Identifying Giftedness - Focuses on the traits I identified in my child & the common traits of giftedness. Explains the available & common tests of giftedness - IQ tests for children. Gagne's model & explanation.

1. IDENTIFYING GIFTEDNESS
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Dr Lakshmi Sharma Workshop on Giftedness Part 2
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The Gifted Child

2. Identifying Giftedness
• Gifted V Talented
• Identification - For Parents
• Identification - For Teachers
• Gagne’s model
• IQ Testing

3. Gifted v Talented
Naturally easy v Training corresponding mastery
Giftedness is a superior natural ability
Talent ability/skill that has been developed
exceptionally well
Francois Gagné

4. Gifted or Not ?
• Most schools identify gifted as the top 10% - 90th percentile
• Others define it as the top 5% - 95th percentile
(For schools - dependent on the cohort)
• MENSA – Top 2% - 98th percentile official testing required

5. The Obvious yet not so obvious !
• Giftedness identified early & evident much later
• The key is, what I term, the “weirdness factor”
• That moment you think wow that was weird – that’s the key!
……….you are in awe & freaked out at the same time !

6. My Personal Journey (my child)
Early Years (0-3)
• Spoke at about 8-9 months, “read” at 1.5yrs (A-Z;aaaaa bbbb)
• Early walker (Did not miss out crawling stage-Autism link)
• Monitored patterns in house – disruptions to patterns-nonstop
crying
• High concentration levels
• Puzzles – sit until completed age 2 100 pieces age 3 250 pieces
• Memorised picture on each jigsaw piece 100-weirdness factor
• Multilingual 4 lang. – bilingual fluent

7. My Personal Journey
Middle Years (3-7)
• Passionate about strategic games scrabble, chess
• Sense of Justice “why is that child always picked”
• Defining moment for thinking at higher level-logical reasoning
“I think gay marriage should be lawful I don’t understand why they
can’t marry, its so unfair ”
• Age 2-3 Asked how babies where made
• Independent learner – wants no help
• Loves adult company & older children

8. My Personal Journey
Middle Years (7-10)
• Loves any sense of challenge
• Interest in how things work & why
• Formulates own maths logical to calculate
• Frustration of illogical issues
• Speed of understanding increased
• Scans people & their intellect level

9. Identifying cognitive & social factors for gifted children of types.
For a highly gifted child usually identify most of these.
Cognitive
• High Order Thinking
• Logical Reasoning
• High level of Concentration
• Memory & Attention span – phenomenal
• Formulates own concepts/ideology
• Ability to understand quickly
• Excellent problem solving - Identifies connections maths science etc
• Demand to know why – curious
• Extremely creative both practically & thought
• Thorough in decision making
• Evaluates & Judges at high level
• Comprehends way beyond years
• Extensive Vocab, early reader,
• Early walker & talker

10. •Social
• Formulates own jokes advanced humour
• Sensitivity – extremely frustration very easily
• Strong sense of justice fairness and injustice
• Enjoys advanced issues – political/philosophical
• Constantly Energetic
• Thrives on challenges
• Fear of failure - Perfectionist
• At ease & prefers adult company & conversation
• Enjoys strategic play – chess
• Immense passion for patterns & codes
• Befriends children/adults of same intellect

