What really is intellectual giftedness?

Characteristics and keys to detecting a student with well above average abilities.

Research in the area of intellectual giftedness has historically been rather scarce, so this phenomenon continues to be a field to be studied and understood at a deeper level.This is why this phenomenon continues to this day to be a field to be studied and understood at a necessarily deeper level.

American contributions make a distinction between the concepts of "supergifted" (gifted in all subjects), "gifted (IQ above 130)" and "talented" (high abilities in a specific subject). More specifically, the American Department of Education indicates six criteria that a student must meet in order to be considered intellectually gifted:

Thus, the exact definition of what for this group would be a gifted student would correspond to the capacity presented by children with a great precocity in general development or in the development of specific aptitudes.

The facets of intellectual giftedness

Among the characteristics for which this kind of students stand out, three areas are differentiated: behavior (they are very active and show great interest in their surroundings, their understanding of the environment is very high and they have high concentration and memory capacities), physical characteristics (an attractive physiognomy is hypothesized and a greater probability of using glasses to correct vision) and social adaptation (they show greater maturity, greater independence and their social relationships are usually satisfactory in cases up to an IQ limit of 150, the opposite being true for children with higher IQs; In addition, they tend to show more emotional stability, empathy, are interested in intellectual leisure activities and their sense of humor is highly ironic and twisted).

Discrimination of the gifted student

As problems associated with intellectual giftedness, we can differentiate between the so called Internal or External Dyssynchrony Syndrome and the Negative Pygmalion Effect. The former refers to an alteration in the synchronization of intellectual, social, affective and motor development. Within this particularity, internal dyssynchrony is included (it can be intellectual-motor, related to language and reasoning capacity or in the affective-intellectual area) and social dyssynchrony (both in the school and family environment).

On the other hand, the Pygmalion Effect is often associated with cases of unidentified giftedness in which family and/or school figures place low expectations on the student's school performance, which leads to an attitude of conformity and low effort on the part of the child, combined with a feeling of guilt regarding his or her precociousness that fuels the decrease in school results.

Typologies of intellectual giftedness

Research has found a great heterogeneity in the aspects that characterize gifted subjects, greater than the points they have in common. Thus, a first way of categorizing this type of giftedness is a first way of categorizing this group of individuals is related to their level of creativity..

1. Creative gifted

On the one hand, the creatively gifted stand out for having a highly developed sense of humor, a powerful nonconformity and differentiation with respect to others. Their main characteristics are associated with a greater capacity in the fluency of ideas, originality, abstraction ability, unusual perspective-taking, and a strong sense of humor.Their main characteristics are associated with a greater capacity in the fluency of ideas, originality, abstraction ability, taking unusual perspectives and imaginative capacity.

2. Gifted by IQ

On the other hand, the gifted may stand out for their IQ level, and not so much for their creative capacity. In this second group are subjects with an IQ of approximately 140, and we can discriminate between privileged medium gifted (characterized by a high critical spirit, nonconformism, impatience, although they also enjoy an adequate self-esteem and positive self-confidence), disadvantaged medium gifted (more conformist, intensely emotionally sensitive, usually preoccupied with failure and dependent on ethical and moral values) and those gifted with extreme precocity (they are related to personality disturbances and psychopathology), intensely emotionally sensitive, usually preoccupied with failure and dependent on ethical and moral values) and the gifted who present extreme precocity (they are related to personality disorders and obsessive or psychotic psychopathology, so they tend to be marginalized, maladjusted and socially misunderstood individuals).

How to identify the gifted student

Several authors have made different lists of the defining aspects of people with a high IQ, very applicable in the detection of gifted students.

For example, the contributions of Joseph Renzulli from the Research Institute for the Education of Gifted and Talented Students indicate that there are three criteria to be taken into account when classifying a subject as gifted:

Characteristics of giftedness

The particularities that have been exposed as defining a gifted subject, such as creativity, dedication to the tasks to be performed or an intelligence quotient that really reflects the intellectual capacity of the individual free of extraneous variables, are very difficult to evaluate.

Even so, consensus has been reached to include some aspects as indicators of intellectual giftedness.The presence of which is found in a high proportion of the cases studied.

Thus, from the family and school environment, the following qualitative and quantitative parameters can be observed: the use of language (large vocabulary and high complexity of sentences), the type of questions posed (unusual, original), the elaborate way of communicating one's ideas, the ability to design strategies to solve tasks, the innovative use of common materials, the breadth and depth of their knowledge, the marked tendency to collect and have many hobbies (especially intellectual), and a constant and highly critical attitude.

