Introduction

1.1Geeks

1.2Indigo children

1.3 Problems in the education and upbringing of gifted children

1.3.1 Teaching gifted children

Chapter 2. Determining the giftedness of children

Literature

Appendix

Introduction

In this work, we will focus on the mental giftedness of children (intelligence, general mental abilities). Signs of giftedness are manifested in children by increased susceptibility to learning, with a fairly rapid pace of progress in learning under equal conditions. At present, attention to children with certain signs of outstanding intelligence is becoming a big and common task for schools.

The emergence of this problem becomes the subject of discussion. Some people think that the problem heightened intelligence associated with the interaction of heredity and the environment, others consider it with the early introduction of children to the achievements of science and new electronic technology, others consider the ratio of rapid maturation and development.

In the years of age maturation, remarkable opportunities for development are noticeable in almost all children. Every full-fledged child, being helpless, at birth grows and develops with the help of adults, and he gradually becomes a "reasonable person."

All children are characterized by mental activity, a craving for knowledge, to give certain assessments of surrounding objects and phenomena. Their developing brain organically needs it. In childhood, mental development proceeds at such a pace that, as one learns and grows up, this intensity becomes inaccessible at a more mature age.

At the same time, it is constantly being discovered that even under relatively equal conditions, the mental development of children differs and develops unequally.

Some children develop much more intensively than others, during their school years they show exceptional abilities. However early signs Giftedness becomes something temporary and transient.

Each child has a peculiar combination of signs of mental ability, and it is difficult to say which of these will be more promising.

Therefore, the prediction of mental merits always remains problematic, even in relation to students with an extremely developed intellect.

So, perhaps, it is not necessary to take seriously the problem of children's giftedness, since its signs are so ambiguous, and intelligence will manifest itself in the future?

Manifestations of the general mental abilities of children and adolescents indicate a certain component of mental ability and giftedness, allow us to see how the intellect is prepared and formed in the course of age development.

The phrase "age giftedness" draws attention to the fact that it is a child or adolescent whose mental merits do not yet clearly indicate their level of development in the future.

Pupil A. At an early age, she began to show extraordinary tendencies. Well oriented to the area. At the age of 4 she could ski and could walk all over the village. She memorized well and recited poetry. She learned to read at the age of 5. Could write some letters in font. I wanted to go to school, and I came to school with my brother. My brother was in 2nd grade. I asked for a lesson and sat down at the desk. After the lesson the director asked her "why did you come to school". She replied that she wanted to study. The principal of the school politely explained to her that it was still early and would come in a year. A year later, she entered first grade. Studied with desire up to the 5th grade, almost "excellent". Parents, seeing an outstanding craving for music, transferred her to music school. She almost became disillusioned when she was enrolled in a string instrument group. Her desire was to learn how to play the button accordion. But the teachers, paying attention to her small stature, explained to her that the button accordion was a heavy instrument, and it would be difficult for her, and that the instrument would damage her posture. But she was able to overcome her disappointments, and graduated from music school with excellent marks. Then she entered the Pedagogical Institute at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. After graduating, she was assigned to the village of Razdolye, Karaidelsky district of the Republic of Bashkortostan, and has been working successfully in this school for 23 years. As before, he loves music, plays chess, participates in cross-country skiing competitions.

Research topic:

Giftedness as a deviation from the norm

Object of study: children with outstanding intelligence.

Subject of study: the psychology of giftedness in children and the problem of giftedness as a deviation from the norm.

Research objectives:

give an objective and subjective assessment of the problems of giftedness

Research objectives:

The study of the uneven course of age development and the prerequisites for differences in intelligence.

The study of individual differences in the originality of giftedness.

Study of the relationship between individual and age-related manifestations in intelligence.

Hypothesis

This problem with detailed study will adapt gifted children and help in their further development.

The study of the problem will help develop the methodology of developmental education, diversify the forms and methods of their application.

Chapter 1. Children's giftedness as a psychological and pedagogical problem

It is known that when approaching individual differences in abilities, it is very important to take into account human capabilities in general. As Rubinshtein noted, when separated from this "ground", the outstanding abilities of individual people are inevitably mystified and the path for their study is interrupted.

The rapid pace of development of the child in preschool and preschool age, as well as the absence of any requirements for the child on the part of parents and kindergarten teachers, may leave various deviations of the child from normal development without due attention. These unnoticed or seemingly insignificant deviations in the development of the child - to the schoolboy sometimes lead to pronounced shifts when the child begins schooling.

It is the school that is the indicator that shows all the problems in the intellectual development of the child, since his inability to master the curriculum becomes obvious. But in this case, primary disorders in the child's intellect are accompanied by the appearance of secondary ones - personality deformation, the appearance of various psychosomatic and psychoneurological pathologies, and a rapid loss of interest in the learning process. In this situation, not only the children themselves suffer, but also their parents.

