The Cognitive and Affective Differences That Interact to Create Difficulties for Gifted Children - Literature review Example

The Cognitive and Affective differences that interact to create difficulties for gifted children Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Introduction Highly gifted children can be defined as those who are highly advanced in significant ways beyond the norm of the gifted (Gross, M. (1999). Silverman (1989) further asserts that a child who is of IQ 145 or above can be referred to as highly gifted. In a cognitive ability test, a child who scores three standard deviations above the mean can be termed as intellectually gifted. Such children are very rare in the population since the ratio in which they appear in the world is approximately the ratio of 1:1000. It is worth noting that in his assertion, Silverman uses the word advancement to mean the student’s potential ability. Researches carried out on the performances of highly gifted children in schools indicate that the majority of students who are highly gifted are required to work at levels which are several years below their tested achievement (Hollingworth, 1942). Children who are highly gifted are at a higher risk in the early years of their education because they go through a lot of challenges such as inadequate and inappropriate grade placement, inadequate curriculum, and even sometimes misidentification. There are other factors that come into play among the gifted children which include early awareness of the fact that they become aware at an early age that they differ from their peers as well as their determined attempts to conceal their ability to be accepted among their peers. Abilities that are extremely high among the young children can be identified through the use of gifted ideas (Kaufman, and Harrison, 1986). This is especially used by teachers who lack in-service training in gifted education and are sometimes reluctant in using standardized tests of ability and achievement. However, this may be problematic because the early indicators of underachievement and demotivation are ignored. Children with high intellectual are characterized by early reading, early development of speech, as well as early movement. These serve as powerful indicators of high intellectual abilities that are unusual. Parents are at the center of their children and, therefore, they understand well their developmental differences. It is, however, sad because the information that is provided by parents which could be utilized by elementary and primary schools in teaching numeracy and literacy is often not believed or disregarded (Winner, 1996). Experts working in gifted education cite familiarity with the challenges that children who attain higher levels of achievement than their age mates face. These experts pose a number of questions in search of what contributes to the problems that are associated with children who develop at a faster pace. They say that maybe it is our egalitarian principles and what is deemed to be fit that these children go against. Perhaps they threaten the educators due to their great capacity of learning. At times these children behave in a way that educators do not want them to behave and end up irritating them. Teachers find it easier when children progress at the same rate. More often than not, children who are intellectually gifted are derailed in their learning so that they can conform to the pace of other children of average intellect who they learn together. In most education systems of the world, for instance, the United States of America and Australia highly gifted children have been accorded special descriptions. This paper is going to analyze how intellectually gifted children differ with their age peers of average ability in terms of cognitive and affective variables. The paper will mostly base on how the cognitive and affective variables interact to create difficulties for gifted students. Our schools expose our gifted children to higher risks because of a number of reasons. First and foremost, teachers lack in the experiences of the characteristics and addressing the needs of the students who are highly gifted. On the other hand, the gifted children tend to conceal their abilities so that they can be accepted by their peers. This may make this group fail to achieve what they could have done. In addition, an effective combination of nomination by the in-service teachers as well as the trained ones lacks. This calls for standardized tests of ability and achievement that can be used to form effective procedures for identifying young and highly gifted children. Secondly, the difficulties that the highly gifted children face in school include the absence of coursework in gifted education as well as lack of awareness in most teacher training programs which fail to equip teachers with adequate skills to handle genuine interests in gifted children who have different levels of giftedness existing within the gifted population. Gross, (1992) argues that many educators work with the assumption that gifted children is a relatively homogenous group which is a misconception in itself and places children who are highly gifted at higher risks because it exposes them to misidentification, inappropriate grade placement, and inadequate curriculum. In this case, there exist few programs for the gifted children of certain age group. Most of their teachers, on the other hand, have little training on how to recognize this group of children and the level they can work at when presented with appropriate learning experiences. Surveys indicate that children who are gifted appear seldom in schools which contributes to the lack of awareness of the affective and cognitive characteristics of such children by teachers. An educational program that differs significantly not only in pace and structure but also in content from the one that is offered to averagely gifted children is required. Besides this challenge, gifted children face other risks like failure to point out their differences or even attribute their academic excellence in a wrong way. Indicators of high giftedness It is paramount to discuss what