Gifted and Talented
Students with intellectual abilities and academic skills above the 98th percentile are referred to as "Gifted and Talented." Such students often:
- Learn academic skills easily with little apparent effort
- Have superb oral language and reasoning abilities
- Have a superb, insightful sense of humor
- Like to experiment, create and imagine
- Analyze and combine ideas in a novel manner
- Retain extensive information with a single presentation
- Are capable of intense concentration and sustained attention
- Have a wide range of interests and activities
- Have a natural joy of learning and curiosity about the world
Gifted children have many advantages over other students. Many of them can excel academically with little effort. They can reason, create and communicate with exceptional talent. They also can have the same challenges, obstacles and disabilities as any other student. In fact, their unique attributes can lead to social isolation and depression. These problems are emphasized when peers are uncomfortable around them. In addition, they often have unrecognized learning disabilities that may be misinterpreted as lack of effort.
As with any student, gifted children need educational environments that meet their abilities and learning style. Public and private schools meet the needs of gifted children in many ways. These methods might include entering kindergarten early, skipping a grade, single-subject acceleration or concurrent enrollment in more than one academic program. Finally, there are schools that specialize in working with gifted students. Each intervention has advantages and disadvantages, and it can be challenging to decide on the best interests of a gifted child.
Students are generally classified as gifted through a combination of intelligence and achievement tests. If you believe your child may be gifted, we suggest a psychological evaluation that will examine this in detail. If you have additional questions, please e-mail us at info@prattcenter.com.
