Characteristics

Characteristics of Gifted Learners

During a child’s first five or six years, some of the most commonly exhibited characteristics are: (this is not an exhaustive list)

  • Extraordinary vocabulary at an early age.

  • Varying sleep patterns and needs, often beginning in infancy.

  • Exceptional understanding of complex or abstract ideas.

  • Precocity in math and language tasks — knowledge and behaviors that are not taught or coached, but surface on their own.

  • Advanced sense of humor and understanding of jokes and puns.

  • Heightened sensitivity to feelings and ideas.

  • Amazing curiosity—questioning and touching almost everything (it seems!)


General Intelligence

  • Recalls facts easily.

  • Is very well informed about one or more topics.

  • Shows keen insight into cause-effect relationships.

  • Has exceptional ability to solve problems.

  • Has phenomenal memory.


Intelligence in a Specific Academic Area

  • Exhibits extended attention in math, science, and/or humanities.

  • Displays a passion for a topic of interest.

  • Makes independent contact with or carries on correspondence with experts in the field.

  • Puts extensive efforts into a project; time is of no consequence.

  • Manages to change a topic under discussion to the discipline of his/her interest (e.g., a discussion on today’s weather soon becomes focused on meteorology or global warming).


Creativity

  • Possesses strong visual thinking or imaginative skills.

  • Transfers ideas and solutions to unique situations.

  • Prefers variety and novelty and an individual way of solving problems.

  • Asks many and unusual questions.

  • Often has several projects going at once.

  • Resists external controls, tests, and challenges limits.


Leadership

  • Relates to and motivates other people.

  • Organizes others for activities.

  • Demonstrates high levels of self-assurance when making decisions or convincing peers.

  • Sees problems from many perspectives.

  • Listens to and respects the opinions of others (or listens to, and debates the opinions of others).


Visual/Performing Arts

  • Shows very high ability in the visual arts, i.e., painting, sculpting, and/or arranging media in a unique way.

  • Possesses unusual ability to create, perform, or describe music.

  • Possesses unusual talent in drama or dance.

  • Uses artistic ability to express or evoke feelings.

  • Persists with an artistic vision.

Adapted from an article by Dr. Paula J. Hillmann, Ph.D., Emeritus Faculty, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Educational Psychology; published by the Washington State Family and Community Engagement Trust.