characterizes differences in highly gifted children. These differences are evident in the highly gifted children who exhibit some development differences. Researches carried out the subject indicate that children who are intellectually gifted show significant differences in development than the ones observed in their peers of average ability. In this case the abilities of children are gauged in terms of development of movement, speech, and reading. These are the powerful indicators which are present in people who are possibly gifted. Jacksons (1992) argues that not all the children have the ability to speak, write or read at an early age. Those who posses exceptional gifts do these with much ease as opposed to the moderately gifted. In a nutshell, it is argued that when these skills appear during the early ages, more so when they appear in tandem, they are generally seen as signs of intellectual fulfillment. A number of researches have cited early development in speech and movement as common in children who are moderately gifted. According to Staines and Mitchel (1982) an average child is expected to start uttering words when he/she is 12 months old, whereas on average, a gifted child utter any meaningful words two months earlier. Moreover, a gifted child passes through the language acquisition stages earlier with greater rapidity than a child of average ability. The art of linking words and phrases come earlier in gifted children as opposed to their averagely gifted children. The former have in possession vocabulary as early as twelve months. Average student take up to eighteen months to develop a vocabulary of three to fifty words and may even take up to the age of two years to construct a short phrase (Jersild, 1960). In other words, the speeches of children who are highly gifted are characterized by remarkable complexity and fluency. The development of mobility can also be used to point out the differences between average children and highly gifted children. Just like speech development, highly gifted children generally demonstrate a rapid progression through speech development stages that are unusual. In gifted children, mobility arrives at an earlier stage and progress with an unusual speed. Consequently, even the averagely gifted children exhibit signs of crawling, walking or running at an earlier age compared to their peers (Terman, 1926; Witty, 1940). Highly gifted children on the other hand may display even a higher precocity. It has been established that these children not only portray remarkable physical mobility at very early ages but the skills developed are nurtured with exceptional speed. Early reading can also be used as a marker of intellectual giftedness among children. Research literature in intellectual giftedness suggests that, reading can act as one of the most powerful tools of intellectual giftedness. Hollingworth (1926, 1942) found out that early reading shows clearly the differences in the studies by moderately and highly gifted children. Hollingworth further notes that a gifted group of children read before the age of four years. The art of reading among the children has been advanced by the development of print media which is accessible to young children through the many advertising media. A greater incidence of learning is evident in early years especially among the gifted children. Further research indicates that children who demonstrate development of speech and movement seem to equally develop reading skills at an earlier age than their age peers (Hollingworth, 1942; Gross, 1993). If one analyzes in depth the literature on gifted children, he/she will realize that they learn either with minimal assistance from their parents or with no assistance. From this discussion on the indicators of giftedness among children, there are outcomes that are notable in speech, reading, and movement among the highly gifted children (Smutny, 1995). First and foremost, the development of early speech enables highly gifted children to seek information, express ideas, and engage in conversation with their peers and members of the family at an age when other children are just starting to experiment with their oral communication. In addition, early mobility also allows children who are highly gifted to move around freely and independently and make explorations on their own several months earlier than their peers who are of average ability (Roedell, Jackson, and Robinson, 1980). In a nutshell, we can argue that both speech and movement significantly contribute to the capacity to acquire and process information crystallizing intelligence among the children. Their early reading, for instance, adds to the bank of information which is not usually accessible to children until some years later after entering school. Highly gifted children are not only identified from an early age by their parents but also the neighbors and the rest of the society. Comparison of highly gifted vis a vis moderate giftedness As we had mentioned earlier, gifted children of a certain age are at risk because there exist few gifted programs that are suitable for children in this age group. Moreover, teachers of these preschool seem to have limited or no training at all on ways of recognizing these children or even the opportunity of seeing the level in which these children can work at when they are presented with learning experiences that are appropriate (Rogers, 1991). These assertions can be exemplified by an incident presented by two children aged four, Andrew and Cecily. Both Andrew and Mary participated in an exercise their teacher asked them to perform. The exercise entailed the picking up of cups that their fellow children had used to take juice. The teacher asked Andrew to pass over the cups on which he hesitated for some time before deliberately placing the cup on the center of the floor and held his hands behind his back and exhibiting concentration, he paced back and forward of the cup. The teacher then rebuked him for failing to perform the task he had been given. Andrew instead explained that he was not able to perform the task. Andrew, however, had performed other tasks given by the