What is really intellectual giftedness?

Research in the area of ​​intellectual giftedness has historically been rather sparse, so that this phenomenon today continues to be a field to be studied and known at a necessarily deeper level.

Contributions of American origin make a distinction between the concepts “supergifted” (gifted in all subjects), “gifted (IQ over 130)” and “talented” (high abilities in a specific subject). More specifically, the American Department of Education indicates six criteria to be met by the student in order to be considered as intellectually gifted:

1. Possess general academic excellence.
2. Have specific skills.
3. Have a type of producer thinking.
4. A good one leadership.
5. Present a talent in the visual and physical arts.
6. A superior psychomotor ability.

Thus, the exact definition of what a gifted student would be for this group would correspond to the ability that present boys or girls with a great precociousness in the general development or in the development of aptitudes specific.

The facets of intellectual giftedness

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

Discrimination of the gifted student

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

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

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. A) Yes, a first way of categorizing this group of individuals is related to their level of creativity.

1. Creative gifted

On the one hand, the gifted creatives stand out for having a highly developed sense of humor, a powerful nonconformity and differentiation from others. Its main characteristics are associated with a greater capacity in the flow of ideas, originality, abstract ability, taking from unusual perspectives and imaginative ability.

2. Gifted by IQ

On the other hand, the gifted can stand out for their IQ level, and not so much for their creative ability. In this second group are the subjects who present approximately an IQ of 140, and it is possible to discriminate between gifted of average privileged (characterized by a high critical spirit, nonconformity, impatience, although they also enjoy adequate self-esteem and positive self-confidence), gifted from disadvantaged milieu (more conformist, 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 alterations in personality and obsessive psychopathology or psychotic, so they are often socially marginalized, misfit and misunderstood individuals).

How to Identify the Gifted Student

Various 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, contributions from Joseph renzulli from the Research Institute for the Education of Gifted Students indicate that there are three criteria that must be taken into account when classifying a subject as gifted:

• 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 they are not the only characteristics related to giftedness.

Characteristics of the gifted

The particularities that have been exposed as defining a gifted subject, such as creativity, dedication to tasks at hand. perform or an IQ that really reflects the intellectual capacity of the individual free of strange variables, are very difficult assessable.

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

Thus, from the family and school environment, the figures of the child's environment can observe the following qualitative and quantitative parameters: use of language (wide vocabulary and high complexity of sentences), the type of questions it poses (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 his knowledge, the marked tendency to collect and have many hobbies (especially intellectual), and a constant and highly critical.

Psychopedagogical 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 as the most effective measure the fact of dispensing an inclusion treatment of these subjects in the usual school environment shared by the rest of the students.

Therefore, it is necessary to avoid the 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 psychopedagogical strategies are proposed in intervention with gifted children:

Application of the academic curriculum

It must be established individually for each gifted subject (depending on their particularities), indicating what type of help you will need both quantitatively and qualitatively and if it will be informal or will require formal changes in the educational program. Facilitation of stimulating activities should be sought at the level of self-knowledge and hetero-knowledge of students and opportunities for parents to better understand the characteristics of their children.

Acceleration

This intervention refers to the substitution of an academic course to be carried out by the student for a more advanced one. This resource has the advantage that allows to adapt a more stimulating environment to the student although it is true that the maturity and ability of the gifted student is not equitable in all areas, so it may feel inferior to their peers in the advanced course and, thus, increase the promotion of competitive attitudes among students kids.

The support classroom

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

The usual 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 preferencesThey also learn to adapt and normalize the fact that the learning process occurs naturally in a heterogeneous way. The main disadvantage resides in the diminished motivation that gifted students can suffer if they do not receive sufficient stimulation.

Curriculum extension projects

To apply this strategy must pay attention and analyze the type of concrete abilities that the student presents, the areas of interest, the style of their learning, the condensation (individualized adaptation of the curriculum), the assessment of the product or activity carried out, the proportion of stimulating complementary activities (conferences, exhibitions, fairs, etc).

Family support

Family collaboration is essential since they can facilitate the teaching task and the emotional stability of the student by avoiding demotivation or rejection by their classmates. Parents have a greater understanding of the child's needs and can complement the need for school stimulation at home. Thus, communication between both parties is essential, since it will allow the teaching team to also provide them with certain appropriate educational guidelines regarding the treatment offered to the child at home relative to avoiding comparisons, excessive demands, acceptance of her peculiarities, etc.

Teaching and training of concrete intellectual skills

For a greater enrichment of the acquired content, training the following skills can facilitate learning and motivation to do so.

The information and data received can be worked on in aspects such as sequencing, comparison, classification, cause-effect relationship, preparing lists of attributes, carrying out logical reasoning, planning and executing projects, evaluating ideas and perspectives, detecting and correcting errors, mainly.

Bibliographic references:

• Acereda, A. and Sastre, S. (1998). Giftedness. Madrid: Synthesis.
• Alonso, J. A., Renzulli, J. S., Benito, Y. (2003). International Gifted Handbook. Madrid: EOS.
• Álvarez González, B. (2000): High ability students. Educational identification and intervention. Madrid: Bruño.
• Coriat, A. R. (1990): Gifted children. Barcelona: Herder.
• Renzulli, J. (1994): “Development of talent in schools. Practical program for enriching total school performance ”, at school BENITO, Y. Through (coor.): The model of psychoeducational intervention and research in gifted students. Salamanca: Amaru Editions.