Gifted, Talented and Creative

                                                

                                                                               

 

DEFINITIONS:

A definition for giftedness does not exist. There is no universally agreed upon definition. The only definition that has been somewhat accepted was proposed by Sidney Marland in 1972 and was adopted by the United States Office of Education in 1977, then revised in 1981. It states:

"Gifted and talented children are those identified by a professionally qualified persons who, by virtue of outstanding abilities, are capable of high performance. These are children who required differentiated education programming and/or services beyond those normally provided by the regular school program in order to realize their contribution to self and society." (Winzer)

CLASSIFICATION/CATEGORIES

The correct terms to use in classification of giftedness are gifted, creative and talented. In the field you will also come across words such as precocious (precocity) and genius, which are good to keep in mind.
Leadership is also sometimes used as a classification.

Precocity: remarkable early development.

Genius: was the original term that described a particular aptitude or capacity. Now this term is only used in rare cases for people who demonstrate very rare intellectual powers.

Gifted: commonly used to describe children with above-average academic achievement. This intellectual ability can be measured by IQ testing with other standardized testing.

Creativity: In the 1960's definitions of giftedness began to include creativity. Creativity can be defined as bringing new ideas to different problems. Researchers have identified four components within creativity: fluency of ideas, producing a number of responses to a given stimulus, flexibility, or shifts in thinking from one category to another; originality, or unusual and clever response; and elaboration, or the addition of details to basic ideas or thoughts.

Talented: talent is above-average performance.

Leadership: ability to influence positive and productive changes that are self-enhancing or group-enhancing
                                                                         

 
PREVALENCE

It is difficult to estimate the prevalence of giftedness amongst children and youth and the population at large due to the fact that there is no universally accepted definition. It is however, assumed, that traits of giftedness, creativity and talent will be displayed by a small percentage of the population. It is estimated that giftedness occurs in 2 to 5 percent of school-aged children (Winzer).

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS

It is not fully understood what factors appear to contribute the most to giftedness, however heredity and environment are both important in the development of children who are gifted and talented. The suggestion that intelligence and abilities are inherited is not popular within today's society but behavioural genetics makes it abundantly clear that genetic transmission plays a significant role in the development of intelligence. This does not deny the great influence of environment on cognitive development, genetic factors are certainly influential, but the unique development of gifted traits only occurs through specific interactions within family units, and with appropriate education and training. There is no race, ethnic group or culture which holds a monopoly over giftedness, however the statistic probability is that giftedness increases when the child's parents have a higher intelligence level and better than average home environment. Other contributing environment factors which most clearly affect the development of giftedness are; values and expectations of the culture, socio-economic level of the family with accompanying health and nutrition variables, attitudes and values, number of children in the family, and environmental stimulation. Bright children can also come from lower socio-economic homes but not as often. Lack of motivation, family expectations, neighbourhood aspirations and financial pressures may be intervening factors (Winzer).