At one school where I was a gifted/talented resource teacher, Peter entered kindergarten literally being able to read anything. Unfortunately, his parents did not understand that he was still a five-year-old emotionally and let him read books like Frankenstein and Dracula. Since he was still at such a literal stage of his life, he believed that the stories were true and was very frightened by them. Peter was also a “walking encyclopedia.” He seemed to remember every fact he ever read. Peter had no intellectual peers in kindergarten. He skipped first grade. He had no intellectual peers in second grade. From a distance, I followed Peter through the years and heard that he had no one who resembled an intellectual peer until high school. Can you imagine how difficult this was for Peter and his family? He had no one with whom he could relate, and the students in his classes really wanted nothing to do with him. They found him to be a real oddity.

 

There are gifted individuals and there are highly (or even extremely or profoundly) gifted individuals. Peter was at least a highly gifted individual. While it may be a challenge to address the needs of gifted students, it is a much greater hurdle to address the needs of the highly gifted. These children may be particularly vulnerable because of their uniqueness. It is extremely difficult for schools to meet the academic, social, and emotional needs of these kids.

 

These children are often found as a result of extremely high scores on an individually scored IQ tests, generally above the 145 IQ range. Others may be prodigies in areas such as math, science, language and/or the arts. Profoundly gifted children can score in excess of 170 IQ.

 

There are resources that are available to parents and teachers of these students.

 

The Hollingworth Center for Highly Gifted Children offers written material and web resources. In the past it has published a newsletter and held conferences. The center hopes to reestablish those services soon.

 

Among other things, The Davidson Institute for Talent Development includes many articles and a data base of resources.

 

Exceptionally Gifted Children, by Miraca U. M. Gross is a 20-year study that reveals the negative academic and social effects imposed on gifted children by inappropriate curriculum and placement and shows clearly the long lasting benefits of thoughtfully planned individual educational programs.