How to Survive being Gifted 1

How do you know if you are gifted? Or if your child is gifted?

We can't survive it if we don't know what it is! Let's take the time with this first article to explore what this "giftedness" thing is all about.

Many people think giftedness is solely related to high IQ. It's not. There is a whole range of ways that a person may be gifted, and while a high IQ is definitely one way people may be gifted, there are other ways. Some people are highly creative. Some people are have outstanding leadership ability, or develop into the real "movers and shakers" of our society. Some people are physically gifted, and are able to perform in a specific area in ways that others can only watch and wonder at. More about this later.

First, let's agree that we are talking about exceptionality here, or very high ability, when compared with others of a similar age, background, and experience. For example, if I selected at random, a group of one hundred 16 year olds who have all had the same amount of training and experience in playing the piano, then statistically it is reasonable to assume that compared to all the others in the group, there will be some who show much higher ability. Maybe the top ten are selected. Let's call them 'gifted' amongst their peers. They have demonstrated skills and ability beyond the rest of the group.

Now giftedness is a matter of degree. How 'gifted'? Amongst these 10 gifted pianists, maybe one or two demonstrate even more outstanding ability. This puts them into a different league compared with the other gifted pianists. So when talking about giftedness, we educators usually use comparative terms such as mildly gifted (above average), moderately gifted, highly gifted (top 3 to 5 in 100), exceptionally gifted (1 or 2 in 1000) and profoundly gifted (1 or 2 in 10,000). The gifted people we see portrayed in the media are most often in the exceptional and profound categories. For this reason, most of us don't realise just how many gifted people are right under our noses! Often we don't even recognise it in ourselves. What a waste of self-empowerment.

Now, getting back to those musicians. You may have noticed I said that they were chosen from a group all of whom had the same amount of training and experience in playing the piano. However if the group was different - and half the players had no experience at all in playing the piano, or an instrument, or reading music - what then? Should we use the same test to assess them? That would hardly be fair. Does giftedness mean you have to have had training before you can be gifted? No, of course not. It means that we need to look for potential as well as achievement.

What happens if we take a group of 16 year old students who have never had the opportunity to learn an instrument, teach them a few basic skills and then give them the opportunity to invent music of their own? You will see that compared to the rest of the group, some will shine. Their natural ability will give a clear glimpse of the potential that can be developed to carry their talent through to an outstanding level. So when we think about both groups of students - those with music training and those without -  it is clear that it's a matter of comparing apples with apples, and making sure we are looking for both the outstanding achievers and those with potential.

Now this is hardly rocket science. There have been talent scouts around for eons, plucking out potential in leadership, sports, arts and entertainment. 'American Idol' is a prime example. There is a clear difference between those who have had the advantage of training and those who haven't. However, the 'raw material' is there in both.

The next question is: in what way(s) are you gifted? Most of the 'boffins' talk about cognitive giftedness, (high IQ), creative giftedness, socio-affective giftedness (high EQ or Emotional intelligence), and physical giftedness. About 10% of the population may be considered gifted in any one or more of these areas. This is the 'raw material' that you may be born with.

Giftedness is a development process. It takes time to emerge into a specific area. Something needs to happen to that raw material for it to emerge and blossom. It's rather like a lump of coal lying in the ground that needs to be mined then processed before it can be turned into perfume (yes! perfume!). Depending upon your life circumstances, your personality, your motivation, your ínner self, the events that hinder and opportunities that enhance your development, you may or may not develop the training in a specific talent area that allows your giftedness to emerge.

The domain or talent area in which a gifted person demonstrates their giftedness is the outcome of learning and skills training and practice and life experience. So we have gifted academics, scientists, mathematicians, artists, dramatists, writers, sportspersons, technologists, entreprenuers - the list goes on and on. "Gifted" meaning: outstanding when compared with others of similar age, background and experience.

We don't compare a child from an affluent city suburb with a child from the Ethiopian desert. The child from the city would fail the bushcraft test! Which brings me to another point: giftedness is not exclusive to wealthy or middleclass 'educated' groups, schools and students in affluent areas, or to a particular culture. There are just as many gifted to be found in every group and culture in our societies. If we don't find or recognise them, it is because we are using the wrong tools. The concerning thing is, if we don't look for them in every group, we risk wasting the development potential of superb human resources.

Giftedness looks different to different cultures. While all cultures value knowledge, they differ in their perspectives about what they value as gifts. For example, leadership qualities look different in Maori culture than they do in the 'western', dominant european culture in New Zealand. More about cultural perspectives in another article.

In conclusion, let's return to the first question: How do you know if you are gifted, or if your child is gifted? The many ways of identifying giftedness need another article. In the meantime, recognise that you can be cognitively, creatively, socio-affectively, or physically gifted. Look for potential as well as achievement, and exceptionality in a specific domain or talent area.

If you find it, nurture it! Work on developing the self-belief and volition to bring it to fruition.  A gifted musician, artist, writer, nurse, teacher, engineer, entrepreneur etc only gets there through extremely hard work, an enormous amount of practice, and the life experiences and opportunities that provided that training to develop the 'raw material'.