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| The Myths about Gifted Children |  Gifted Kids are as if cream that rises to the top in a classroom:
Not always. Gifted child may have latent learning disabilities that were undetected because of disregarding in the early childhood. In the course of time though, such children encounter much more difficulties to excel. Consequently depression and behaviour problems could arise.
Gifted Kids are so smart, they do fine with or without special programs:
It may seem they do well without assistance. However, lacking appropriate challenge they become bored and unruly. As the years go by, work becomes more challenging and it turns out they’re not prepared to meet formidable challenge.
Gifted and Talented means the same thing:
Not necessarily again. There is no regulation that establishes that a child who is capable of scoring to the high ninety percentiles on group achievement testing must be identified as gifted. Keep in mind that achievement tests like the Metropolitan Achievement Tests are "Grade Level Testing". Most probably such child is Academically Talented. But further individualized IQ and out of level intellectual testing must be given until we can consider that child as "Gifted". Yet, there is no regulation that approves gifted child should be apt to high standards in the classroom. Such stereotyping may cause serious and irreversible damage mutually to both groups. Enrichment is advisable for any child. For instance, academically talented children can benefit from honors (Grade Level) programs. Differentiated curriculum, perhaps different environment would be quite pertinent for intellectually gifted children.
They need to go through school with their own age mates:
It is fact that children need to play and communicate with their contemporaries. Still it needn’t be to learn together with the same age children. Principally it concerns a gifted child who’s been reading since two years old, has a chronological age of six but intellectually aged eleven. Sending that child in a reading class with coevals who are just learning to read would be intolerable burden for that child.
Giftedness is something to be jealous about:
Perhaps this is the silliest myth. Every so often gifted children feel loneliness and lack of understanding from without. They have subtler tastes in music, clothing, literature and so forth. And these divergences are often the cause of provoking other children to insult and treat them badly.
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