Features and patterns of development of intelligence in children. The study of this issue is associated primarily with the name of the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (Piaget, 1969). Starting from the 20s. 20th century for 50 years he was engaged in theoretical and practical issues of children's intellect.

The process of development of the intellect, according to Piaget, consists of three large periods, during which the formation of three main structures takes place. First, sensorimotor structures are formed, that is, systems of reversible actions performed materially and sequentially, then they arise and reach the appropriate level of the structure of specific operations - these are systems of actions performed in the mind, but based on external, visual data. After that, the opportunity opens up for the formation of formal operations.

Classification of stages of development of intelligence

I. Sensorimotor intelligence - 0-24 months

II. Representative intelligence and specific operations - 3-12 years

III. Representative intelligence and formal operations - 12–14 years.

Development, according to Piaget, is the transition from a lower stage to a higher one. The previous stage always prepares the next one. Thus, concrete operations serve as the basis of formal operations and form part of them. In development, there is not a simple replacement of the lower stage by the higher one, but the integration of previously formed structures; the previous stage is rebuilt at a higher level.

With regard to school years, teachers and psychologists use the following periodization:

Junior school age (6-10 years);

Adolescence or middle age (10-15 years);

Senior school age (15-17 years).

As you know, in the lower grades, all subjects are taught by one teacher, most often a teacher. The personal characteristics of the teacher become a factor in the biography of students.

So, at primary school age, students stand out with an unusually fast, rapidly developed intellect, which develop even in the preschool years. Extreme cases of this kind are geeks. In middle age, differences in mental abilities are not so noticeable. In high school, there is an intellectual upsurge in some students. All these are different variants of the uneven course of development.

1.1 Geeks

Some children are particularly eager to learn from an early age. The unusual mental success of such children becomes apparent after entering school, where children are compared with each other. Even then, the unusual abilities of some students are revealed and their mental development is far from their peers.

Sasha's student Sasha was not yet 4 years old when he learned to read. It happened like this. They bought him an alphabet: letters of the alphabet are drawn on some paintings. The boy played and, at the prompt of his grandmother, began to name the letters. Then, listening to the spoken words, he began to select the appropriate pictures.

Then he learned to count. During this period, he began to get involved not only in counting, but also began to draw them. He was already 4 years old.

Interest in numbers waned when he became interested in geography. At the beginning of the fifth year, he made a map of the hemispheres. Moreover, all the outlines and designations coincided with the geographical map with amazing accuracy.

In the future, 7-year-old Sasha entered the 4th grade of the school straight from kindergarten, having successfully passed all the entrance exams. At school, he only managed to get "excellent". His family environment: his mother is an economist, his grandmother is 70 years old and his sister is a student of the Faculty of Philology, his father is an engineer, does not live with his family). The boy is mostly under the supervision of his grandmother.

Sasha does not occupy a special position at school. The teachers treat him like a normal student. Teachers note the conscientiousness of his answers and the ability to briefly and clearly express his thoughts. But he has been educating himself for a long time. Preparation of homework takes more than 1.5-2 hours a day, he practically does not walk. I became interested in ornithology. His work on birds is a thick stack of scribbled notebooks and a huge number of drawings.

A lot of independence is shown in the illustrations. He not only copies the drawings, but draws based on the description. He has a good visual memory. After visiting a zoo or zoo museum, he makes schematic drawings and describes them. He can distinguish even slight differences in color and shape.

Sasha is very mobile. He has a fast pace.

His focus on the educational side of the lesson creates a certain detachment from what is happening around. He not only reacts to the behavior of others, but even a neighbor on his desk.

At the blackboard, Sasha behaves modestly, even shyly. He does not look at himself from the outside, does not admire his voice, uttering clever and learned words.

When the teacher slowly, pedagogically, asked him an additional question, you could see that he had the answers ready before she fell silent.

His knowledge of all subjects is distinguished by concreteness and accuracy. Written works are unusually short.

1.2 Indigo children

Indigo children are not just children with unusual color auras (by the way, no one could really explain what an aura is either), these are, first of all, extraordinary children who literally differ in everything from the usual idea of ​​\u200b\u200bchildren. From a young age, they talk about the fate of the world, show unique phenomena and talents, differ from others in an extraordinary line of behavior, have unique leadership qualities, as a result of which they reject all patterns of education. One of famous examples The indigo child is a boy. At the age of 5, he mastered the entire world repertoire of works for the violin and at the same age performed with an orchestra of already adult musicians as the first violin.

As long as the study of Indigo children is approached one-sidedly, that is, it will be impossible to understand the causes of unusualness in material or physical factors, it will be impossible to understand their features, differences from others and methods of education. Only after the invisible mind and soul and their potential properties are taken into account, only then will there be an answer to the question "who are the Indigo children?"

