Highly Recommended Game for Gifted Children!

If your gifted child likes to build or is fascinated with the way things work, we HIGHLY recommend the game "Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions".  We bought this Windows-based game for our family computer years ago, and it has provided tons of fun ever since.

The Incredible Machine (often abbreviated as TIM) is a problem solving game in the form of Rube Goldberg-style contraptions to do a certain task and that are almost complete, but not quite: the player has to pick out and place items on the contraption that make it work.  For a very simple example, you have a contraption that starts with a ball at the top of an incline, and your task is to get the ball into a bucket at the bottom of the incline: you have to pick an item from a toolbag that will push the ball down the incline, such as a fan that blows the ball into motion.

The often whimsical collection of items you can use in your contraptions includes balls, inclines, balloons, candles, mice, conveyor belts, cats, pulleys, ropes, an anti-gravity pad, and much more.  The really neat thing is that the items behave according to real world physical principles: if you push a ball over an edge, it falls and accelerates properly.  Bouncing items deflect at proper angles.  You can also make adjustments to environmental properties--such as gravity and air pressure--to change your contraption's behavior, as if your puzzle was on the moon or in space.

The Incredible Machine allows single player and dual players racing against each other to solve a task.  It comes with several hundred ready-to-solve puzzles, and players can build their own contraptions just for fun.  Players can even experiment with the game's background music.  This is a very well thought out game.

Obviously TIM fosters problem solving skills and makes it easy (and fun) to demonstrate basic physical sciences.  If your gifted child is a budding physicist or engineer, they will enjoy this game immensely, as will the adults.

Gifted Children and Learning

Wow, how easily time can get away from you; it seems like just last week that we wrote our last blog, but that was actually back in October. Suddenly our weekends got busy, we even had a wedding in the family (Chuck's brother Dan), and voila! we're in the holidays!

Well, the fifth and final blog in our series of telling gifted children from bright children considers how gifted children learn. Unlike some of the other qualities of gifted children we've blogged about, a cliché about gifted children is fairly true here: gifted children seem to just "get it" more easily than other children. A bright child will master a task in 6 to 8 repetitions, but a gifted child will master the same repetition in 1 to 3 repetitions.

Think of learning multiplication tables. Bright children study their tables, review them with their parents and peers, and cite repetitions with their teacher; a table might be mastered in a few weeks through memorization driven by that repetition. The gifted child might only need to be exposed to a table, from which they recognize and infer patterns, and only after a minimal number of repetitions, they haven’t just memorized the table, they “know” it.

Repetition, in fact, tends to frustrate a gifted child, or instill boredom at the least. We saw this frequently with our own children. After all, few of us would want to read the same paragraph of text over and over, even once we’ve memorized it. These frustrations and boredom may come out as behavioral problems or with the child being regularly distracted and disconnected with their coursework.

We said a moment ago that gifted children don’t just memorize concepts, they “know” them. This is an important distinction, as it allows the gifted child to extrapolate concepts beyond what’s been exposed to them. Using the multiplication tables example again, once a gifted child has mastered up to the 3’s, they may not even require exposure to the 4’s and later. They have learned not only the table but also the underlying concepts of multiplication and they can infer tables that haven’t been exposed to them yet. They can manipulate and apply their newly acquired knowledge much more easily and cohesively than other children.

This ability to infer and extrapolate results in gifted children being able to produce material of an innovative and original nature. This isn’t true only of analytical topics such as multiplication tables; creatively gifted children will produce creative material of an original nature. Other children (and adults) who don’t understand might perceive that material as “weird” or “out there”, and it’s no doubt that gifted children—particularly creatively gifted—can march to the beat of a different drummer.

We hope that this series has been useful to you, and we hope that it helps a gifted child that you know. We’d like to hear from you about your experiences with your gifted child; you can post a comment here or you can email us at giftedgalaxy@gmail.com. We’d love suggestions for topics, but we’d most like to hear about your gifted child!

Gifted Children and Curiosity

All children are naturally curious and inquisitive; this is one of the many things that brings joy to parenting.  Plenty of parents might in fact mistake this natural curiosity children will exhibit with being intellectually gifted.  But there are notable differences between the natural curiosity of all children and the curiosity of bright children, and then again with the curiosity of gifted children.

Bright children will exhibit curiosity about almost any topic, asking questions, exploring, and wanting to know more; they will take it beyond just an immediate interest in a topic.  Bright children want to know a lot more about a topic than may be initially and superficially presented, and they will display the initiative to learn more than other children.  Gifted children take it several steps further, not only wanting to know about the topic, but to truly understand the topic from the inside out.  Gifted children might often exhibit an infactuation or obsession with a topic that goes on for long periods of time, and often results in such an understanding of the topic that they can predict outcomes related to the topic or can extrapolate their knowledge of that topic to other topics.  Their focus on learning the topic can be so intense that they have a hard time focusing on other topics until they've adequately satisfied their curiosity in the first topic (one of the reasons that gifted children don't automatically get good grades).

