Important Terms and Definitions

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Characteristics of Gifted and Talented: These are some common characteristics of gifted children. Please note, not all gifted children will exhibit all of the characteristics all of the time:

  • unusual alertness

  • rapid learner

  • excellent memory

  • large vocabulary for age

  • enjoys problem solving

  • advanced reading

  • deep, intense feelings and reactions

  • abstract, complex, logical, and insightful thinking

  • longer attention span and intense concentration

  • daydreamer

  • learns basic skills quickly and with little practice and/or repitition

  • asks probing questions - extremely curious

  • unusual sense of humor

  • desire to organize things

  • vivid imagination

5 Overexcitabilities (OE's): Polish psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski identified five areas in which children exhibit intense behaviors, also known as "overexcitabilities" or "supersensitivities." They are psychomotor, sensual, emotional, intellectual, and imaginational. Gifted children tend to have multiple intensities, although one is usually dominant.

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Acceleration: when students move through traditional curriculum at rates faster than typical. Among the many forms of acceleration are grade-skipping, early entrance to kindergarten or college, dual-credit courses such as Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs and subject-based acceleration (e.g., when a fifth-grade student takes a middle school math course).

Asynchrony: A term used to describe disparate rates of intellectual, emotional, and physical rates of growth or development often displayed by gifted children.

Creativity: The process of developing new, uncommon, or unique ideas. The federal definition of giftedness identifies creativity as a specific component of giftedness.

Curriculum Compacting: technique for differentiating instruction that allows teachers to make adjustments to curriculum for students who have already mastered the material to be learned, replacing content students know with new content, enrichment options, or other activities.

Differentiation: Modifying curriculum and instruction according to content, pacing, and/or product to meet unique student needs in the classroom.

Enrichment: Activities that add or go beyond the existing curriculum. They may occur in the classroom or in a separate setting such as a pull-out program.

Multipotentiality: good at many things

Problem Based Learning (PBL): A curriculum and instruction model that asks students to solve real-world, complex, or open-ended problems by using research, decision-making, creative and critical thinking, and other 21st-century skills

Pull-Out Program: A program that takes a student out of the regular classroom during the school day for special programming.

Social/Emotional Needs: Gifted and talented students may have affective needs that include heightened or unusual sensitivity to self-awareness, emotions, and expectations of themselves or others, and a sense of justice, moral judgment, or altruism. Counselors working in this area may address issues such as perfectionism, depression, low self-concept, bullying, or underachievement

STEM: An acronym for the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, providing STEM curriculum is encouraged as a way to grow students’ interests and potentials in these areas. Some researchers lump the arts (STEAM) into this category of instruction.

Twice-Exceptional (2e): A term used to describe a student who is both gifted and disabled. These students may also be referred to as having dual exceptionalities or as being gifted with learning disabilities (GT/LD). This also applies to students who are gifted with ADHD or gifted with autism.

Underachievement: A term used to describe the discrepancy between a student’s performance and his or her potential or ability to perform at a much higher level.