Phone: (03) 9794 8258What are these special needs for gifted children?
The major need for these children is genuine socialization. Giftedness is a genetic condition which results in a brain that thinks differently from the average. Some call these children fast learners or high achievers.
These children are advanced not only academically but also morally and ethically. Many are underachievers even though they seem able enough.This means that most children their own age are not their intellectual peers.
As adults, we do not mix socially for hours every day with those our own age; we mix and find stimulation and enjoyment with those who are like us intellectually. Sometimes these children are bored in school. These children have the same needs and feel the same about their social life, but our society forces them by law to attend school and our schools group children by chronological age not mental age. There is no research to show that this is the most effective way to teach children.
Fast learners need to learn what others learn more easily, to fail and get up again, to judge when to do 120% work or 80% work, to understand that others think more slowly, to be with others with “odd” senses of humour, to find work challenging, to see that being clever is OK – normal in fact for some. They need faster paced, more complex and more abstract learning in the “big picture” issues.
