Understanding young gifted children with advanced abilities
That’s Not Fair!
If I’ve heard it once, I’ve probably heard it a hundred times; “That’s not fair!” And how do grown-ups overwhelmingly respond? “Life’s not fair.” We tell them that because cries for fairness often seem like the ravings of a petulant child demanding their way.
But, what if we put on different lenses? Is it possible to see things from a different point of view? In “Understanding Young Gifted Children with Advanced Abilities,” Debra Troxclair, Ph.D. challenges us to do just that. In this review I’ll give you a glance at some of the ways that “acting out” behavior can actually be signs of advanced abilities in young children.
Dr. Troxclair received her doctoral degree in Special Education (Emphasis in Gifted Education) from the University of Southern Mississippi and has over 20 years of teaching experience in both elementary and university classroom settings.
What is giftedness anyway?
“I almost hate to say the word ‘gifted’… because it bothers many people,” says Dr. Troxclair. In this course, she pushes past some of the preconceived notions and negative associations to present some commonly held definitions of the term “gifted”. One shared theme is that giftedness has a biological component. Many gifted children have a prefrontal cortex comparable to a 21 year-old!
Start them while they are young!
We must begin identifying our gifted children at a much younger age. When creativity is tested at age 4 and 5, their levels are very high. When children are tested again at fourth grade the creativity levels have fallen. And, when they are tested again in the 7th grade they have hit a plateau. “In other words,” says Dr. Troxclair, “We have schooled creativity out of many of our children.”
We know that the earlier we identify advanced abilities, the more time we have to spend on improvement and enrichment of gifted kids.
The “right” kind of giftedness
Did you know there is more than one type of gifted child? Dr. Troxclair identifies six different types of gifted children:
- Successful
- Challenging
- Underground
- Drop Out
- Double Label
- Autonomous
While most people strive for a successful gifted child, it’s really an autonomous gifted child that we should be aspiring to raise.
Positive lenses change your perspective
One of the reasons that advanced abilities are overlooked in young children is because we have on our negative lenses. But what if we switched our lenses and looked for the positive? In some cases, the problem child suddenly becomes a gifted learner:
- Stubbornness becomes independence
- Capricious becomes curious
- Argumentative becomes information-seeking
- Messiness becomes exploration
Once you have on the lenses to identify children with advanced abilities, it will transform the way you work with kids. This course covers the traits and characteristics, both positive and negative, of young gifted children, to help you identify them in your classroom.
Why you should take this course:
In a world that is plagued by natural disasters, poverty, disease, starvation, and other problems, our best resource lies in the creative and cognitive capacities of young gifted children. In this course, Dr. Troxclair presents compelling arguments and tools for identifying our gifted children as early as possible.
Add this course to your 6-hour update bundle. For a limited time, you can get your 6-hour update for only $45 by using promo code update45.
Delivering Quality Training – No Matter Where You Are
Did you know that this course is mobile ready? That means you can complete the course on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop computer, or any other mobile device!
Photos courtesy of Flickr via Aarongilson, Familymwr, and iBaNe
