Underchallenge at school
Highly gifted children learn faster and better than their classmates, but are also much more likely to be bored if the pace of school is too slow. In addition, many of them can only really use their special abilities in areas that they enjoy. For frequent repetition and practice, as is necessary for normal students, they usually have no patience and the frustration threshold is low.
So if they do not attend a suitable school that can meet their individual needs, the highly gifted children lose interest in teaching and prefer to focus on their own thoughts and digress. This means that they are not aware of much of the material, lose touch and at some point no longer understand what it is all about. As a result, they write poor grades and perform below average, even though they are actually capable of more than their classmates. In the end, this underchallenge leads to the loss of the initial joy of learning and the children are overchallenged rather than underchallenged at some point in their everyday school life. Special schools and boarding schools solve this problem through small classes, individual support and an adapted learning pace that enables the children to live out their potential.
How can you recognize giftedness in kindergarten?
In kindergarten, the children do not have to perform demanding tasks like in school, so it is not easy to find out that they are highly intelligent. However, highly gifted children develop much faster than their peers. They often show a differentiated language, a high interest in the environment and ask challenging questions. They are therefore ahead of their age, often get along better with older children and may have problems in contact with their peers. Some bring themselves independently
What tests are available for giftedness?
By definition, an IQ of 130 points or higher is considered to be highly gifted. The IQ test is therefore the first way for most people to determine a high aptitude. These tests are offered by various official bodies and measure the so-called “intelligence quotient”, which relates one’s own performance on the test to a sufficiently large comparison group of the same age.
Thus, intelligence as such cannot be measured, but only compared with the normal population and conclusions drawn. One disadvantage of the IQ test is that it cannot cover all aspects of intelligence. For example, it tests logical deductive reasoning and similar skills, but not creative talents, which are also a facet of intelligence. Therefore, in addition to the IQ test, there are a large number of more specific intelligence tests that cover smaller sub-areas of cognitive performance and are used when a high aptitude needs to be further differentiated or the IQ test has turned out unexpectedly poor. Exactly which tests are used for this purpose depends on the age and individual aptitude of the person to be tested and is determined by the examiner.
