Is My Child Gifted?
By Inderbir Kaur Sandhu, Ph.D
Q:
I have a question about gifted children. One of my sons is 8
year old has had his mind set on being an astronaut since he
was two. He knew all the planets and moons before 3. One fun
instance he began telling us that there must be life under
the ice of Europa (this was at 3 years old). A few months
later it was in the news that scientist had come to this
same theory.
He has always been advanced in reading and math. His
teachers have told us that he reads at 8th grade level, and
have nick named him Mr. MIT (this is now his college of
choice) Just the other day, after asking his teacher for
some harder math problems, she wrote down a bunch of algebra
problems (5x - 25 = 5 as an example). He solved them all
correctly in less than 3 minutes.
I have kept track of all of my children's development and do
everything I can to give them opportunities to explore their
interests, as well as support their dreams for the future. I
would like to find a gifted program that would give my son
the challenges in math that he so often asks for. Do you
think I should have him tested? (I'm unsure about the
validity of such things) Is it possible he is gifted? I ask
because even when reading some of the other letters about
what children were doing at certain ages I found myself
thinking that it was normal development, as my three boys
have done the same things. (letter, number recognition etc.)
Then it dawned on me that perhaps what I think is normal
development is actually unique. Thank you.
A: It does appear that your
boys may be highly able, especially from the description you
provided for your 8 year old. I can understand the
frustration of being unsure if your child is gifted. But how
important is this? Unfortunately the term "gifted" is used
rather loosely these days and most children are indeed
gifted in some way or another in the eyes of their parents.
And why shouldn’t this be. After all if parents do no see
the potential and nurture the potential in their children,
who will. I believe it is good that parents see each child
as being unique and having the ability to learn well. In
fact, parental awareness on giftedness today has produced
many bright children as the right environment and learning
material is essential for such development.
In the scholastic world, however, there is a
definition on giftedness which is rather universal and applies
to most highly able children. But, as with most other
definition, there will always be exception to the cases. If you
want to place your child in a gifted program, you would usually
need to test your child as this is the main objective criteria
for giftedness (usually done by the school). But, bear in mind
that giftedness comes in many forms (though we tend only to
measure it by grades on a report card!); testing on a certain
test will only determine ability in the items that are being
tested. Standardized IQ tests are good indication of advanced
abilities. Schools also use achievement tests for this purpose
and some have specific aptitude tests in certain subject area
(e.g., Math) to screen children with advanced skills.
For a suitable gifted program in your area, you
may want to talk to the school authorities (or counselor) that
your son is in. They are in a better position to advise you on
appropriateness. If you have your son tested for IQ, the tester
would also be able to advise you based on the interpretation of
the results.
Whether the scores indicate high or average
intelligence, what is important is that you encourage him to be
as curious and confident of his own intelligence as he can be.
In short, whether a child is screened by the school as gifted
or not, all children have unique potential and it is up to the
parents (especially when the children are very young) to
develop that potential.
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