Identifying Gifted Children

 

 

The Ohio Revised Code provides criteria for gifted child identification in four areas of giftedness: superior cognitive ability, specific academic ability, creative thinking ability, and visual or performing arts ability.

 

Children who are gifted in superior cognitive ability demonstrate or show potential to demonstrate high levels of ability in cognitive areas, i.e., problem solving, abstract thinking, reasoning, memory, or comprehension.These children acquire skills at a faster rate, with more depth and greater complexity, than other children of their age, experience, or environment.

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Children who are gifted in specific academic ability perform or show the potential to perform at high levels of achievement in one or more content areas: mathematics, science, reading, writing or a combination of reading and writing, and/or social studies.These children acquire skills in these academic fields at a faster rate, with more depth and greater complexity, than other children of their age, experience, or environment.

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Children who are gifted in creative thinking ability demonstrate advanced ability in creativity.Creativity is not a singular ability, but is a "constellation of traits and abilities…generally characterized by uniqueness, originality, and the ability to make something new, novel, and useful" (Daniels, 1997).

 

Children who are gifted in visual or performing arts ability perform, or show the potential to perform at high levels of achievement in one or more artistic areas: drawing, painting, sculpting, music, dance, drama.These children acquire skills in these fields at a faster rate, with more depth and greater complexity, than other children of their age, experience, or environment.

 

Children who are gifted require services and/or activities beyond those ordinarily provided by the schools to address the pace, depth, and complexity of their learning.Giftedness is present in children and youth from all cultural groups, across all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavors (U.S. Office of Education, 1993).

 

According to the Department of Education Technical Assistance Manual of the Identification of Gifted Children, any personnel who administer, use, or advise others in the use of standardized tests should be qualified to do so.They should:

 

1.Understand measurement principles, including how to evaluate the test's technical claims (e.g., validity and reliability);

 

2.Know about the particular test used, its appropriate uses, and its limitations, including possible consequences resulting from scores;

 

3.Administer, score, and interpret results in a professional and responsible manner;

 

4.Employ procedures necessary to reduce or eliminate bias in test selection, administration, and interpretation;

 

5.Understand the influence of cultural diversity, linguistic diversity, and socioeconomic disadvantages on test performance; and

 

6.Weigh the results of tests carefully with other information.

 

 

What We Do

 

Our evaluation provides formal documentation of a child’s exceptional thinking skills, problem-solving, creativity, and academic achievement levels. The evaluation process includes:

 

1. A interview with parent and child about their learning styles, past school experiences, and current academic placement.

 

2. A standardized intelligence test. The test that is generally provided are the Wechsler Intelligence Scales, unless another test has been requested or is necessary.

 

3. Following the administration of the test, we provide verbal and written feedback of the results to the parent.

 

In addition to the test identifying whether or not the child meets giftedness criteria for the school system, the report will also highlight their style of learning, strengths, and weaknesses which the child may have.

 

Following this evaluation, if the child meets school system criteria for a gifted program, the parent along with the psychologist discuss whether or not the child would benefit from an advanced curriculum. No single gifted class is appropriate for all children. This will vary by educational system and the individual student. However, whichever classroom is selected, it must be based on the needs, abilities and talents of the child. ​

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