While bright children might research a topic to explore their curiosity, gifted children will initiate projects and experiments to test their preductions and assumptions about the topic.  The topics of their interests don't have to be academic: our daughter often obsesses over issues with her friends, and took learning to drive extremely seriously (fortunately for us, way more seriously than most teens do).  When gifted children come across a topic that interests them, they will latch on and it's often difficult (to say the least) to divert their attention.  Our son is a part-time intern for a software company and we were recently told by his supervisor that he is incredibly detailed oriented.  This attention to detail (when learning any topic) goes way back to his interest in topics from bats (the flying rodent kind) to reading (series of books) and more.

In summary, gifted children have a curiosity that goes way beyond that of other children, and (often) obsessively beyond that of bright children.  If your child displays such an infatuation with a topic, and their outcome is an amazingly thorough understanding of the topic, it might be an indicator that they are gifted.

Gifted Children and Imagination

Perhaps the most fun for the parent of a gifted child comes from a gifted child's seemingly limitless imagination and wellspring of ideas. There are different types of intelligences, and therefore different types of gifted intelligences, but we like to categorize them in 2 ways: analytically gifted and creatively gifted. We've said before that our son tends to the former while our daughter tends to the latter. So it might be logical to assume that it's our daughter who would be the more imaginative of the two, but for us that wasn't necessarily the case.

As early as preschool, long before being identified as gifted, our son would come home with the craziest (imagination on the wild side) and most detailed of stories. We still get a chuckle out of one of his stories where he claimed he and a friend pushed their teacher down the hill during recess. "And she rolled, and rolled..." The story went on and on, with incredible detail, enough so that--while we were pretty certain he hadn't actually pushed his teacher down the hill--we asked her about it at the next PTA meeting. His level of detail was quite convincing! And yes, it was all the product of his imagination.

That imagination hasn't abated, either. He's now a 20 year-old college junior who is taking World Literature. One night out to dinner recently he recounted for us the story of Gilgamesh. In amazing detail. On the way to the restaurant, all during dinner, and on the way home. He may still be talking about it, I'm not sure. While it wasn't the product of his imagination, it captured his attention enough that he had practically memorized the story. Somewhat related: gifted children will also converse with anyone willing to listen!

Gifted children can think in much more complex ways than other children. Their thinking can produce the most complex and detailed of ideas, as in our son's pre-school stories, and they can comprehend at incredibly high levels, as in his understanding of the story of Gilgamesh. This may be the easiest way to distinguish between a child who is bright and a child who is gifted: bright children will indeed memorize and recall content with ease, but gifted children will not only memorize and recall, but also extrapolate, infer, and create their own content.

Not to be outdone, our daughter too is a fountain of imagination and ideas, though more practical and grounded than that of our son (which would be really, really surprising if you knew our daughter). Her imagination comes out in her creative writing (she's been working on a book for a couple of years now) and in the particularness of her wardrobe (fortunately she's well beyond the dreadful goth years of junior high).

Gifted children often think much more abstractly than other children, as is the case with our daughter. In the late 90's (when she was around 8 or 9) there was a spate of disaster movies coming out (volcanoes, tornadoes, and storms; I'm sure you remember them). Having only seen the trailers on TV, she would turn to us and ask, "that can't happen here, can it?" She had taken the abstract concept of a volcano bubbling up out of the ground, or a tornado ravaging Kansas, and applied it to our own backyard.

Ah, the imagination of gifted children!

Gifted Children and Social Behavior

There's no doubt, gifted children march to the beat of a different drum, especially when it comes to social behavior. You'll remember from our previous blogs that gifted children aren't motivated by the same things that motivate other children. This might often be most readily apparent with their social behavior, including who they select as friends.

Gifted children will pick friends who not only possess the same interests as they do, but also who are their intellectual peers. Basically, gifted children tend to seek out other gifted children to hang out with (so it could be said that one way to determine if your child is gifted is whether they befriend other gifted children).

Because their selection of peers might tend more toward intellectual capacity, gifted children might not recognize normal social barriers and see no problem befriending adults and discussing with them topics that might pose challenging even between two adult peers. One of our favorite stories of our own son is that, at about 10, he had no problem discussing the biology of human reproductivity at dinner out one night with another couple, including details of how "squirms" (he meant the plural of sperm) were able to swim on their way to fertilization. The gifted child is comfortable with discussing the facts with anyone willing to listen!

