What is Gifted? Dispelling the myths about gifted education and testing
Welcome to the Vanguard Gifted Academy educational blog. I'm Elizabeth Blaetz, the Head of School at Vanguard Gifted Academy. We're continuing on our journey with episode three. Today we're going to talk about the myths of giftedness. These myths affect both the parents of gifted children and gifted children themselves.
I've been in gifted education for a long time, and I'm surprised at the myths that still remain. One of them that is really amazing to me, and I read it all the time, is that gifted children will be fine in the traditional school system. They've already learned what they need to. We need to take care of the other children who are falling behind. I want for gifted children what I want for every child in school. I want them to learn every single day. Gifted children are going to school and they're not learning every single day. They're being used as leaders in the classroom to help others learn. Saying that gifted children don't need the same daily learning experiences that everybody else does means the gifted child isn't getting educated during the school day.
Another myth about giftedness, which often happens with young gifted children, is these children are considered early bloomers and parents are told by teachers and other parents that the other kids will catch up. These types of conversations often happen at parent group events or parent-teacher meetings when parents are talking about the milestones their children are achieving. Parents of gifted children will comment, “My child is reading already.” In response, the friends and even teachers assure them, ”Oh, they're just doing these things a little early, don't worry, the other children will catch up”. This result is, the gifted children are sitting in classrooms waiting to learn, and it does appear like the other children catch up; when in fact we're really just neglecting the gifted child’s learning needs.
Another myth is when people say all children are gifted. They mean well, they really do. When they say, “Oh, every child's gifted” it is to assure that no one feels slighted.
To me, the label of gifted is not an award. It's not a trophy. It's just an identifier of a child with a different learning need and with that in mind, you can't put every child in the gifted category.
I'd like to dispel the myth that gifted children don't have learning differences. I call them learning differences, most people call them learning disabilities. 10% of all children have learning disabilities. 10% of all children. Some of these learning differences such as dyslexia and attention deficit affect gifted children more. The gifted mind is full of connections that are above and beyond what the average mind makes. These gifted kids might have a hard time learning to read or paying attention but it doesn't mean they're not gifted. It means their mind is working overtime, making connections that are just amazing, but those connections can also be confusing.
The biggest myth of all is that gifted children are gifted in everything. We would not expect that of any other person, but a teacher will not recommend a child for gifted services because of something they can't do, rather than recognizing the strengths that they have and wanting to serve and extend what they can do.
Let me share an example of the impact of a learning difference for a gifted child. I had a fourth-grade boy in my class who was verbally precocious. He just went on and on about every subject. He knew more facts in fourth grade than probably I knew as the fourth-grade teacher. But he couldn't get his work done. He couldn't attend to completing his projects. His projects were messy. His work was not really showing what he knew. Finally, I talked to his parents and I said, I cannot diagnose. I am not a doctor, but if I were you, I would have your son checked for attention concerns. So they took him in and they had the testing done. They came back and they shared that the testing revealed their son had severe attention deficit and how surprised they were that they didn't even notice. With treatment the change was amazing. But the best thing about the change was in this boy’s confidence as his art went from chicken scratches to artistry. His writing went from very few words to an abundance of description. We happened to be making a book at that time and his book was amazing! The best part of it was, he thought it was amazing! After years of frustration, he finally was able to really show who he was as a learner and what he knew.
I feel like this is a journey we're taking together. So please let's share our experiences. Let's help others learn about these myths and break these myths in our communities. Share your thoughts with me, ask me questions that arise. I want to share the information you need and if I don't have that information, let me do some research for you. Thank you so much for joining us, and I hope that you'll be a regular visitor to this channel.