Help for parents of gifted childen

Press, 8 December 1976, Page 25

Help for parents of gifted childen

If your child reads a book before breakfast and is up for two hours in the night playing scrabble wth himself, don’t worry. He's probably just gifted. He may, or may not, possess some of the other characteristics of gifted children — an insatiable interest in the most unlikely subjects (such as French at the age of six, if only because he already reads English, or computers at the age of eight): a precocious vocabulary; intense concentration: a startling ability to pick up new skills; and, at the age of six, a need for only about six hours sleep at night. If you are a normal parent, you will have told yourself that the child has something wrong with him. You will have probably got yourself into a tizz about the number of hours of sleep he isn’t getting, his paranoic absorptions with one subject, and his probable aloneness. If you ring the Association for Gifted Children in Christchurch on the remote chance that he might just be very clever, you

will probably apologise for your presumption before you have even introduced yourself. The Association for Gifted Children was formed in Christchurch six weeks ago by parents of gifted children for parents of gif- 1 ted children. It is now helping 12 children, aged from four to 11, with intelligence in the 95 plus percentile range — six weeks ago there were only three — and has a membership of 15 families. Its president, Mrs J. P. Hamlin, says that parents of average intelligence produce the greatest numbers of gifted children — a simple operation of the law of averages. Five gifted children appear in every 100. There has to be a lot of gifted children in Christchurch who have not been discovered, Mrs Hamlin says. If they are typical of their kind — they are probably pretending so well at’being average that their intelligence is not obvious. They turn out satisfactory work, but are achieving well below their potential.

They can become disruptive in class, languishing through frustration and boredom, turning into intellectual drop-outs, and even delinquents, The extra-bright child is an original thinker. Properly challenged he will become tomorrow’s leader and inventor. Occasionally, teachers resent the intellectuallysuperior child, especially when he sets about proving it, says Mrs Hamlin. Gifted children need to learn to blend ability with humility. Girls tend to hide their intelligence when they begin going out with boys. They feel more accepted tvhen they “play dumb.” Parents able to accept their child’s intelligence without embarrassment convey a security that helps a child simply to be himself and develop as an asset to the community. Parents embarrassed about a gifted child teach him to feel that intelligence is a handicap. One of the aims of the society. Mrs Hamlin says, is to reassure parents that their gifted children

present no great problem, and that their unusual ways are merely symptomatic of their giftedness. A child who fights sleep before 10 p.m., is awake again at 2 a.m. for two hours, and up again at 6 a.m. is a perfectly normal, gifted, child and just needs to be told to look after himself for two hours every night. Gifted children are not

By

BRIAR CAMBOURN

“nasty little geniuses,” Mrs Hamlin says. Their social and emotional make-ups are the same as less gifted children. The by-stander who watches a group of normal and gifted children playing together would probably not notice any difference. They differ only in their need for intellectual stimulation, but the gifted usually are deprived in a society that caters for the normal. To meet the gifted child’s special requirements. the association is compiling lists of activi-

ties and books that will challenge them. It is also making a file on each child so that the association can be specific in its help. Often, gifted children become loners because they have no companions to their interests. The association is trying to find a pen-pal for one child of six who is an extremely competent letter writer, for a child with a

love of languages who would share the same love with another six-year-old, and for a young friend to a boy of eight with a pre* cocious interest in computers. Usually, children with specialist interests are precluded from club memberships because of their ages, Mrs Hamlin says. An astronomical society is not going to open its membership to a boy of eight, no matter what his mental age. However, as the needs of gifted children become known, specialists in many fields might vol-

unteer to satisfy unusual interests in gifted children. A similar problem arises with reading material, Mrs Hamlin says. A girl of ten with a reading age of 18 is not going to be interested in romances written for young girls. The association’s task is to find her suitable books. The association is planning Christmas activities • for its children — activities which any normal child would enjoy, but , which will also challenge latent abilities. The children will be left with wood, hammers, and nails, waste materials, art and craft oddments, pencils and paper. They w’ill be able to create to their mind’s content. An instructor will guide some in creative writing. Gifted children often feel that they are of no use in an area outside the one which absorbs their interest, Mrs Hamlin says. The activities will convince them that their competence can extend over many fields, and that challenge! lie everywhere.

Playing with other children will be a good social exercise. Before it became an association six weeks ago, the group had been researching the subject for 10 months and working out a programme, Mrs Hamlin says. It will continue on a voluntary basis. Its staff and helpers are either parents of gifted children, teachers of gifted children, or had been gifted children themselves. Members will meet Informally on many occasions just to talk about the trials and triumphs of raising gifted children, but .will also meet regularly to hear specialists and remain informed. The association will collect and disseminate advice and the latest information on gifted children, publish a newsletter, build a library — assistance from the" city’s librarians has been “incredible;” one library is compiling a file of newspaper and magazine cuttings on the subject, and libraries have agreed to interloan — refer parents to helpful

books, arrange speakers, | provide details of suitable ■ scholarships, test in- j telligence quotients, sug- 1 gest to teachers ways in > which the gifted child can I be occupied in the class- ! room, and let parents know of organisations i offering activities which j will appeal to gifted child- I ren. Although the association ; conducts its own in- I telligence quotient tests, it j accepts testing done by . the Department of Educa- | tion’s Psychological Service, and by private psychologists. Mrs Hamlin says that experts in the Primary School Inspectorate. the Psychological Service, members of the Christchurch Teachers’ College and Canterbury University have freely offered their support and advice. Associations for gifted ! children have been formed I in Auckland and Wellington. The Wellington group, | seven months old, has . more than 70 children; the Auckland association, 19 ' months old. is helping 120 . children, and has 150 i members. ,