Determining whether or not your child is gifted is no easy task. As you have likely already discovered, there are a plethora of definitions, characteristics, assessments, and theories â a virtual abundance of information.
To help parents unravel some of the conflicting information, we have put together this blog summarizing gifted characteristics, different types of tests that can be utilized, and an âIs my child gifted?â checklist. Letâs rev up!
Gifted people are those who are able to use their potential better than their peers or standards. Every parent wants to know whether their children are gifted or have special needs and ask how do I know if my child is gifted.
An IQ test for gifted child is one of the best ways to measure their intelligence and adjust their learning requirements according to their IQ scores.
The gifted and talented test can be applied by educational institutions or at the request of parents themselves. If your child is identified as gifted, you should support them with special education materials like MentalUP Brain Training Games.
MentalUP is an app that offers brain training games focusing on the development of short-term memory, visual attention, visual memory, sustained attention, visual recognition skills, reasoning, and planning to develop the intellectual potential of children.
Children generally manifest some indicating behavior that points out superior intelligence, brilliant intelligence, or normal intelligence.
So what are the certain behaviors and abilities that are linked to superior intelligence?
- Smiling or recognizing caretakers early
- Less need for sleep in infancy
- A strong focusing ability as early as age 2, and can last longer than their peers
- A strong memory â they donât forget what they see, observe, hear, and experience
- Manifesting extreme curiosity and constantly questioningâevery child asks questions, but gifted children ask questions insistently
- Enjoying learning by asking or experiencing
- Early use of advanced vocabularyâthe ability to express thoughts readily and clearly
- Able to describe events or objects they imagine, presenting a three-dimensional imagination
A bright child knows the answer; the gifted learner asks the questions. The bright, above-average student memorizes well, comprehends at a high level, absorbs information, and completes her work.
For the bright child, the average classroom teacher offers precisely what this student craves: clear expectations, a path to an A, and an environment where this sort of success is rewarded.
The bright child is interested and attentive at school; she listens to the material and is receptive. She enjoys her peers.
The gifted learner comprehends the nuances of the subject's material in a more complex, in-depth manner. Where the bright child accepts and readily retains information about the topic, the gifted learner manipulates that information in order to draw unique inferences.
The gifted learner is far less likely to be motivated at all by grades. They copy the teacher's model response to a question or task accurately, while they are original and continually developing.
The gifted learner is more than merely interested in the way that seasons change: they are highly curious about it. They show their attentiveness by staying in their seats and keeping their eyes on the teacher.
Gifted children have differently-wired brains that make their experience of adolescence unique compared to their neurotypical age-mates.
While most individuals think of giftedness in terms of academics alone, giftedness also applies to a childâs social and emotional development.
This situation itself can carry some positive behavioral features as well as bring negative behavior patterns. So what are these emotional and behavioral traits of gifted children?
Gifted children learn and memorize very easily. Their intensive reading has a great impact on this, as they passionately research and read a lot.
Of course, they are perfectionists. For this reason, they achieve unparalleled success; admittedly, there are long attention spans associated with this. They stick with tasks of their personal interest.
Unlike most people, ideas excite them, and they ask questions. They take risks in life. As they are good observers, they recognize problems and generally work independently due to these characteristics.
Interestingly, the same reasons that encourage positive characteristics also lie at the root of negative behavior patterns of gifted children.
Since they learn rapidly, gifted children get bored easily, resist drills, and disturb others, such as underachievers.
Their attachment to their reading habits causes them to neglect their other responsibilities, and their perfectionist character causes them to be intolerant of mistakes.
Yes, they have a long attention span, and that's exactly why they tend to resist class routines and dislike interruptions. Because they recognize problems in detail, they impolitely correct both adults and peers. And they are often distant from the idea of ââworking with others.
How to test if your child is gifted is the question that many parents ask themselves. Achievement tests are designed to measure your childâs ability, skill, and knowledge over a wide range of subjects that your child has been taught, usually as a result of classroom instruction.
These tests generally cover the following abilities and subjects: oral language, reading, math, spelling, writing, vocabulary, social studies, science, editing, humanities, and sources of information (maps, diagrams, and reference materials).
Non-verbal tests such as Leiter International Performance Scale have been considered pure measures of general intelligence and are excellent indicators of abstract reasoning, particularly in the visual-spatial domain.
Nonverbal assessments attempt to remove language barriers in the estimation of a student's intellectual aptitude. This is especially helpful in assessing students without speech or who have limited language ability, those that are hearing-impaired, and those with English language limitations.
However, they do not measure as wide a range of abilities as other IQ tests and would not be as predictive of success in a gifted program.
An IQ test is an assessment that measures a range of cognitive abilities and provides a score that is intended to serve as a measure of an individual's intellectual abilities and potential. IQ tests are among the most commonly administered psychological tests.
This gifted and talented test prep app has practice questions for kindergarten and grades 1 and 2, including daily practice tests for CogAT nonverbal, verbal, and quantitative batteries. The questions in this app are based on the Cognitive Abilities Test,âŻCogAT.
The gifted CogAT test prep app improves your child's cognitive thinking skills. It has thousands of questions for gifted and talented tests that your child will enjoy solving to strengthen their CogAT nonverbal, verbal, and quantitative skills. It will also help you identify your child's weaknesses and help them improve.
MentalUP supports the development of childrenâs mental skills with category-based intelligence games and offers an IQ test for all ages. The app can compare your childâs performance against their peers across five different areas:
If you want to test the intelligence skills of your child with your own resources, you can use the MentalUP app.
MentalUP is an intelligence exercise application certified as a pedagogical product. One of the most important features is that you can view your scores in graphs and compare them with your peers.
Newsela can adapt to any ability level, which makes it perfect for differentiating instruction for gifted learners.
The site houses news articles that are adapted to five different reading levels. If your child is more advanced than others, you can simply assign them a more challenging version of the same article.
Newsela Student supercharges learning in every subject. It starts with engaging articles on any topic you can think of for all levels. Articles come with activities to help students take a deeper dive into the content.
As students read and take quizzes, the Newsela app adjusts the reading level to keep articles challenging and engaging. Plus, students can automatically keep track of their improvement over time.
First of all, you can check out the signs of giftedness weâve covered above. It is also possible to obtain definitive results with giftedness tests.
If you suspect your child is gifted, testing will allow you to understand their specific learning needs, including strengths and weaknesses. By identifying giftedness early on, it's more likely that your child's giftedness will be developed into talents. So the sooner you can detect it, the better.
It is sometimes easy to recognize the characteristics of a gifted child at a very young age. But according to the National Association for Gifted Children, it's best to wait until your child is at least 6 years old for gifted testing.
The two primary types of tests for gifted children are IQ tests and achievement tests. Both types of tests have pros and cons. A combination of both IQ tests and achievement tests is often required for admission to a gifted program.
You can use MentalUP to understand whether your child is gifted or not. Donât forget that it is important to be aware of your kidsâ skills and levels. đ
Multi-awarded educational app MentalUP is here to guide you. After you learn more about your childrenâs mental skills, you can help them to develop themselves. đ
MentalUPâs learning games and activities are suitable for different age groups. They are also safe with no-ads. Keep in mind that you can track them with detailed reports. đ