Characteristics of Giftedness

What is Giftedness?

The Exceptional Children’s Education Act defines Gifted Children as:

” aptitude or competence in abilities, talents, and potential for accomplishment in one or more domains are so exceptional or developmentally advanced that they require special provisions to meet their educational programming needs. Gifted children are hereafter referred to as gifted students. Children under five who are gifted may also be provided with early childhood special educational services. Gifted students include gifted students with disabilities (i.e. twice exceptional) and students with exceptional abilities or potential from all socio-economic, ethnic, and cultural populations. Gifted students are capable of high performance, exceptional production, or exceptional learning behavior by virtue of any or a combination of these areas of giftedness: General or Specific Intellectual Ability, Specific Academic Aptitude, Creative or Productive Thinking, Leadership Abilities, Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Musical, Dance, or Psychomotor Abilities”

Not all gifted children look or act alike. Gifted people make up around the top 5% of a population; the highly gifted make up the top 1-3% of the population. Gifted and talented children are present in all student groups, regardless of gender, disability, English language proficiency, economic status, ethnic or cultural background. It is important that adults look hard to discover potential and support gifted children as they reach for their personal best.

Common Characteristics of Gifted Individuals

Because gifted children are so diverse, their characteristics may vary. Here are common characteristics that gifted individuals may show:

Unusual alertness, even in infancy
Rapid learner; puts thoughts together quickly
Excellent memory
Large vocabulary and can put together complex sentences
Can understand metaphors and abstract ideas with words
Enjoys solving problems, especially with numbers and puzzles
Often self-taught reading and writing skills as preschooler
Deep, intense feelings
Highly sensitive (can be touch, noise, smell, and emotions)
Thinking is abstract, complex, logical, and insightful
Idealistic at early age
Concern with social and political issues and injustices
Long attention span and intense concentration (around things they are interested in)
Preoccupied with own thoughts—daydreamer
Learns basic skills quickly and with little practice
Asks a lot of questions constantly
Wide range of interests or extreme focus in one area
Highly curious
Interest in experimenting and doing things differently
Puts idea or things together that are not typical
Unusual sense of humor
Desire to organize people/things through games or complex stories
Vivid imaginations (and may have imaginary playmates)
Prefers the company of older playmates or adults

Modified with permission from: Webb, J., Gore, J., Amend, E., DeVries, A. (2007). A parent’s guide to gifted children.

Could My Child Be Gifted? Take the Quiz!

What is Highly Gifted?

Highly gifted young people (those within the top 1-3% of the population) have unique learning and social-emotional needs. Highly gifted young people come from all ethnic groups, races, economic levels, and geographic areas. Like other young people, the highly gifted are unique individuals with varied traits.

Common Characteristics of Highly/Profoundly Gifted Individuals

An extreme need for constant mental stimulation
An ability to learn and process complex information rapidly
Sees higher level structures and patterns
A need to explore subjects in depth, to understand the why and how as well as the what
Constant curiosity; endless questions about how things work
An ability to focus intently on a subject of interest for long periods of time
Need intellectual challenge or they get bored easily
When not challenged, the highly gifted may underachieve

Modified from The Davidson Institute

Common Characteristics of Giftedness in Students from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

Students from diverse cultural or linguistic backgrounds may demonstrate some of the following characteristics with regularity:

displays an eagerness to share about his/her native culture
demonstrates strong desire to teach peers words from his/her native language
shows strong sense of pride of his/her cultural heritage and ethnic background
eager to translate for peers and adults
cross-cultural flexibility- adequately navigates roles expected of the native culture and new culture
advanced knowledge of idioms and native dialects with ability to translate and explain meanings in English
ability to understand jokes and puns related to cultural differences
able to read in native language two grades above his/her grade level
functions at language proficiency level above that of his/her non-gifted peers
code-switching ability (the practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in conversation)
sense of global community and awareness of other cultures and languages
learns a second or third language at an accelerated pace- formally taught or informally acquired
excels in math achievement tests when language ability is not a factor

To review the CLD checklist: (English) (Spanish) (Amharic) (Arabic) (Burmese) (French) (Nepali) (Russian) (Vietnamese)

Common Characteristics of Giftedness in Early Childhood

Gifted characteristics can often be seen at an early age and may include:

use of advanced vocabulary and/or development of early reading skills
crawl or walk early
early development of speech
highly observant
extremely curious and alert
unusual memory or ability to retain information
periods of intense task persistence based on the child’s interest
thinks abstractly
early demonstration of talents in the arts
understands complex concepts

Early Childhood Characteristics: (English) (Spanish) (Amharic) (Arabic) (Burmese) (French) (Nepali) (Russian) (Somali) (Vietnamese)