Just as there are differences in types of intelligences (and perhaps directly related to these differences), social behavior can differ among gifted children. Our son was (and still is) highly selective with his friends, and their play tended more toward intellectual pursuits than otherwise (exploring rather than playing, building and constructing rather than exercising). Our daughter, on the other hand, was (and still is) much less selective but much more creative and representing much more complex relationships. If you haven't guessed, our son tends to be more analytically gifted while our daughter tends toward creatively gifted.

There may be some truth to the stereotype of the antisocial super-intelligent child (or adult, for that matter), but it's less a matter of antisocial behavior and more a matter of fewer and fewer intellectual peers for them to interact with. They are, after all, in the thinning end of the IQ bell curve. This is another reason why we believe so strongly in gifted education: it gives the gifted child more opportunity to identify intellectual peers.

Gifted Children and Academic Performance

For the next few blogs we're going to share some experiences with our own children on each of the 5 ways that gifted children differ from bright children that we covered in our previous blog, Your Child Is Bright, But Is He Gifted?  In this blog, we'll talk about academic performance.

Gifted children make all A's, right?  Not necessarily.  We were very fortunate that both of our children naturally (i.e. without much pushing from Mom and Dad) took grades seriously, but this isn't always the case with gifted children.  Often, the gifted child doesn't particularly care about grades.  That was the case for us parents when we (ourselves) were in school.  Our children, on the other hand, perhaps took grades too seriously; if they didn't get A's, they were upset and ashamed, i.e. they took it too hard.  Being too self-critical when it comes to grades is a common trait among gifted children.

It is true that gifted children might not have to work hard to get good grades.  In fact, they might only listen in class, never study, make brief notes at best, and consistently make As and Bs.  They just get it easily.  Once they hit a topic that challenges them, they might not be accustomed to having to focus, so this can eventually pose a problem.  This is one of the reasons we think that gifted education is so vitally important.  For example, our son had always been able to "skate" through class, but once he got to college and took Physics and Calculus, he found he couldn't do that; he actually had to study.  Our daughter, now in college, is having to grapple with Philosophy, which she probably thought was going to be an easy A.  We'll report back on how they're both doing toward the end of the semester.

Parents will notice that children, like adults, organize themselves into groups--for social and many other reasons.  In the classroom it will be interesting to the parents of gifted children to observe the groups their children participate in.  You might think that gifted children will form their own clique, and while this might be true, often gifted children are totaly outside the academically bright cliques, or "groups of their own".  Our own children both followed this pattern, though somewhat differently: our son was much more individualistic, highly selective of his peers, while our daughter was much less selective but tended to assemble or partipate in groups that were - how shall we say? - "creatively unique".  Note that gifted children aren't just the kids that excel in math and science, but also the ones who are exceptionally creative (think Picaso vs. Einstein); our daughter is more of the creatively gifted type.  We'll talk about types of intelligences in future blogs.

Finally, gifted children, because they are motivated in much different ways than other children, often don't pander to their teachers.  It's been said that bright children are teacher pleasers, gifted children are not.  Gifted children often pursue their own intellectual interests, even if they are at odds with the teacher's goals (this can obviously lead to poor grades, or the incorrect label of "unmotivated").  Gifted children will ask their own questions, perhaps before they bother to answer the questions their teachers asked.  We can hardly say that our son bothered himself with pleasing any teacher, but he was more than willing to report to us when a teacher said something incorrect.  Our daughter, on the other hand, tended to be at odds with teachers a little more frequently than our son; her creative approach was often misunderstood by her teachers.

The most important thing to remember about gifted children: academic performance--A's and B's--are not directly related to their capabilities.

Your Child Is Bright, But Is He Gifted? How to Tell...

There are significant differences between bright children who are achieving great things in school and truly gifted children. The federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act defines gifted and talented students as “Students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities.” [Title IX, Part A, Definition 22. (2002)] Many states follow the federal definition. The definitive measure of course is the child’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ). Depending on the state you live in, “gifted” may be defined as having an IQ of 121 (100 is considered an average IQ) or higher or the combination of a number of factors including mental ability, academic performance, and creativity.

All parents think that their child is special, but short of having your child tested, how might you tell that he is truly gifted? Having an idea of whether your child is gifted gives you, the parent, a head start on giving him the guidance that he needs and deserves; the educational needs of gifted children are as important as any other special learning need, indeed we believe that gifted children have a right to appropriate educational guidance.

The following five areas should give you an idea of whether your child is bright or more—gifted. In this article we assume your child is old enough to have had some formal classroom work, but it is possible to detect whether a younger child—even an infant—is displaying qualities of a gifted intelligence; this latter topic we’ll save for a future article.