In order to clarify most of the questions regarding Indigo children, you need to remember the idea of ​​​​D.I. Mendeleev about the trinity of man and the world around him, that everything around has three entities: mind, soul and body (material shell), and mind among them -main. It was the inheritance of the mind that the follower of D.I. Mendeleev V.I. Vernadsky was engaged in. he was the first among scientists to formulate the concept of the structure of the noosphere, that is, the mind - an environment that contains perfect true knowledge and with which the human mind is absolutely compatible.

From this it becomes obvious that the giftedness and high intelligence of indigo children is not due to heredity, not genetic changes or upbringing (that is, the essences of the material world), but precisely the special properties of their invisible minds and souls, the potential of which is several orders of magnitude higher than the generation of children that preceded them.

1.3 Problems in the education and upbringing of gifted children

Many people think that a child who is ahead of his peers in terms of intelligence, sparkling with mental abilities, will not encounter difficulties in studies - he, obviously, is destined for a happier childhood than others. In fact, children with early mental flowering can expect considerable difficulties both at home and at school with their dramas in the course of age development.

First of all, it is important how parents and other older members of the family will behave when an unusual child is discovered. Often, along with pride and joy, such a child also causes concern, even anxiety. Sometimes his parents are worried about what others, it would seem, can only dream of, the child reads all the books in the house; he is absorbed in solving problems, he cannot be torn away from mounting any devices. This degree of addiction to mental work gives the impression of excessiveness. A ten-year-old girl brings 2–3 books from the library every day, very different, indiscriminately, immediately reads them, and changes them the next day. And every evening, with a fight, I have to put her to bed ... A nine-year-old boy has poor eyesight, he has to limit his book studies, but at night, while his mother is sleeping, he gets up and reads. Often parents, with whom nothing of the kind has happened, cautiously look at such enthusiasm, at activities that are not age-appropriate. And most of all they are afraid of whether all this is a disease - an unusual brightness of abilities, tireless mental activity, a variety of interests. At the same time, it is far from always that adults manage to at least not bring down all their doubts and fears on the head of a child.

In other families, extraordinary children's abilities are accepted as a ready-made gift, which they rush to use, enjoy, which promises a great future. Here they admire the success of the child, the unusualness of his abilities and willingly show him to friends and strangers. This is how children's vanity is warmed up, and on the basis of conceit and vanity it is not so easy to find a common language with peers. In the future, this can turn into considerable grief, and even sorrow for a growing person.

Children with an early mental rise are often especially sensitive to the expectations of others, their approval and censure. The family may impose a ban on talking about the talent of the child, but it is not always sufficient, one of the family members will sometimes be forgotten, express their delight. And the child, of course, will not miss it, he will catch admiration for his mind, for his successes. If the elders, on the contrary, do not at all appreciate the manifestations of unusual abilities, look at them as an oddity that will pass with time, then such an attitude will also be “taken into account”, it will not escape the children's consciousness.

In a family, it is more difficult for children with signs of giftedness than for ordinary children. It is more difficult whether they are admired without measure or considered strange. Adults can be wrong in their assessments when they meet something in a child that they did not expect.

1.3.1 Teaching gifted children

From time to time, in one or another newspaper, a message that never ceases to seem surprising will flash about the admission of a schoolboy of 13-14 years old to a university. This means that someone went to school instead of 10–11 years for only 6–7 years. Most often, an unusually developed child, like everyone else, enters the first grade at the age of six or seven, but then he is rapidly transferred, sometimes in the very first academic year, to subsequent classes. It also happens that the "jump" through the class or several such "jumps" occur already in adolescence. Previously, this required special permission from the public education authorities. Now, according to the new Regulations on a comprehensive secondary school, the right to take an external examination for any class and for the school as a whole has been officially introduced. (7)

But this does not remove the difficulties in the development of gifted children. As a result, new difficulties arise.

Firstly, certain gaps in knowledge, skills and abilities are formed, due systematicity in their assimilation is not ensured.

Secondly, one has to deal with differences in the physical and moral development of a gifted child and his classmates. Here and physical education, and labor training, and, finally, the ethics and psychology of family life ... How in these conditions is the formation of self-esteem, relationships with classmates and adults? Who and how should develop individual educational programs and plans for gifted children? First of all, it is necessary that in all classes where there are such children, teachers at least have completed the appropriate coursework. Otherwise, members of the teaching staff, primarily school leaders, will treat "jumping" with great apprehension.

The second way is the creation of lyceums and gymnasiums for the gifted. Nowadays, these types of educational institutions are very popular. Well, that's a good solution to the problem. Especially if the educational process in lyceums and gymnasiums will be built on scientific principles and a fairly diverse methodological base (which, unfortunately, is not everywhere yet).

The third way is to create special classes for children with enhanced abilities in the structure of a mass general education school. Now this way is implemented in many schools. One of its positive features is that the problem of teaching and educating gifted children is not considered in isolation from the fate of children with less developed abilities. And the very structure of teaching and educating children of different levels of development should be not only differentiated, but also unified.