11. CHECKLIST OF LEARNING AND BEHAVIOURAL CHARACTERISTICS
COMMON TO THE GIFTED AND TALENTED STUDENT
Note: A high proportion of YES responses may indicate a child of high ability
STUDENT NAME __________________________________ DATE ______________
ITEM Yes No
A LEARNING
1 Is a rapid learner, who understands advanced topics easily
2 Shows insight and fantasises about cause-effect relationships
3 Persists in completing tasks
4 Sees the problem quickly and takes the initiative
5 Learns basic skills quickly and with little practice
6 Is reluctant to practise skills already mastered, finding such practice
futile
7 Follows complex directions easily
8 Constructs and handles high levels of abstraction
9 Can cope with more than one idea at a time
10 Has strong critical thinking skills and is self-critical
11 Has surprising perception and deep insight
12 Is a keen and alert observer, notes detail and is quick to see
similarities and differences
13 Displays intellectual and physical restlessness; once encouraged, is
seldom a passive learner
14 Has a remarkable range of general (or specialized) knowledge in one
or more areas (e.g. dinosaurs)
15 Possesses extensive general knowledge (often knows more than the
teacher), and finds classroom books superficial
16 Explores wide-ranging and special interests, frequently at great depth
17 Has quick mastery and recall of information, seems to need no
revision and is impatient with repetition
18 Learns to read early and retains what is read; can recall in detail.
19 Has advanced understanding and use of language, but sometimes
hesitates as the correct word is searched for and then used
20 Sees greater significance in a story or film and continues the story
21 Demonstrates a richness of imagery in informal language and
brainstorming
22 Can ask unusual (even awkward) questions or make unusual
contributions to class discussions
23 Asks many provocative, searching questions which tend to be unlike
those asked by other students of the same age
Source DET WA, Australia
Teacher’s Observation Form for
Identifying Giftedness

12. B BEHAVIOURAL
Sets very high personal standards and is a perfectionist
Is success-oriented and hesitates to try something where failure is a
possibility
Demonstrates a sense of humour and loves incongruities, puns and
pranks
May be behind peers in manual dexterity, which can be a source of
frustration
Can have a negative self-concept and suffer from poor social
acceptance by age peers
Daydreams and seems lost in another world
Listens to only part of the explanation and sometimes appears to lack
concentration, but always knows what is going on. When questioned
usually knows the answer
Often prefers company of older students and adults
When interested, becomes absorbed for long periods and may be
impatient with interference or abrupt change
Can be stubborn in own beliefs
Shows sensitivity and reacts strongly to things causing distress or
injustice.
Empathises with others and often takes a leadership role; very
understanding and sympathetic
Shows unusual interest in adult problems such as important issues in
current affairs (local and world), evolution, justice, the universe
Source DET WA, Australia
Teacher’s Observation Form for
Identifying Giftedness

13. Teacher observation
 Includes use of progress maps, developmental continua,
Monitoring Standards materials and Teaching TAGS
observation schedules.
School records  Consider all students in the group.
Behavioural indicators
 Base judgements on objective criteria which consider
academic, social and behavioural indicators.
Class evaluations
 Obtain information from all staff involved with a student as
well as previous teachers or reports and records.
Parent information  Parents are aware of a student’s pattern of interests and
learning rates for new material. Techniques for obtaining
information can include interviews and checklists and could
be included in enrolment procedures.
Peer report  Student reports are generally reliable. The instruments need
to be carefully structured to seek efficiently broad information.
Students may nominate friends, but a pattern of responses
usually emerges. Peer reports supplement other methods.
Student self-report  Students are generally objective about themselves. Self-
reporting has been shown to relate well to peer and parent
information. Student interest inventories may be used but
value judgements and gender bias need to be considered.
Requires sympathetic approach and possibly is most effective
in an interview situation.
Achievement tests  These assess performance in school-related tasks and are
usually subject-based. Previous learning is required as is a
level of reading ability in most cases. Under-achieving or
special needs students may not be identified. Tests should
not be grade or age-limited, or culturally or content-biased.
Intelligence tests  The tasks presented are selected to reduce the amount of
formal learning that is required. Tasks require a range of
language, visual or combined problem solving strategies and
skills and are usually different from “typical” school
experiences.
Creativity tests  May identify the creative thinker who could otherwise be
overlooked. May be too narrow in scope to be used without
being supplemented by other measures, unless the
identification of creativity is the sole objective of testing.
Formal Testing for
Giftedness
Source DET WA, Australia

14. Dual Exceptionalities
• Gifted students with disabilities
• Difficult to recognise due to “masking” cognitive abilities
• Imperative:attention to disability & intellect nutured
• Difficult to test as IQ tests in general don’t account for this consider ADAH,
deafness, Learning difficulties etc.

