![]() You may have been tested as a child or have participated in special educational programs. The majority of gifted adults were not identified as such in childhood. However, this different experience often leads the gifted person to feel out of step with the world, which may be exacerbated by a lack of understanding of their experience by others. Their uncommon intellectual and creative capacities allow for outstanding contributions and accomplishments. They think more deeply about things, experience more intense emotions, and have heightened sensitivity to stimuli of all kinds. Research shows that gifted individuals experience the world differently from the norm. ![]() Acknowledging that the environment in which a gifted individual is raised and educated has a huge impact on that person’s subsequent accomplishments, and that achievement test scores are strongly influenced by socioeconomic circumstances, many school districts now also assess for potential to excel not yet expressed in test results or accomplishments. The federal definition is based on the 1972 Marland Report to Congress, and emphasizes five areas of giftedness in considering students for placement in special programs: intellectual, academic, creativity, leadership, and visual and performing arts. IQ tests also fail to identify giftedness in those who do not have the test-taking skills or cultural knowledge to score well. However, this simple measure of giftedness has several weaknesses, including the fact that a full-scale IQ score will average out verbal and mathematical abilities, may mask giftedness when there is a learning disability present, and fails to account for other forms of giftedness, including the arts or music. Initially, giftedness was defined as scoring greater than 2 standard deviations above the mean (over 130, in the top ~2%) on an IQ test, such as the Stanford-Binet or the Wechsler (WISC or WAIS). Defining giftedness has been a topic of ongoing debate in the academic and educational community for decades.
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