1. Academic Performance – Bright children naturally perform well in school. They get A’s, willingly complete their assignments, are pleased with learning, and work hard to achieve. Bright children will learn with ease, are attentive, and remember answers. On the other hand, gifted children may not be motivated by grades, will initiate their own assignments, are frequently very self-critical, and simply know without having to work hard. Gifted children may seem inattentive but are actually selectively engaged, excelling at that which interests them most. Gifted children don’t just remember answers, they pose their own questions. Bright children perform at the top of their class or group, but gifted children are beyond the group or are in their own group. Bright children are typically teacher pleasers, whereas gifted children can be the bane of a teacher’s existence.

2. Social Behavior – Not only can gifted children be beyond, or in their own, academic group, they may create their own social groups. Bright children seek peers of their own age and interests; gifted children seek peers of their own intellect and therefore often prefer the conversation of adults. Bright children understand complex and abstract humor, and enjoy school and other opportunities to learn. Gifted children, however, create complex abstract humor (or enjoy off-the-wall humor) and tend to prefer self-directed learning over formal schooling.

3. Imagination and Ideas – Bright children generate advanced ideas and comprehend at high levels. Gifted children generate highly complex, often abstract, ideas, and their ideas are often in great abundance; they also comprehend ideas at a much more complex and abstract level than other children. Bright children tend to memorize and recall well, while gifted children guess, infer, and produce their own unique ideas well; gifted children are natural brainstormers, fountains of original ideas. Gifted children will create complex stories and will often converse freely with practically anyone willing to listen.

4. Curiosity – Bright children exhibit interest and respond with opinions, gifted children are thoroughly curious and exhibit opinions from multiple perspectives. While bright children explore problems in detail, gifted children ponder the problems in great depth. Bright children are receptive to exploring problems and are alert and observant; gifted children are intense in their exploration of problems and are not merely observant, they anticipate (predict) and relate their observations.

5. Learning – Bright children master tasks in 6 to 8 repetitions while gifted children master the same tasks in 1 to 3 repetitions. Bright children easily grasp the meanings of topics, produce accurate and complete work, and seem to easily absorb information. On the other hand, gifted children infer and connect concepts, not just meanings; they produce work of an original nature; and they don’t just absorb information, they manipulate it. Gifted children often balk at having to do repetitive practice of skills; they just don’t see the value of practice when they have already mastered the task.

Does your child exhibit behaviors and qualities that are more like bright children or gifted children? If the latter, the first thing you should do is meet with his teacher and ask as many questions as you can, though keep in mind that your child’s teacher is likely not an expert in gifted education. Recognizing that your gifted child needs special attention is a critical first step in their education.

Sources: “High Achiever, Gifted Learner, Creative Thinker” by Bertie Kingore, Ph.D.; “Note the Difference” by Janice Szabos, Challenge Magazine.

Welcome to GiftedGalaxy!

My name is Chuck, and my wife's name is Lori; welcome to our site!  Probably the first thing you should know about us is that we're parents; we have two wonderful gifted children.  Recently we completed a successful navigation of primary and secondary school and our youngest started college this past week.  That means we have two in college: our son Darrah is a junior majoring in Computer Science, and Catie is majoring in English with the long term ambition of earning a law degree.

The second thing that you might want to know about us is that Lori's a teacher.  She's taught for 14 years now, and for 9 of those years she's been teaching gifted students.  She has a Master's degree in Gifted Education, and for her, teaching--especially gifted children--is a mission.  While she teaches gifted children at the elementary level, her certification also allows her to teach at the secondary level.

Rearing a gifted child can be an unexpected challenge.  Most people don't really get this, but if you have a gifted child in your house, then you know what we're talking about.  Unlike what most people think (that gifted children automatically make good grades and win scholarships), gifted children pose a unique set of challenges, from maintaining a high level of motivation and intellectual challenge, to answering questions that are, well, hard to answer.  On top of this, there are different kinds of intelligences and different ways of being gifted.  As a parent, you want to support your gifted child, challenge them, and encourage them, so you ask teachers for advice, you devour books on the topic, and you scour the Internet.

We found that the absolute best advice usually came from other parents who had been through it before and who were willing to share what they had learned and the resources they had discovered (the really good resources on gifted children are actually not so easy to find).  So with that in mind, we decided to create this blog and share not only what we've learned in bringing up our own gifted children for the past 20 years, but also to share what Lori, as a professional educator of gifted children, knows, learns, and experiences every day with her nearly 100 students each year.

We hope you enjoy our blog and we hope that it helps you to challenge and encourage your gifted child!