Conclusion

If the giftedness of children, on the one hand, delights, on the other hand, they become a problem for others. High intelligence does not give rise to sympathy. People are annoyed by intellectuals.

Problems of gifted children:

1. Dislike for school, because the curriculum does not suit their abilities and is boring for them.

2. Game interests. Gifted children enjoy complex games and are not interested in those that their peers of average ability are fond of.

3. Conformity. Gifted children, while rejecting standard requirements, are thus averse to conformism, especially if these standards run counter to their interests.

4. Immersion in philosophical problems. They think about such phenomena as death, the afterlife, religious belief.

5. Discrepancy between physical, intellectual and social development. They prefer to play and socialize with older children. Because of this, it can be difficult for them to become leaders.

Whitmore (1880), studying the reasons for the vulnerability of gifted children, cited the following factors:

1. Striving for excellence. Gifted children will not rest until they reach the highest level. The desire for excellence manifests itself early.

2. The feeling of invulnerability. They are critical of their own achievements, often not satisfied, hence low self-esteem.

3. Unrealistic goals. Not being able to reach them, they begin to worry. Striving for excellence is the force that leads to high results.

4. Hypersensitivity. A gifted child is more vulnerable. Considered hyperactive and distracted as constantly responds to various stimuli and stimuli.

5. The need for adult attention. It often monopolizes the attention of adults. This causes friction in relationships with other children, who are annoyed by the desire for such attention.

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5. High criticality to the results of one's own work, a tendency to set super-difficult goals, striving for perfection.

Among the criteria for distinguishing types of giftedness are the following.

1. According to the criterion “type of activity and the sphere of the psyche that provides it”, the allocation of types of giftedness is carried out within the framework of five types of activity, taking into account the inclusion of three mental spheres. The main activities include practical, theoretical (taking into account children's age, they talk about cognitive activity), artistic and aesthetic, communicative and spiritual and value. The spheres of the psyche are represented by intellectual, emotional and motivational-volitional.

Widespread in the second half of the 20th century. consideration of "creative giftedness" as an independent type of giftedness is based on the initial contradiction: a person with high abilities may not be a creative person and, conversely, there are cases when a less trained and even less capable person is one.

2. According to the criterion "the degree of formation of giftedness" it is possible to differentiate actual and potential giftedness.

Actual giftedness - psychological characteristic a child with already achieved indicators of mental development, which are manifested in a higher level of performance in a particular subject area compared to the age and social norm.

Talented children constitute a special category of actually gifted children. A talented child is a child with such performance results that meet the requirement of objective novelty and social significance. As a rule, a specific product of a talented child's activity is evaluated by an expert (a highly qualified specialist in a certain field of activity) as meeting, to one degree or another, the criteria of professional skill and creativity.

Potential giftedness is a psychological characteristic of a child who has only certain mental capabilities (potential) for high achievements in a particular type of activity, but cannot realize his capabilities at a given time due to their functional insufficiency. The development of this potential can be hindered by a number of reasons (difficult family circumstances, lack of motivation, low level of self-regulation, lack of the necessary educational environment, etc.).

3. In accordance with the criterion of "form of manifestation" distinguish between explicit and hidden giftedness.

Explicit giftedness is manifested in the child's activities quite clearly and distinctly, including when not favorable conditions. The achievements of the child are so obvious that his giftedness is not in doubt.

Hidden giftedness is manifested in the child's activities in a less pronounced, disguised form. As a result, there is a danger of erroneous conclusions about the lack of giftedness of such a child. He can be classified as "unpromising", deprived of the help and support necessary for the development of his abilities. Often in the "ugly duckling" no one sees the future beautiful swan. At the same time, numerous examples are known when it is precisely such “unpromising children” who achieve the highest results.

The reasons for hidden giftedness are largely related to the presence of special psychological barriers.

4. According to the criterion of "breadth of manifestations in various types of activity", general and special talents can be distinguished.

General talent is manifested in relation to various types of activities and acts as the basis of their productivity. The psychological core of general giftedness is mental abilities (or general cognitive abilities), around which the emotional, motivational and volitional qualities of the individual are built.

Special talent reveals itself in specific types of activity and can only be determined in relation to certain areas of activity (music, painting, sports, etc.).

5. According to the criterion of "peculiarities of age development", early and late giftedness can be distinguished.

It must be borne in mind that accelerated mental development, early detection of talents (the phenomenon of “age giftedness”) is by no means always associated with high achievements at an older age. At the same time, the absence of bright manifestations of giftedness in childhood does not mean a negative conclusion regarding the prospects for the further mental development of the individual.

