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Stephenville Independent School District, working together with the entire community, provides opportunities to all gifted and talented youth. An individualized student-centered program for expanding student awareness is facilitated through a challenging, differentiated curriculum aimed at encouraging creative thinking, expression, and problem-solving. Gifted students demonstrate skills in self-directed learning, thinking, research, and communication as evidenced by the development of innovative products and performances that reflect individuality, creativity, and advancement in relation to students of similar age, experience, or environment.
Recognizing Characteristics of Gifted Children
ERIC Clearing House of Handicapped on Handicapped and Gifted Children (1985) cites three types of characteristics of gifted children: general behavioral, learning, and creative characteristics. A few of these characteristics are listed here, but to learn more, please contact any SISD administrator.
Gifted children’s behavior differs from that of their age-appropriate peers in the following ways:
General Behavioral Characteristics:
- May learn to read early, with a better comprehension of the nuances of the language
- Often read widely, quickly and have a large vocabulary
- Commonly learn basic skills quickly with less practice
- Like to learn new things and willing to examine the unusual; highly inquisitive
- Usually respond well to parents, teachers, and other adults
Learning Characteristics:
- Have keen observation and can identify important details
- Take great pleasure in intellectual activities
- Readily see cause/effect relationships
- Often display a questioning attitude and seek information for its own sake
- Often skeptical, critical, and evaluative. Quick to spot inconsistencies
- Often attack complicated material by separating it into components for systematic analysis
Creative Characteristics:
- Fluent thinkers, able to generate possibilities
- Flexible thinkers, able to use different alternatives to solve problems
- Original thinkers, seeking new, unusual, or unconventional associations
- Less intellectually inquisitive than their peers
- Often disagree spiritedly with other’s views