15. Gagne’s model
Who was Gagne?
Canadian Academic- Retired
Ph. D. in Psychology from l’Université de Montréal (1966),
Department of Psychology at l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).
Research & teaching activities to the field of giftedness.
My Convictions About the Nature of Abilities, Gifts, and Talents in Journal for the Education of the
Gifted, Vol. 22, No. 2, 1999, p. 109-136
.
Gagne – A Gifted Identification model

16. Gagne Stated
A child may be born gifted, but if these gifts are not appropriately
cultivated, they will not develop into fully-formed talents.
A student may be musically gifted, without training, these gifts will not
be realized and potentially not even noticed at all.
Talent is determined based on performance relative to one’s peers or
expectations.

17. Gagné’s Model
Differentiated Model of Giftedness & Talent (2008)
Gagné’s model defines giftedness & talent
Connects to teaching and learning
Giftedness is a broad concept encompasses a range of abilities
Giftedness only potential, a transformative process in order to become a talent
Adequate school support necessary - students develop their gifts/high abilities

18. Gagne’s DMGT
M

19. Do I need an IQ test for my child?
• YES !!!
• Schools & Education Departments require an IQ test for:
Early Admittance to School
Acceleration of the Child (grade skipping)
• Parents require it for:
Guidance for the teacher & themselves - areas the child is superior in
Evidence of giftedness but the teacher has not identified
Awareness of your child’s percentile ranking
Admittance to gifted programmes & selective schools
Highlights possible weak areas of your child’s cognitive aspect

20. My Advice
• Even if your child is not gifted get an IQ test!
• The report is vital to understand your child - test targets specific areas
• What your teacher says does not always match what the test says
• The test is a fantastic non-biased measure of their “real” ability
• Be aware though that these tests target western children
• My child, non western up bringing, scored lower due to this

21. IQ Testing
Registered Educational Psychologist
Teacher (at least 4 years) with Psychology qualification
Can administer IQ testing
Full Test with Report costs $1500AUD
Cheaper Alternative – University Psychology Dept – Swinburne ($300AUD)

22. Test Type
• Wechsler Test most common & most accepted
• Stanford Binet
(Worth a mention - Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test - quick test – IQ?)

23. • Began blind folding chess players
• Mentored by Charcot (hypnotism), Influenced Piaget
• Research Assistant – SIMON
• French gov (1904):how to identify low IQ students
• Binet-Simon Scale, tasks age typical, tested 50 kids
• Intellectual development influenced by the environment
• Intelligence not based solely on genetics
Alfred Binet 1857-1911 French

24. Lewis Terman 1877-1956 USA
• Stanford University 1918:Binet-Simon to Stanford-Binet
• Introduced intelligence quotient (IQ) score for the test
• Intelligence "the ability to carry on abstract thinking“
• Used intelligence testing on numerous soldiers
• Studied 643 children scored at >IQ 140, the Genetic Studies
of Genius, evaluate 1921, 1930, 1947 &1959
• Subjects called "Termites" most extensive gifted
• Disproved highly intelligent children prone to illness

25. David Wechsler 1896 –1981
• Taught by Charles Spearman
• Non-intellectual ability are involved in intelligent behavior
• Objected to the single score 1937 Binet scale
• Role of nonintellective factors in testing.
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)1939 Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Test
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children(WISC) 1949
• Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence(WPPSI) 1967
• Removed quotient scores of older intelligence tests (the Q in "I.Q.")
• The WAIS is today the most commonly administered psychological test

26. • Different sub-tests for four different types of intelligence
verbal comprehension reason verbally
perceptual reasoning reason spatially/non-verbal
working memory maintain information & organize
processing speed measures speed of child
What does the Wechsler test actually measure

27. Hope You Enjoyed The Presentation!
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Believe & You Can Achieve!