Classroom Management of Students with Special Needs

- Gifted child

Farah FarzanaNur Ain

Nuraisah

Gifted ChildGifted is an intelligence test score above 130, two

or more standard deviations above the norm, or the top 2.5%. 

Gifted and talented children are those identified by professionally qualified persons who by virtue of outstanding abilities are capable of high performance. These are children who require differentiated educational programs and/or services beyond those normally provided by the regular school program in order to realize their contribution to self and society. (Former U. S. Commissioner of Education Sidney P. Marland, Jr., in his August 1971 report to Congress)

Characteristics of Gifted ChildGeneral Intellectual Ability

◦Have varied interests and exhibit curiosity; strong curiosity; asks questions about everything and anything; inquisitive. 

◦Demonstrate a high level of language development and verbal ability; has extensive vocabulary; early or avid reader.

◦Have an unusual capacity for processing information.◦Ability to think and process information quickly; learns

rapidly. ◦Comprehensively synthesizes problems; reasons well. ◦Heightened capacity to recognize diverse relationships

and integrate ideas across disciplines; reasons things out, comprehends meanings, and makes logical associations.

◦ Is a keen observer; alert.

Leadership Ability◦Have an evaluative approach towards self and

others. ◦Heightened expectations of self and others;

perfectionistic; is self.◦Advanced cognitive and affective capacity for

conceptualizing societal problems.◦Are self-confident with children their own age as

well as with adults. ◦Responsible; can be counted.◦ Is cooperative with teacher and classmates.◦Tends to dominate others; directs activities.◦Often has solutions to social and environmental

problem.◦Tends to question authority; is uninhibited in giving.

Specific Academic Ability◦Capable of absorbing an extraordinary quantity

of information with unusual retentiveness; has an excellent memory.

◦Able to comprehend subject matter at advanced levels.

◦Has facility with numbers.◦Has quick mastery and recall of factual

information; rapid learning ability.◦Unusual intensity; persistent and goal directed;

perseverant in their interests.◦Has a long attention span; perseverant when

interested.

Creative Ability◦Flexible thought processes in solving problems.◦Early ability to delay closure.◦Can generate original ideas and solutions; is

highly creative; offers unusual, unique, or clever answers; originality in written, oral, or artistic expression; independent thinker.

◦Has a vivid imagination.◦Has a keen sense of humor; comical. ◦Is a risk-taker; adventurous and speculative◦Involvement with the metaneeds of society

(beauty, justice, truth); is sensitive to beauty.◦Nonconforming; individualistic.◦Uses previously learned things in new contexts.

Affective/Social-Emotional◦Large accumulation of emotions that has not been

brought to awareness. ◦Unusual sensitivity to the feelings and expectations

of others; sensitive. ◦Heightened self-awareness. ◦Advanced sense of justice—idealism at an early

age; concerned with justice, fairness.◦Earlier development of internal locus of control.◦Unusual emotional depth and intensity; shows

compassion; sensitivity.◦Strong need for consistency between values and

personal actions.◦Advanced levels of moral judgment; morally

sensitive◦Strongly motivated by self-actualization needs

Psychomotor◦Unusual quantity of input from environment

through a heightened sense of awareness.◦Unusual discrepancy between physical and

intellectual development.◦Has a high degree of energy.

Discipline ProblemPsychomotor OE

◦A child with over excitability in the psychomotor area might appear to have an issue with hyperactivity and may be misdiagnosed as having ADHD.  He may speak quickly or constantly and move around all the time.

Sensual OE◦Sensual OE usually manifests as an aversion to

sensory input such as noise, lights, tastes, or the feel of the seams in socks. 

◦ A young child with sensory OE may have strong negative reactions to noises such as the fireworks or he react to smaller sounds (e.g yelling at the other for breathing too loudly when she was trying to do her homework in 2nd grade). 

Intellectual OE◦ Intellectual OE is the one OE that may not appear pathological

in a gifted child.  It entails a strong need for intellectual input.  Constant reading, seeking justice, and mental activity are hallmarks of intellectual OE.  We often expect gifted children to be mentally active, so this does not appear unusual. 

Imaginational OE◦ Children who exhibit imaginational OE are creative dreamers

who have a rich internal fantasy life.  Young gifted children with imaginational OE may have well developed imaginary friends.  The risk here is in dissociating from reality or not paying attention to things one needs to do because daydreaming is more appealing.

Emotional OE◦ Emotional OE is characterized by intense emotional

responses.  These children can be accused of being overly sensitive or of having poor emotional control.  They may cry easily even as they get older and they often throw intense temper tantrums as toddlers and preschoolers. 

Steps to Solve Disciplinary Problem of Gifted Child Try to See Things From Your Child’s Perspective

It doesn’t mean you need to treat them as adults, but it does mean they should be treated with respect.

Give Reasons, But Don’t DebateIf your child needs the reasons behind rules, requests and denials, then by all means give them the reasons.

Give Your Child Some ChoicesConsider the possibility that these gifted children need to feel as though they have some control over their lives. Let them make some decisions, but limit the decisions they make so that you still maintain control of the household.

Treat Your Child With RespectListening to an opinion does not require you to agree with it and it’s important that your child understand that from the beginning.