Gifted and Talented

Who are the Gifted and Talented?

Gifted and talented children are those identified by professionally qualified persons who by virtue of outstanding abilities are capable of high performance. These are children who require differentiated educational programs and services beyond those normally provided by the regular school program in order to realize their contributions to self and society. Children capable of high performance include those with demonstrated achievement and/or potential ability in at least one of five areas. Education of the Gifted, Marland Report (p. 2)

• General intellectual aptitude means possessing either the potential or demonstrated ability to perform at an exceptionally high level in general intellectual ability and possessing a consistently outstanding mental capacity as compared to children of one’s age, experience, or environment. General Intellectual Ability is usually reflected in extraordinary performance in a variety of cognitive areas, such as abstract reasoning, logical reasoning, social awareness, memory, spatial relations and the analysis, synthesis and evaluation of information.

• Specific academic aptitude means possessing either potential or demonstrated ability to perform at an exceptionally high level in specific academic areas significantly beyond the age, experience or environment of one’s chronological peers. While students with specific academic aptitude are typically of at least above average intellectual ability, they are often extremely capable of high performance in one (1), or a very few related, academic areas.

• Creative or divergent thinking means possessing either potential or demonstrated ability to perform at an exceptionally high level in creative thinking and divergent approaches to conventional tasks as evidenced by innovative or creative reasoning, advanced insight and imaginations, and solving problems in unique ways.

• Leadership ability means possessing either potential or demonstrated ability to perform at an exceptionally high level in social skills and interpersonal qualities such as poise, effective oral and written expression, managerial ability, and the ability, or vision, to set goals and organize others to successfully reach those goals.

• Visual and performing arts means possessing either potential or demonstrated ability to perform at an exceptionally high level in the visual or performing arts and demonstrating the potential for outstanding aesthetic production, accomplishment, or creativity in areas such as art, dance, music, drama, speech and in activities requiring exceptional gross or fine motor skills.