Screening for Giftedness

Posted by Douglas Parker Sep 1, 2007

Mrs. Smith had always suspected that her daughter was a little different form the other children. She was reading well above grade level as far back as kindergarten, and she used big words properly that left most of her friends wondering, “What did that mean?” Is was only when the second grade teacher starting sending home conduct forms that were critical of her daughter’s excitability and lack of focus that Mrs. Smith began to wonder what was really happening with her daughter’s development. Some of her friends insisted that it was ADD/ADHD, or something along those lines. Mrs. Smith, however, had a different hunch, and she wanted to find out for sure.

Many schools perform screening for giftedness across the board for all children by testing their aptitude and cognitive abilities. Some schools do not, and it becomes the responsibility of the parent to nominate the child for testing. In general, a GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) program has several responsibilities to the families of gifted children. The first and most critical is the identification of these children, which is accomplished primarily, but not exclusively, by testing. This becomes problematic, of course, if the school or the district does not offer Gifted and Talented Education programs that can help the students. We will talk some more about these issues in the near future.