The identification of gifted children is a lengthy process associated with a multidimensional analysis of the development of a particular child. The following principles for identifying gifted children can be formulated:

The complex nature of the assessment of different aspects of the child's behavior and activities;

Duration of identification (time-deployed observation of behavior this child in different situations);

Analysis of the child's behavior in those areas of activity that correspond to the maximum extent to his inclinations and interests (inclusion in specially organized subject-play activities, involvement in various forms relevant subject activity, etc.);

The use of training methods, within the framework of which it is possible to organize certain developmental influences, to remove the psychological “barriers” typical for this child;

Connection to the assessment of a gifted child of experts: highly qualified specialists in the relevant subject area of ​​activity. However, one should keep in mind the possible conservatism of the expert's opinion, especially when evaluating the products of adolescent and youthful creativity;

Evaluation of the signs of a child's giftedness not only in relation to the current level of his mental development, but also taking into account the zone of proximal development (in particular, on the basis of organizing a certain educational environment with building an individual learning trajectory for this child).

2. Features of gifted children and their difficulties in the family and at school. Ways to solve these difficulties.

2.1 Features of gifted children, their difficulties in the family, at school.

The high value of education is clearly seen in the families of especially gifted children. Increased, in comparison with ordinary families, attention to the child. Although such attention may subsequently become a brake on his spiritual autonomy, however, it is precisely at a certain period that it is one of the most important factors in the development of outstanding abilities. Often the parents of gifted children are elderly people for whom a child is the only meaning of life.

In many cases, it is the parents who begin teaching the gifted child, and often, though not always, one of them long years becomes a true mentor (mentor) of his child in a variety of activities.

The fanatical desire of parents to develop his abilities in a number of cases has its own negative sides. Thus, in these families there is a certain conniving attitude towards the development of a number of social and, in particular, household skills in their child. Parents of gifted children show special attention to their child's schooling, choosing textbooks or additional literature for him, consulting with the teacher how best to study them. This circumstance sometimes has negative sides, when parents interfere in the educational process, in some cases even provoke a conflict with the administration and teachers.

Of great importance for understanding the characteristics of the personality of a gifted child and the nature of its formation is the analysis of his relationships with peers and adults. Peers treat gifted children differently, depending on the nature of their giftedness and the degree of non-standard manifestations of it. Due to their greater learning ability, including social and everyday skills, many gifted children are very popular among their peers. In particular, this applies to children with increased physical abilities and, of course, to children-leaders.

The situation with special giftedness is much more complicated. In many cases, this giftedness is accompanied by unusual behavior and oddities, which causes bewilderment or ridicule among classmates. Sometimes the life of such a child in a team develops in the most dramatic way (they beat the child, come up with offensive nicknames for him, arrange humiliating practical jokes). To some extent, it is as a result of relationships with peers that children with this development are at risk.

True, in the latter case, much depends on the age of the children and on the value system adopted in the given children's community. In specialized schools, the likelihood that the intellectual or educational abilities of a particularly gifted child will be appreciated and his relationships with peers will develop more favorably is much higher.

Teachers are ambivalent about gifted children. The relationship between teachers and children who show social talent depends on the orientation of the interests of the children-leaders, on the nature of their involvement in the school society (positive or negative). It is especially difficult for children with any kind of giftedness, who have a pronounced creative potential. Some of their personalities cause teachers to resent their perception of these children as notorious individualists.

Although all gifted children are different - in temperament, interests, upbringing and, accordingly, in personal manifestations, nevertheless, there are common personality traits that characterize the majority of gifted children and adolescents.

The emergence of difficulties in the teaching of gifted children is often associated with their desire for independent research and a holistic perception of the picture of the world, which does not find satisfaction in an ordinary school, especially in the lower grades. The ease of assimilation of large volumes of complex information, understanding of complex cause-and-effect relationships and using them to create their own hypotheses and theories is in conflict with the system of strictly consistent, fragmented, repeatedly repeated educational material. In addition, being noticeably ahead of their peers in the development of some area (often cognitive), a gifted child may not differ from them in all other respects (for example, in physical, emotional, social development) or even lag behind. The unevenness of its development is of a specific nature and serves as a source of many problems in relations with others.

The widespread opinion that gifted children should always and in everything be ahead of their less capable peers is far from always confirmed. Gifted children may also have weaknesses, which some psychologists see as an extension, or rather, the flip side, of their strengths. So, various kinds of proofreading tests, tasks for memorizing meaningless syllables and repeating patterns are just those types of routine activities that many gifted children seem to have no meaning and therefore are difficult to perform. Such children are much better at more complex and strenuous work that challenges their abilities, but often fail to memorize easy, but uninteresting material for them.

Receptive and quick-witted, sometimes even wise beyond their years, gifted children can be hopelessly disorganized. They are often very energetic, active, capable of long and intense activities, but not capable of completing time-limited tasks (tests, tests, exams). The creative energy that dominates in the lives of such children determines the independence and originality of their behavior, disobedience to general rules and authorities.

