Experts Disagree On How To Educate Gifted Children

Though few dispute that gifted children are different, researchers have long argued over what makes them so, and how best to educate them.

Even defining "gifted" is a sure way of getting developmental psychologists in a tizzy: Is it being able to think rationally at an early age? Is it getting a high score on an IQ test, or earning good grades in school? Is it being obsessive and following a task to completion?

Steven Pfeiffer, a professor of psychology and executive director of the Duke University Talent Identification Program, said the growing consensus is that giftedness is a combination of traits, and that there are different ways to be gifted.

"Gifted kids are precocious, they master academic-type material at an earlier age than their peers, and relatedly, they tend to learn at a faster rate than average children," Pfeiffer said in an e-mail interview.

They also are concerned with fairness, have a preference for novelty and for the creative, and have an obsessiveness that often puts them at odds with peers. They get bored easily. Their social and physical development also tends to lag behind their academics, Pfeiffer said.

But what makes the gifted different? Is it a gift, as the term implies, or something that kids acquire?

Are they `born different?'

Ellen Winner, a professor of psychology at Boston College and author of the book "Gifted Children; Myths and Realities," says biology plays the biggest role in giftedness. Otherwise, children born in similar environments would show the same levels of giftedness.

"The evidence strongly suggests that these children are born different," Winner said. For example, she said, research on identical twins who were separated and raised in different families shows that they have similar IQs. Based on those studies, some scientists have concluded that 50 percent of IQ comes from genetics, the rest from environment.

Children who are mathematically gifted are also more likely to be left-handed or ambidextrous, suggesting that their brains are wired differently, Winner said.

But there is no research conclusively showing that there are physical differences in the brains of gifted vs. regular children. There is some promising research using brain imaging to show blood flow, but it hasn't been used on gifted children.

Developing `giftedness'

Some scientists argue that giftedness is not something that people inherit but, rather, the mixture of natural talent with an environment that develops it.

"The general approach to the study of gifted persons could easily lead the casual reader to believe that giftedness is a condition that is magically bestowed on a person in much the same way that nature endows us with blue eyes, red hair, or a dark complexion," Joseph Renzulli, director of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, wrote in a 1998 paper titled "The Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness."

"This position is not supported by the research. Rather, what the research clearly and unequivocally tells us is that giftedness can be developed in some people," he wrote.

A common trait among gifted children is that they learned to read very early, and had a passion for books and new knowledge. Often, their parents read to them as toddlers, but whether the two are linked is not yet clear.

Neurological studies of children also show that environment has an effect on how the brain develops. Lack of exposure to certain sounds by a specific age, for example, will make it hard or impossible for them ever to learn to pronounce those sounds, according to David Wodrich, assistant professor of psychology at Illinois State University.

Development psychologists argue that there are similar windows of opportunity when it comes to the talents of gifted children.

The trouble with boredom

Lynn Fainsilber Katz, a clinical psychologist at the University of Washington, says that if bright children aren't fairly quickly moved into more challenging classes, they lose interest in the lessons and often become poor students.

"Little kids that you see acting up in school, sometimes the reason why they are acting up in school is because they are bored," Katz said.

By the same token, gifted children who get challenging classes sharpen their abilities.

Julian Stanley, a professor of psychology at Johns Hopkins University, said gifted students in challenging classes see their SAT scores go up 40 points a year until the age of 17 or 18. By contrast, gifted students who remain in regular classes may actually see their scores go down, particularly in math.

"It's a little bit like pushing a roaring bull - you get out of the way and let it go where it wants to," Stanley said.

Roberto Sanchez's phone message number is 206-464-8522. His e-mail address is: rsanchez@seattletimes.com