Psycho-pedagogical intervention in gifted students

Although there are widespread beliefs about what type of intervention is most appropriate for this group of students, it seems to be proven to be the most effective measure, it seems to be proven as the most effective measure the fact of providing an inclusive treatment of these subjects in the usual school environment shared by the rest of the students. of these subjects in the usual school environment shared by the rest of the students.

Therefore, it is necessary to avoid segregation and the integral modification of the academic curriculum or the need to be tutored by a teacher with a specific professional profile. More specifically, the following psycho-pedagogical strategies are proposed in the intervention with gifted children:

Application of the academic curriculum.

It should be established individually for each gifted subject (according to his or her particularities).indicating what kind of help will be needed, both quantitatively and qualitatively, and whether this will be informal or will require formal changes in the educational program. The facilitation of stimulating activities at the level of self-knowledge and hetero-knowledge of the students and opportunities for parents to better understand the characteristics of their children should be sought.

Acceleration

This intervention refers to the substitution of an academic course to be taken by the student for a more advanced one. This resource has the advantage of it allows to adapt a more stimulating environment to the student although it is true that the maturity and capacity of the gifted student is not equal in all areas, so he/she may feel inferior to his/her peers in the advanced course and, thus, increase the promotion of competitive attitudes among the children.

The support classroom

In this case there is a specialist teaching team specifically assigned to determine what kind of support this type of student needs. Gifted children are taught in a segregated manner from their usual peers.A new group of gifted children is established in which the development of skills and interest in the various areas of learning is worked on. The main disadvantage is that it may facilitate the appearance of rejection by peers who do not have high intellectual abilities.

The regular classroom

This strategy is based on the development of learning within the student's classroom of origin, which shares the same treatment as the rest of the class. The advantage of this methodology lies in the fact that students do not perceive discrimination or preferences.In addition, they learn to adapt and normalize the fact that the learning process occurs in a heterogeneous way in a natural way. The main disadvantage lies in the decrease in motivation that gifted students may suffer if they do not receive sufficient stimulation.

Curriculum extension projects

To implement this strategy should pay attention to and analyze the type of specific abilities the student has, the areas of interest, the learning styleThe areas of interest, the style of learning, the condensation (individualized adaptation of the curriculum), the valuation of the product or activity carried out, the proportion of stimulating complementary activities (conferences, exhibitions, fairs, etc.).

Family support

Family collaboration is fundamental since it can facilitate the teaching task and the emotional stability of the student, avoiding demotivation or rejection on the part of his classmates. Parents have a greater knowledge of their child's needs and can complement the need for school stimulation at home. For this reasoncommunication between both parties is fundamentalThis will allow the teaching team to provide them with certain educational guidelines regarding the treatment offered to the child at home, in order to avoid comparisons, excessive demands, acceptance of their particularities, etc.

Teaching and training of specific intellectual skills

For further enrichment of the acquired contents, the training of the following skills can facilitate the learning and motivation for it. 

The information and data received can be worked on aspects such as sequencing, comparison, classification, cause-effect relationship, elaborating lists of attributes, performing logical reasoning, planning and execution of projects, valuation of ideas and perspectives, detection and correction of errors, mainly.

• To have specific aptitudes.
• To have a productive type of thinking.
• Good leadership ability.
• A talent in the visual and physical arts.
• Superior psychomotor ability.
  • An above-average intellectual capacity
  • A high degree of dedication to tasks
  • High levels of creativity.
  • It is also usual to associate these young people with great leadership skills and high artistic and psychomotor skills. But these are not the only characteristics related to giftedness.
Bibliographical references:
• • Acereda, A. and Sastre, S. (1998). The giftedness. Madrid: Síntesis.
  • Alonso, J. A., Renzulli, J. S., Benito, Y. (2003). Manual internacional de superdotados. Madrid: EOS.
  • Álvarez González, B. (2000): Alumnos de altas capacidades. Identification and educational intervention. Madrid: Bruño.
  • Coriat, A. R. (1990): Los niños superdotados. Barcelona: Herder.
  • Renzulli, J. (1994): "Desarrollo del talento en las escuelas. Programa práctico para enriquecimiento el total rendimiento escolar", in BENITO, Y. Mediante (coor.): El modelo de Intervención e investigación psicoeducativa en alumnos superdotados. Salamanca: Amaru Ediciones.