Often there are various forms of withdrawal of gifted children from the realities of school life or behavioral problems: rejection of generally accepted rules, conflicts with classmates, teachers and parents. The dissimilarity of a gifted child to other children can affect the attitude towards him as "too smart" or "freaky" and make him hide his abilities, be "like everyone else", which also, of course, does not contribute to his development.

The brilliant long-term memory that most gifted children have, which allows them to master vast and complex information, can be combined with a weakness in short-term memory, which often makes it difficult for them to repeat what they just said. The disadvantages of short-term memory can also be related to the fact that they need time to comprehend, bring into the system, connect the new with the already existing experience, while mechanical imprinting is difficult. Often with keen hearing, they have poor auditory memory and/or are unable to listen carefully, and with keen eyesight, they are inattentive to details.

Gifted children are often good at reasoning, but they can be so overwhelmed by the desire to express their ideas that they lose the thread of reasoning or the right words, and their speech seems chaotic and ill-conceived. Often they find it difficult to articulate their interesting and creative ideas to others due to their inherent self-centeredness. Their excellent mathematical thinking may not be noticed by the teacher due to the fact that even simple calculations are difficult to perform.

Short description

Deviations can be both negative and positive. For example, deviations from the norm in the development of a child are mental retardation and talent. Such negative deviations in behavior as crime, alcoholism, drug addiction, etc., have a negative impact on the process of social development of a person, and on the development of society as a whole. Positive deviations in behavior, which include all forms of social creativity: economic enterprise, scientific and artistic creativity, etc., on the contrary, serve the development of the social system, the replacement of old norms with new ones.

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………3
1. Essence, classification and identification of giftedness of children ……………..5
1.1 Scientific ideas about the giftedness of children ……………………… ..5
1.2 Methods of working with gifted children ………………………………..8
2. Features of gifted children and their difficulties in the family and at school.
Ways to solve these difficulties…………………………………………..13
2.1 Features of gifted children, their difficulties in the family, at school ………13
2.2 Ways to solve the difficulties of gifted children that arise
when studying at school………………………………………………………… 17
Conclusion …………………………………………………………………….23
Bibliographic list……………………………………………………24

Mental development as a process unfolding in time throughout a person's life has a temporal structure. Its knowledge is important for understanding the potential development opportunities, identifying the typical course of individual development, drawing up an idea of ​​​​the average norm age dynamics; based on this, one can judge the variations in age evolution depending on various factors.

The temporal structure of individual development includes the pace of development, its duration and direction.

At each age stage, for the development of one or another mental function, a “norm” is singled out, which can be correlated with each parameter of the temporal structure of individual development. The concept of "norm" is conditional. This is the concept of testology. The "norm" is determined through the standardization of the test by offering it to a large group of people of a certain age. Regarding the average norm, the results of each child are interpreted: is he lower or higher, by how much? Developmental psychology determines the "norms", development criteria, defectology - the norms of mental development, etc.

Based on the "normative" approach to the development of the psyche, in each concept of development, the concept of "deviation" is formulated. Consequently, the "norm" is also given by the understanding of development in a given theory or concept. This is one aspect of the "conditionality" of the norm. The second is the blurring of the boundaries of the norm, its variability.

Deviations from the norm should be understood both in positive and negative terms: there may be a variant of advancing the norm of development and a variant of lagging behind. In the first case, developmental psychology solves the problem of giftedness and gifted children, in the second case, the problem of delays in mental development and its defects.

The concept of "norm" is of fundamental importance for educational psychology and, in general, for the entire education system. From the point of view of the cultural-historical concept, education "is that universal life form of the formation of the actually human in a person, his essential forces that allow him to become, remain - be a person" (Slobodchikov, 2001). Modern psychology Development of one of the main problems sees the development of age development standards, in relation to which the content of education at different levels should be determined. According to V.I. Slobodchikov, age-normative models and development criteria, models of critical transitions from one stage to another, which are necessary for designing developmental education systems, have not yet been built. Currently, this problem is being solved in the research of the Institute of Psychology named after L.S. Vygotsky, and there are preliminary results that can be used as "growth points" for educational psychology and pedagogy. If the problem is solved, it becomes possible for two professionals to cooperate: a developmental psychologist and a teacher, one of whom “holds this very norm of development, and the other realizes it through the means of his professional activity; one says: “I know what should be here and now,” and the other: “I know what needs to be done” to make it come true, so that this norm is implemented for specific children in specific educational processes” (Slobodchikov, 2001).

According to these considerations modern psychologists the concept of "norm" can be generalized as the best result that a child can achieve in given conditions.

One of the important problems of developmental psychology is the problem of studying atypical development that deviates from the norm. However, there is a pronounced bias here: the number of works devoted to abnormal children far exceeds the number of studies on the psychology of giftedness. The lack of a unified theoretical base often contributes to ignoring the common moments in the life of gifted and deviant children. Both require special training: both mentally retarded and gifted children seem "weird" and are often rejected by their normal peers.

