Exceptionally Gifted Children

by Miraca U.M. Gross

"Exceptionally Gifted Children" examines the origin, development and school histories of 15 Australian children who are amongst the most intellectually gifted young people ever to be identified and studied. The first phase of a longitudinal research project which will trace the children through to adulthood, the author looks in detail at the children's early lives and influences, their families and personal characteristics. More importantly, she explores the school experiences of the children, the opportunities offered and denied to them and the effects of their early school life on their educational development - how the school environment can affect self-esteem, self-concept, motivation, capacity to find and form friendships, and the children's own attitudes towards their own abilities and achievements.

Genres: Education, Psychology, Nonfiction, Parenting

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 19, 1993

Reviews

[Sunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read. I’ve got 2 little boys of my own and they are far from genius but it was interesting to see microscopic elements of them in the 25 ish geniuses this book is about. It’s a study done in Australia about a collection of children who are clearly years ahead of their contemporaries on their IQ levels. The book covers areas such as gifted education in Australia, early development and physical health, family characteristics and family history, academic achievement levels, reading developments and recreational activities, school history and their psychological development. These kids had certain traits which would be worth calling out. All of them read from an early age, they found that they typically lived in houses with over 500 and in some cases over 1000 books so their parents were influences (we have close to 1000 in our house). The parents were typically engineers or teachers, or academics or businessmen or working in management. Either way the parents imbibed into them a sense of perfection and the verve for education and learning from an early age. These kids typically stayed up longer than the average child as their minds were so engaged. They seemed to have less injuries when they were children, their physical balance was brilliant. That being said they were not typically sporty as their time was often taken up pursuing projects of the mind. They were good in arts typically but also good in maths and the sciences also. They did however find it hard to find friends amongst their peers who were their age and sought out older more intellectually stimulating situations. They were not autistic socially but needed the right company. Some of this sample group went on to higher education years before they were meant to. There are some other really interesting bits in the book:
• A 2 ish year old is out walking with his mother and his mother asks him how long we have been out for and the 2 year old says “oh ... Probably about 26.5 mins mother?” – That was the exact time. She tried it again on other occasions and he did the same thing.
• They spend a lot of time reading during the week often reading well into the night or waking up early to read. One kid Fred around 11 years old read on average 17 hours per week.
• Having done all that reading they were more morally advanced and had a greater sense of what was right and wrong. They got this from reading books by Dumas, Scott or Hugo for example at a very early age for example.
• The inadequacies of the teaching establishment in Australia in dealing with these types of precocious highly intelligent children came out very strongly in this book. Some of the teachers were just not prepared or skilled in dealing with them and sometimes even came across very rude towards the children. On some occasions they didn’t know how to accelerate the children who were clearly beyond their years in intelligence and the result was that these poor kids would get very disenfranchised with school and that would result in other bad behaviours!

Brilliant book overall and very academic but 4 stars I guess as it took a while to get going but once that had happened it was a great study of these beautiful minds.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book demonstrates the importance of identifying gifted children as early as possible and implementing proper strategies to allow them to flourish. The study follows the development of fifteen children with phenomenal IQ (160+) and analyses the methods employed to cope with them. These methods include accelerated and enriched programmes, ability grouping and special guidance. The author convincingly shows that the lack of such measures can have devastating effects on gifted children, among which boredom, lack of stimulation and problems socialising. There's a worrisome lack of support for adapted educational programmes for the gifted as opposed to those with cognitive conditions. It's unfair and revolting to see that many intellectually gifted children are abandoned and end up deeply dissatisfied and depressed. All teachers should be aware of this phenomenon and its implications, and they should do everything to provide, along with parents, a suitable environment for these special children.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm reading all that I can on the subject since my son was tested and found this book to be super interesting.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

suggested by Andrew Sullivan, "Far From the Tree"
get from the library

[Mark Siegmund · Rating 5 out of 5]

the very best contemporary work on exceptionally and profoundly gifted children