NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

February 18, 1999

Parent Line: This Gift Requires Some Assembly

Kim Bushaw, Parent Line Program Specialist
NDSU Extension Service

Many first-time parents are more than sure that their child is indeed a very bright child. Time and again parents are convinced that their child is actually smarter than they are as adults.

Infants who babble their way to "Mama" and "Dada" are certainly clever by their parent's standards. Toddlers who won't forget that the remote turns on the television or that Grandma brings treats in her purse are deemed brilliant. Preschoolers who can remember a minute detail of the trip they took a year ago to Uncle Barney's are wonder-children.

Children are all incredible and special in their own ways. But many other children do the same things and are considered developmentally average. Sometimes parents see other children of comparable ages doing basically the same types of activities, or they have a second child who also manages these tasks, and reality sets in.

There are children, however, who do excel in their abilities. The general term used by schools has been "gifted and talented students." For them, their parents and their teachers, there are a number of concerns once the child enters a school setting.

Will the child be challenged enough to grow in his learning? What do we know about children like this? What's proven helpful to these children who already seem to have learned the basic concepts that will be taught for the next nine months? What happens if the student isn't feeling challenged enough? What if this child were your child? What would you expect for him and what would you as the parent be willing to do to help the situation?

While these children do not qualify for special educational services, states are responsible for developing programming for these "super-able" children. In the 1999-2000 annual edition of "Educating Exceptional Children," three articles offer a number of suggestions on the topic of exceptionally capable students, those whom we would deem gifted and talented. These are generally the top 5 percent of the class in any given grade. For any of us who struggled daily through school with the rigors of math or science or even reading, it seems incomprehensible that anyone should worry about the needs of those high achievers. Their lives seemed so easy, their backpacks so light.

According to Suzanne Foster, an elementary educator at Ball State University, gifted and talented preschoolers are information lovers. In general, preschool children often fall under this category, but gifted students want more depth and detail in their learning. They need longer blocks of free-play time to develop their play to the depths they are capable of enjoying.

Parents and teachers can plan 30- to 50-minute blocks of uninterrupted time for this creative play. Help gifted children find each other so they can dive deep into the work of their play with another child who understands the need to use the detail gifted children enjoy. Other opportunities that gifted children enjoy include:

• field trips where adults take the time to explain what the child is questioning
• hearing a variety of musical artists, from Bach to Raffi
• manipulatives, puzzles and models to do hands-on work and discovery
• books at elevated reading levels and themes built around the books of interest
• adult support in the learning process.

All children will benefit from an environment rich with learning opportunities. Gifted students need the extra time and detail to explore the ins and outs of each interesting topic.

Giving the gifted child extra challenges may help her from becoming the challenging child.

In their Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) report, Susan Winebrenner and Barbara Devlin suggest that grade schools for gifted students should be grouped in clusters so these super-able learners are being taught by a teacher who prepares for them. This cluster could be rotated between teachers and regular learners each year so that everyone has the advantage of working with them.

Older students also need help. Perhaps you recall a student in your class who was particularly gifted or talented in one or more subjects. That person could easily become a target for ridicule by junior or senior high when competition for grades becomes more obvious. Many high-achieving students will opt to be accepted by their peers over being the brightest in the class. Or the student may never have learned important study habits since there was no need for her to study in the earlier grades. When this happens the gifted students become underachievers by high school.

Teaching is a tricky job. Just keeping up with the vast variety of learners' abilities, personalities and family situations is a full-time job. And then there is the other full-time job of teaching.

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More than 100 Parent Line columns are in the book "Please Tell Me This is Just a Stage." To order, send $9.95 per copy to Distribution Center, Box 5655, NDSU, Fargo, ND 58105-5655.

Kim Bushaw answers the Parent Line, an information and listening support line for North Dakota parents from the NDSU Extension Service. Call the Parent Line at 1-800-258-0808 (231-7923 in Fargo) with questions about this column and other parenting topics. The Parent Line is answered 7:30 a.m. - 9:15 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Friday.

Source: Kim Bushaw (701) 231-1070

Editor: Becky Koch (701) 231-7875