Within the framework of the cultural and historical concept of L.S. Vygotsky proposed a dynamic approach to the study of the atypical in development. Here, the typical and atypical are analyzed in a single paradigm, and this direction is called "the dialectical doctrine of plus - and minus - giftedness." Defectiveness and giftedness are seen as two polar outcomes of a single compensation process, although this, of course, does not mean the transformation of any defect into talent. Compensation is one of the forms of combating obstacles that arise in the way of development. The possibility of victory and loss is determined by the "strengths" of the parties, the size and quality of the defect, the nature of the changes it generates in the child's psyche, and the richness of the subject's compensatory fund. “The path to excellence lies through overcoming obstacles; the difficulty of a function is an incentive to improve it” (L.S. Vygotsky).

According to the results of a longitudinal study by N. Haan and A. Moriarty, the action of coping mechanisms is associated with an acceleration in the growth of the IQ, and protective mechanisms - with its slowdown. In the studies of Yu.D. Babayeva (1997) showed that the formation of psychological mechanisms for overcoming barriers is determined not only by the characteristics of the child's psyche, but also by adequate, timely intervention in this process by psychologists, teachers, and parents.

Criticizing the statistical approach to giftedness, L.S. Vygotsky proposed the dynamic theory of giftedness (DTT). The core of the DTO includes three basic principles, in the formulation of which Vygotsky (“On the question of the dynamics of children's character”) relied on the “dam theory” of T. Lipps, introduced by I.P. Pavlov, the concept of "goal reflex", A. Adler's ideas about overcompensation.

The principle of social conditionality of development. According to this principle, instead of assessing the already achieved level of development of abilities, the tasks of searching for various obstacles that hinder this development, analyzing the psychological nature of these obstacles, establishing and studying the causes of their occurrence, etc., come to the fore. It is emphasized that the barriers are generated by the inability of the child to the surrounding socio-cultural environment.

Future perspective principle- the obstacles that have arisen become "target points" of mental development, direct it, stimulate the inclusion of compensatory processes.

Compensation principle- the need to deal with obstacles requires the strengthening and improvement of mental functions. If this process is successful, the child gets the opportunity to overcome the barrier and thus adapt to the socio-cultural environment. However, other outcomes are also possible. The compensatory "fund" may not be enough to deal with the barrier. In addition, compensation can go the wrong way, giving rise to an inferior development of the child's psyche.

For the modern development of a holistic approach to the analysis of giftedness, the idea of ​​L.S. Vygotsky about the unity of “affect and intellect”. Within the framework of this approach, it is argued that giftedness characterizes the personality as a whole, it is pointed out that the gap between the cognitive and affective spheres is unacceptable. However, in the most famous models giftedness, according to Yu.D. Babaeva, element-by-element analysis of statistical relationships is carried out (J. Renzulli, K. Heller).

Domestic research notes the need to develop a unit for the analysis of giftedness. So, D.B. Bogoyavlenskaya, who studies the psychological nature of creativity, singles out the phenomenon of "situationally unstimulated productive activity" as a unit of analysis of creativity, reflecting the unity of affect and intellect. In studies of giftedness Yu.A. Babaeva uses the concept of "dynamic semantic system", introduced by L.S. Vygotsky, it reveals the connection between intellect and affect.

One of the main problems of giftedness is its identification. Traditionally, psychometric tests, intellectual competitions, etc. are used to diagnose giftedness. However, the success of the child's activity, including in the situation of testing, depends on many conditions (presence of motivation, anxiety, etc.) and under the influence of various factors can change significantly. In order to eliminate cases of underestimation of the potential and hidden abilities of the child in developmental psychology, new methods of identifying giftedness are being introduced. Thus, a modified method of observation (Renzulli) is increasingly used. Within the framework of the proposed L.S. Vygotsky of the dynamic approach, there is a paradigm shift in the methods of identifying giftedness. It is not the diagnosis of selection that is carried out, but the diagnosis of development, i.e. the emphasis is shifted to the identification of barriers hindering the development of the child, the search for means to overcome them, to the analysis of qualitatively unique ways of development. Attempts to create methods of "dynamic testing" were made both abroad (Yu. Gutke) and in domestic psychology (Yu.D. Babaeva). In particular, Yu.D. Babaeva, developed and tested psychodiagnostic trainings, in which the methodological methods and techniques used are aimed not only at revealing the potential of the child, but also at stimulating his creative abilities, developing self-knowledge, cognitive motivation, etc.

A special place is occupied by the diagnosis of the characteristics of the family environment and its influence on the development of the child's abilities. The effectiveness of psychodiagnostic trainings is determined not by the number of identified gifted children, but by the possibility of developing an adequate strategy for the education and development of each child. It is known that high potentialities require appropriate training and development, otherwise they may not be fully revealed. And this is also one of the main "sick" issues of giftedness.

