Students who are identified as gifted have academic, social, and emotional experiences that are informed by both their cognition and their identification. Similarly, highly able students who are overlooked and remain unidentified have extra layers of social and emotional complexity to negotiate. While the label should not uniquely define the…

This study describes a descriptive quantitative study and a binomial logistic regression model that looked at a total population versus academically gifted and talented population in Grades 3-6 in a small southeastern school district. Both populations were examined through the independent variables classified as age, gender, and socioeconomic…

Great performance is a wonder to observe. We may notice creativity, excellent technique, or content mastery. What we may not notice is a set of mental and social skills that allow a person to show his or her best work. This article recommends that these psychosocial skills be explicitly and deliberately cultivated via programming, coaching, and…

When used informally, talent development refers to the deliberate cultivation of ability or giftedness in a specific domain. However, recent discussions have used talent development to refer to a particular framework for viewing giftedness and the education of gifted children. In this article, the authors will present their views on the meaning of…

The article relates the concept of giftedness and ways of identifying giftedness to Jean Piaget's theories of intelligence. Four implications are indicated, including that distinctions between gifted and nongifted children can be made at the end of the concrete operational level (about 8-10 years old). (CL)

A former child "prodigy" recounts her experiences at school to suggest that intellectual achievement is not always due to extraordinary analytic reasoning ability and that precocity may be nonrationl. J. Stanley responds by citing others' work on the topic and suggesting the construct may not survive strong scrutiny. (CL)

Assessment of conceptual level of 130 secondary students identified as gifted and 131 students from schools without gifted programs revealed significantly higher scores for gifted students. Findings suggested that such a measure of cognitive complexity may enhance identification of gifted students. (CL)

Interrelationships of intellectual ability, task commitment, and creativity were examined for gifted fifth through seventh graders. Ss were administered the Crockett Role Category Inventory, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. As expected, no significant correlations among test results were noted. However,…

A psychiatrist describes causative factors (e.g., difficult childbirth, cerebral hypoxemy), behaviors (e.g., motor instability, irritability, enuresis), and abilities (e.g., extrasensory perception, telepathy) that he has associated with giftedness but that are not widely recognized. He also advocates the use of ambidextrous training and Losanov…

Describes and evaluates a Head Start project, Bringing Out Head Start Talents, designed to train staff, parents, and volunteers to identify and develop appropriate programming for funtionally or potentially gifted children, and to develop procedures to ensure smooth transitions and appropriate programming in public schools. (BB)

A study of 348 Canadian students (grades 6-8) identified as gifted by domain-general criteria, investigated whether the students would score at similar levels on linguistic, logical/mathematical, and social/emotional measures or whether their scores would indicate domain-differentiated patterns of development. Results indicate the students had…

One of the most important experiences in a child's life begins when he starts formal school, most often at age 5. Going to kindergarten is thrilling and sometimes scary but always an adventure. At this time, children come together from all walks of life; all types of families; at all levels of development; and with a vast array of skills,…

After participating in a 4-week demonstration project focusing on enriching skills in cognition, memory, convergent and divergent thinking, creativity, and problem solving, 68 potentially gifted 4- and 5- year-olds (many from culturally-diverse and/or low socioeconomic backgrounds) made significant gains in their ability to reason with figures and…

The text reviews characteristics of gifted students and educational approaches for gifted and talented students. A definition of giftedness is presented in the first chapter. The development of giftedness is traced in the next two chapters (sample subtopics in parentheses): becoming gifted (prenatal and perinatal influences and intellectual…

Use of the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA) with minority disadvantaged children in an urban school district resulted in increased numbers of African-American students (grades two through five) being eligible for gifted programing. Comparison with African-American students selected by traditional means found similar levels of…