What do you do with a 4-year-old who asks, in all sincerity,
whether you think Pluto should be considered a planet, and can back up with
scientific arguments the view that it should? How do you support a kindergarten
child who has the fluency to read a 300-page chapter book*, but not the stamina
to manage that long of a novel or life experience to grasp the content of books
aimed at fourth or fifth graders. What constitutes an appropriate challenge for
the 4-year-old who has been building elaborate LEGO structures for as long as
you can remember, but struggles to hold a pencil?
Serving young gifted students is complicated, in large part
because of their asynchronous development. All gifted children develop
asynchronously – their intellectual development is out of sync with their
social, emotional, and physical development. In the early years, the
differences in their development are especially apparent. Young gifted children
often talk like little adults. You hear the word "actually" a lot as
they correct your mistaken understandings about everything from LEGOS to
planetary science to why ice cream before dinner is a perfectly valid idea. But
they are still young, so after a rational discussion of the pros and cons of
pets in families, can throw a beautiful, screaming temper tantrum because you
said no to getting a puppy. They have big questions about life and death, but
are young and want you as the parent to have clear and concrete answers to the
unanswerable.
At school, this asynchronous development can lead to frustration
in typical classroom settings. At writing time, the 4-year-old who has a
complex and fanciful story in his head, but who still struggles to form
letters, might decide to give up on writing because it is too frustrating.
Parents and teachers might be misled by the child's articulate speech and big
vocabulary, and set expectations for work and behavior that is beyond her
maturity level and ability to be successful. Early readers can become bored with
books for their age. Yet, books that sync with their reading levels might not sync
with attention span or emotional maturity.
At Seabury, our early learning program is designed specifically
to meet the needs of these asynchronous learners. The prekindergarten and
kindergarten classrooms are full of blocks, toys, craft supplies, books and
materials that support play and imagination, and are developmentally
appropriate for young learners. You won't see kids sitting at desks filling out
worksheets. Worksheets are usually looking for the short, “correct”
answer. We want our kids to be thinking about big ideas and creating
possibilities. Young learners need to learn with their whole bodies.
In a Seabury early learning classroom, you will witness kids
engrossed in deep conversations as they build complicated block structures. You
will see them using the language of scientific inquiry as they study concepts
of interest to them, creating hypotheses and testing theories through
experiments and research quests. When it's math time, you might see some
students physically solving addition and subtraction problems by moving along a
huge number line on the floor while others are developing number sense using a
variety of manipulatives and activities that allow them to explore complex
ideas in age-appropriate ways. At writing time, you will see some students
writing independently and others dictating their big ideas to teachers. Then they
may copy some or all of what they dictated so that they can experience the joy
of getting their ideas on paper, while working on developing the physical skill
of handwriting.
Individualized instruction in skills such as reading, writing and
math allow teachers to tailor instruction to the skill level and the
developmental level of students. An early sight reader may need to go back and
learn some missed phonics rules to recognize word patterns and be a more
effective speller. A later reader who is bright and intuitive might need
instruction in sounding out simple words, and also to be part of a reading
group doing high level analytical comprehension activities with Junior Great
Books stories that have been read aloud. Instruction for bright young students
needs to address both strengths and areas for growth as students' intellectual,
social and emotional development all move forward at their own pace.
I once read a quote by a parent who said that she wished her
gifted child had a digital readout on his forehead that said what age child she
was dealing with at any given moment. Seabury's early learning program, like
all of Seabury's programs, addresses all of the many ages our early learners
represent – the 4-year-old pre-k student who is more like an 8-year-old
in math, a 6-year-old in reading and a 3-year-old when it comes to sharing
toys. This allows students to develop their strengths, address their
weaknesses, and grow as a whole person at a pace and in a way that is tailored
to exactly what that student needs. And, just as importantly, to do so in the
company of other bright kids who "get" them and teachers who can
support and nurture their unique learning needs.
*A note about early reading: Only about 50 percent of gifted
children are early readers. The rest begin to read when their brain is
developmentally ready and often at the same time as other, more typically
developing children. For a small percentage of gifted children, reading is difficult
because they are both gifted and have a learning disability in reading (check
out "stealth dyslexia"). Don't assume your preschool child isn't
gifted just because s/he isn't reading early. Pay attention to other indicators
of giftedness – a large vocabulary for his/her age, a passion for
complexity, a more sophisticated sense of humor than most age peers, a powerful
memory, etc.) Research indicates that parents are good judges of their child's
development and of whether or not their child may need more than a typical
preschool or school program offers. For more information about identification
of gifted children, read What We Have Learned About Gifted Children at the Gifted Development Center.
– Sandi Wollum
– Sandi Wollum
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