teacher well like passing the cups from several different directions. For the teacher though, Andrew was an example of a child who was incapable of the behavioral norms which ought to be exhibited by a four year old. The teacher termed him as disobedient and at the same time rude which resulted into punishment. On the other hand, Cecil moved around the room collecting the cups that were used by other children. This seemed to have been her self-appointed role that had lasted for several days now and she appeared to derive pleasure from it. She carefully stacks the cups inside each other and handed them to the teacher who was quick to applaud the act. She received a warm hug from the teacher as well as remarks of a thoughtful and clever class member. In this regard, Silverman, (1989a) observes that girls are quick to learn behaviors that are pleasing to the teacher quickly than boys. It is not, however, to say that Andrew’s and Cecil’s behaviors only arose from gender and gender but they also came about from the differences in levels of cognitive ability that the two children posses. From this incident, a number of conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, it is evident that Cecil is moderately gifted as her talent is visible from the actions she performs. She has a moderately higher IQ which children of her level of ability appear in the population at a ratio of 1 in 100. Despite this, Cecil is not very different from her peers to the extent of having noticeable social difficulties. According to Hollingworth (1926), Cecil seems to posse’s socially optimal intelligence which is more common in within the range of her peers. Within this range, individuals tend to exhibit self confidence and outgoing individuals who seem to win the friendship and confidence of age peers. Cecil’s character is presented as responsive, quick witted, and at the same time, eager to help. Cecil appears as a delight to teach not only to her teacher but also wins the admiration of many other teachers. Andrew on the other hand posse’s high giftedness, his IQ which is very high does not fall within the bracket of socially optimal intelligence that Hollingworth suggests. Children like Andrew teach themselves the art of reading at age three, a thing which is done at the age of seven. This appears frustrating for Andrew because in the classroom, there are no enough books which can adequately challenge him. It is evident that there is very little that happens in this school that provides Andrew with social companionship or even intellectual stimulation. Since such children posses reading skills, they have a way of playing with words and Andrew seem to be out of place because his peers do not understand what he says most of the time. Children like Andrew also fail to comprehend the reason why teachers neither understand nor appreciate them while in other contexts like home has his play on words met with laughter and affectionate approval. In this case, Andrew failed to hand over his cup for two possible reasons. One, maybe he was struck by two possible meaning of the word pass. Secondly, it was clear that collecting cups was Cecil’s duty which she enjoyed very much. Andrew meant to hand over his cup when he was finished and, therefore, he failed to understand why the teacher had termed him as disobedient and rude. It is clear from the reaction that the teacher portrayed that she lacks in-service training on the characteristics of gifted preschoolers. If she had the training, she would have known that children who are gifted enter school already equipped with reading skills and she might have had challenging books in place to cater for intellectually gifted children (Gross, 1993). With proper training, the teacher could also have recognized that Andrew enjoyed playing with words which explained the mature sense of humor which is a characteristic of such gifted children (Silverman, 1989b). In this case, it is clear that Cecil and Andrew’s teacher lacked in in-service training and her reaction shows that she had had no prior experience with a character like Andrew. This incident summarizes how cognitive and affective variables interact to create difficulties in intellectually gifted children. Conclusion In conclusion, this research paper sought to elaborate on the how the cognitive and affective variables interact and pose certain difficulties in gifted children. The paper gave what is meant by high giftedness before embarking on difficulties that gifted children undergo in school as a result of their affective and cognitive abilities. In this case, the paper has cited inappropriate curriculum, lack of proper in-service training for teachers, and failure to identify the characteristic needs of gifted children at an early age just to mention but a few. The paper also presented the indicators of high giftedness which include early mobility, reading, and speech. The research paper sought to explain further the difficulties that gifted children undergo by making a comparison between Andrew and Cecil and how the teacher reacted to the actions by both. In a nutshell, the discussion above presents the difficulties that highly gifted children who posse’s high cognitive and affective levels experience. References Gross, M.U.M. (1993). Exceptionally Gifted Children. London: Routledge. Hollingworth, L.S. (1926). Gifted Children: Their Nature and Nurture. New York: Macmillan. Hollingworth, L.S. (1942). Children Above IQ 180. New York: World Books. Jackson, N. E. (1992). Precocious Reading Of English: Origins, Structure And Predic Significance. In P.S. Klein and A.J. Tannenbaum (eds), To be young and gifted. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex. Jersild, A.T. (1960). Child Psychology. Hemel-Hempstead: Prentice-Hall. Kaufman, A.S. & Harrison, P.L. (1986). Intelligence tests and gifted assessments: What are the positives? Roeper Review, 8(3), 154-159. Robinson, N.M. (1993a). Parenting the Very Young Gifted Child. Storrs, Connecticut: National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. Roedell, W.C., Jackson, N.E. & Robinson, H.B. (1980). 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