developed to carry out the
complex projects they imagined. These children may throw tantrums
or even give up on projects without trying. Adult guidance in
developing coping strategies can help such children set more
realistic goals for themselves and learn how to solve problems
effectively when their original efforts do not meet their high
expectations.
Adults, too, can be misled by children's advanced
verbal ability or reasoning skill into expecting equally advanced
behavior in all other areas. It is unsettling to hold a high-level
conversation with a 5 year-old who then turns around and punches
a classmate who stole her pencil. Sometimes young children's
age-appropriate social behavior is interpreted as willful or
lazy by parents and teachers whose expectations are unrealistically
high. The only accurate generalization that can be made about
the characteristics of intellectually gifted young children is
that they demonstrate their unusual intellectual skills in a
wide variety of ways and that they form an extremely heterogeneous
group with respect to interests, skill levels in particular areas,
social development, and physical abilities.
Understanding the unique developmental patterns
often present in gifted children can help parents, and teachers
as well, adjust their expectations of academic performance in
young children to a more reasonable level.
Choosing a Program or School
One of the few psychological truths educators
and psychologists agree upon states that the most learning occurs
when an optimal match between the learner's current understanding
and the challenge of new learning material has been carefully
engineered. Choosing a program or school for a gifted child who
masters ideas and concepts quickly but who behaves like a typical
4- or 5-year-old is indeed a challenge.
Many intellectually gifted children master the
cognitive content of most preschool and kindergarten programs
quite early. They come to school ready and eager to learn concepts
not usually taught until an older age. However, academic tasks
designed for older children often require the learner to carry
out teacher-directed activities while sitting still and concentrating
on written work sheets. Young children, no matter how bright
they are, require active involvement with learning materials
and often do not have the writing skills required for above-grade-level
work.
Since many gifted children will hide their abilities
so as to fit in more closely with classmates in a regular program,
teachers may not be able to observe advanced intellectual or
academic abilities directly. If a kindergartner enters school
with fluent reading ability, the parent should share this information
at the beginning of the year instead of waiting until the end
of the year to complain that the teacher did not find out that
the child could read. When parents and teachers pool their observations
of a child's skills, they begin to work together to develop appropriate
educational options for nurturing those abilities. Parents whose
children have some unusual characteristics that will affect their
learning needs have an obligation to share that information with
educators, just as educators have an obligation to listen carefully
to parent concerns.
When the entry level of learners is generally
high but extremely diverse, an appropriate program must be highly
individualized. Children should be encouraged to progress at
their own learning rate, which will result in most cases in subject
matter acceleration. The program should be broadly based, with
planned opportunities for development of social, physical, and
cognitive skills in the informal atmosphere of an early childhood
classroom.
One primary task of teachers is to make appropriately
advanced content accessible to young children, taking into account
individual social and physical skills. Lessons can be broken
into short units, activities presented as games, and many concepts
taught through inquiry-oriented dialogue and experimentation
with manipulatable materials. Language experience activities
in reading and the use of manipulatable math materials as described
in products like Mathematics Their Way (Baratta-Lorton, 1976)
are good examples of appropriate curriculum approaches.
An appropriate learning environment should also
offer a gifted young child the opportunity to discover true peers
at an early age. Parents of gifted children frequently find that,
while their child can get along with other children in the neighborhood,
an intense friendship is likely to develop with a more developmentally
equal peer met in a special class or interest-based activity.
Such parents may be dismayed to discover that this "best
friend" does not live next door but across town, and may
wonder whether or not to give in to their child's pleas for inconvenient
visits. Probably one of the most supportive activities a parent
can engage in is to help a child find a true friend and make
the effort required to permit the friendship to flower.
In looking for an appropriate program for their
gifted preschooler, then, parents must be aware of the learning
needs of young children and not be misled by so-called experts
who advocate rigid academic approaches with an emphasis on rote
memorization and repetition. Rather, wise parents will look for
open-endedness, flexible grouping, and opportunities for advanced
activities in a program that allows their child to learn in the
company of intellectual peers.
Resources
Allen, R. V., & Allen, C. (1970). Language
experiences in reading (Vols.1 & 2). Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia
Britannica Press.
Baratta-Lorton, M. (1976). Mathematics their
way: An activity center mathematics program for early childhood
education. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley.
Roedell, W. C. (1989). Early development of
gifted children. In VanTassel-Baska, J. & Olszewski-Kubilius,
P. (Eds.), Patterns influence on gifted learners (pp.13-28).
New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Roedell, W. C., Jackson, N. E., & Robinson,
H. B. (1980). Gifted young children. New York, NY: Teachers College
Press.
Spivack, G., & Shure, M. B. (1974). Social
adjustment of young children. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Additional Reading
Smutny, J. F., Veenker, K., Veenker, S. (1989).
Your gifted child: How to recognize and develop the special talents
in your child from birth to age seven. A practical source book
containing a wealth of information for parents and educators
of young gifted children. Leads parents through infancy and early
childhood, discussing topics such as language development, creativity,
and how to choose schools. Provides a developmental checklist.
New York, NY: Facts On File. Also available from The Council
for Exceptional Children/ The ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities
and Gifted Education.
Wendy C. Roedell, Ph.D., is Director of the
Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program at Educational
Service District 121 in Seattle, Washington and senior author
of Gifted Young Children.
Adapted by permission of the publisher from
VanTassel-Baska, Joyce L. and Olszewski-Kubilius, Paula, Early
development of gifted children by Wendy C. Roedell from Patterns
of influence on gifted learners, The home, the self, and the
school. (New York: Teachers College Press, 1989) by Teachers
College, Columbia University, pp. 13-28, All rights reserved.
ERIC Digests are in the public domain and may
be freely reproduced and disseminated, but please acknowledge
your source. This publication was prepared with funding from
the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research
and Improvement, under Contract No. RI88062007. The opinions
expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions
or policies of OERI or the Department of Education.
