Parenting and Teaching Young Gifted Children

In her article, Differentiated Instruction for Young GiftedChildren: How Parents Can Help, Joan Smutny does an excellent job of explaining strategies that can be used in the classroom to address the needs of young gifted children, including

• Compacting—Children skip content that they already know and move to more advanced work.
• Learning Stations—Areas of the classroom where students can work on different tasks within a unit. Each station may represent a higher level of complexity than the one before it. Students move freely from one task to the next.
• Tiered Activities—A classroom of children may focus on the same, broad learning goal, but at different levels of depth and complexity.
• Clustering—Students who are significantly ahead are grouped and provided with more advanced content.

The best parts of Smutny’s article, though, are the many quotes and stories about children she uses to illustrate her points. She not only explains the strategies that might be used in the classroom to differentiate instruction, but also shows parents how they can enhance their children’s learning at home and also support and get involved with student learning at school.

From this article, both parents and teachers will get ideas about ways they can form better partnerships to enhance the learning of young gifted students.

Smutny has made young gifted children one of her specialties. If you like her article mentioned here, you will probably also enjoy some of the many books that she has written on the subject. You will find these by going to web sites such as Amazon and typing in her name or doing a general Internet search using her name.

Encouraging Mathematical Thinking

Parents, do you want to encourage your young people to think mathematically? Here are some ways to accomplish that.

Preschoolers

Nurturing Mathematically Talented Preschoolers—While it can be difficult to find programs for three- to five-year-old mathematically precocious children, there are things that you can do at home to encourage and feed their talents. Click on the link above and find suggestions that include

• Specific building materials, including LEGOs, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, K’nex, Magna-Tiles, tangrams, and blocks of all shapes and sizes. Ideas are also provided for using these building sets.
• Ways to use mathematical logic in everyday conversations
• Ideas for working with fractions

There is no need for formal lessons. All of the suggestions provided are applied through play activities.

Elementary School Students

10 Practically Fun Math Games and Activities for Your Preteen—While the title of this article suggests that young people be close in age to teenagers, many of these activities are appropriate for much younger children. Author JC Ryan lists eight indoor activities and two outdoor activities that parents may not automatically think of as building math skills.

Kindergarten through High School

Have You Seen These 8 High Quality, Free Maths Websites?—Activities here cater to an enormous range of abilities and offer math related subjects from basic counting through calculus, current economic theory, and puzzles.

Gifted Preschoolers

Mary Anne was perplexed by her preschooler. The child seemed quite precocious at times and Mary Anne wasn’t sure what to do about it. Should the child be tested to see what her true abilities might be? Should Mary Anne be looking at gifted school opportunities? Should she be doing anything special at home?

• The Frances A. Karnes Center for Gifted Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi has suggestions for parents with questions like those of Mary Anne. At this site, you will find information about characteristics of very young gifted children, appropriate activities that stimulate learning, identification and testing, and preparing your child for school.
• At Augusta’s Gifted Services, you will find which lists comparing normal and advanced development in very young children as well as a list of activities to do with gifted preschoolers.

Each of the above websites will give you lots of fun ideas for working with your precocious preschooler.

Do Not Jump to Conclusions about Your Preschooler’s Characteristics

Recently I had some pretty obvious physical symptoms that indicated I should see a doctor. Because my symptoms were pretty pronounced, I was shuttled from doctor to doctor in quick succession. Each specialist hypothesized about what awful disease I probably had. While each of these doctors had a lot of experience in their professions, we had no test results back yet. There was little objective information. I didn’t want to listen to any of their speculations, because I would worry myself unnecessarily. It also would have made no sense for them to treat me for an illness they just thought I had. This reminded me of communications I have with many parents.

I frequently hear from concerned parents with very young children. Either the parents or others are experiencing behavioral problems with the kids. The parents are certain that their child is gifted and that is the cause of the problems. They don’t know what to do. They are frantic. I ask parents to remember to withhold conclusions until they have more information. Because some well-meaning teacher or friend tells you that they think your child is gifted, doesn’t mean she is. Even if your child is gifted, that doesn’t mean that his or her giftedness is the cause of whatever problems you are having. The parents are assuming a “diagnosis” and speculating about “treatment” prematurely.

The first thing I recommend to these parents is to learn as much as they can about giftedness. Read books, such as Early Gifts: Recognizing and Nurturing Children's Talents. Subscribe to magazines and journals on gifted education. Attend gifted education conferences. If you feel it is necessary to have your child formally tested (there are pros and cons to this) find a psychologist who has experience with gifted children.

Also, basic parenting skills are important. Even if your child is gifted, he is still a child. Because he is verbally precocious doesn’t mean he should be given the power in the family to make adult decisions, which can then lead to behavior problems. Read some books by Silvia Rimm, such as Dr.Sylvia Rimm's Smart Parenting: How to Raise a Happy, Achieving Child  .

Once your child is in school, talk with your student’s teacher. While you may see one side of your child, the teacher has worked with many children and may have valuable information to share with you that is quite different from your perspective. While it is important for you to share your knowledge, it is also extremely important for you to truly listen.

Your child may be experiencing social/emotional problems that sometimes accompany giftedness, but the problems you are having may also be caused by other reasons.