An important area of ​​research is the problems associated with the analysis of asocial forms of manifestation of giftedness. Is it possible to waste talent? What happens to gifted children who have not received necessary assistance and social support? According to a number of authors (R. Pages), abilities in these cases do not "disappear", but begin to look for "workarounds" for their application, they are often used for destructive purposes.

At the same time, modern scientists believe that the cultural-historical approach can become a fundamental theoretical basis for the formation of the sociocultural paradigm of giftedness.

Under what conditions does the slowdown and distortion of mental development take place? In this regard, the question of the influence of the family or its absence on the development of the child has been most studied. We will dwell on the characteristics of unfavorable conditions for raising a child, which can be called deprivation. According to the definition of Czech scientists J. Langmeyer and
Z. Mateycheka (1984), a deprivation situation is such a life situation of a child when there is no possibility to satisfy important mental needs. The result of the child's stay in such a situation is the experience of mental deprivation, which can serve as the basis for the occurrence of behavioral and developmental disorders. A unified theory of deprivation in science has not yet developed, but the following is considered the most recognized definition of mental deprivation. Mental deprivation is a mental state that occurs as a result of such life situations where the subject is not given the opportunity to satisfy some of his basic (life) mental needs sufficiently and for a sufficiently long time.
(J. Langmeyer and Z. Mateychek).

Most often, insufficient satisfaction of a person's affective needs is called the most pathogenic situation. This is the so-called emotional deprivation, when a growing child does not have the opportunity to establish an intimate emotional relationship with any person or there is a break in the previously established emotional connection.

There are the following types of deprivation:

Stimulus deprivation, or sensory deprivation, which occurs in a situation reduced amount stimuli or limiting their variability and modality;

Cognitive deprivation (deprivation of meanings), which occurs in a situation of excessive variability and chaos in the structure of the external world, without a clear ordering and meaning, which does not allow the child to understand, anticipate and regulate what is happening from the outside;

Social deprivation (identity deprivation) occurs when the possibility of assimilation of an autonomous social role is limited.

The influence of deprivation on the mental development of a child in Russian developmental psychology is being actively studied in scientific schools M.I. Lisina and V.S. Mukhina. The research is based on a comparison of the mental development of children from families and an orphanage. The situation of upbringing in the conditions of an orphanage and a boarding school most clearly demonstrates the negative consequences of deprivation experienced by children. But deprivation is not limited to residential institutions and concerns families and other areas of public life (kindergarten, school, etc.), so it is important to know under what conditions it occurs. These conditions can be divided into two groups:

1. Circumstances when, for external reasons, there is a complete lack of social and emotional stimuli in the family that are necessary for the healthy development of the child (for example, an incomplete family; if parents are away from home most of the time; low economic and cultural level of the family, etc.) .

2. Circumstances under which there are objective incentives, but they are not available for the child, since an internal psychological barrier has formed in relations with the adults raising him. Often this happens in families that are economically and culturally prosperous, but emotionally indifferent.

The result of the transferred deprivation, especially in the early years, is hospitalism. Sometimes the term "hospitalism" is used as a synonym for the term "deprivation". At the same time, scientists often limit themselves to describing the conditions under which deprivations occur. There are also descriptions of the consequences in the development of the psyche. Let us dwell on the following definition of hospitalism: a deep mental and physical retardation that occurs in the first years of life as a result of a “deficit” of education (RA Spitz, J. Bowlby).

Another consequence of the transferred deprivation may be a lag, mental retardation (ZPR). ZPR - a syndrome of temporary lag in the development of the psyche as a whole or its individual functions (speech, motor, sensory, emotional, volitional).

In this regard, scientists decide whether the effect of deprivation is reversible; programs for the correction of deprived children are being developed and tested; officials consult public institutions on the organization of the life of children deprived of parental care.

The modern world is increasingly confronted with the negative behavior of people who grew up in deprivation conditions. Suicide bombers are people who have undergone deprivation, their behavior is distinguished by alienation from other people, a hostile attitude towards them, lack of pity and gentleness (G. Kraig).

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Children's giftedness: signs, types, personality traits of a gifted child

Definition of the concepts of "gifted" and "gifted child"

giftedness- this is a systemic quality of the psyche that develops throughout life, which determines the possibility of a person achieving higher, outstanding results in one or more types of activity compared to other people.

gifted child- this is a child who stands out for bright, obvious, sometimes outstanding achievements (or has internal prerequisites for such achievements) in one or another type of activity.

Today, most psychologists recognize that the level, qualitative originality and nature of the development of giftedness is always the result of a complex interaction of heredity (natural inclinations) and the sociocultural environment, mediated by the child's activity (playing, learning, working). In this case, the child's own activity, as well as psychological mechanisms self-development of the individual, underlying the formation and implementation of individual talent.

Childhood- the period of formation of abilities and personality. This is the time of deep integrative processes in the child's psyche against the background of its differentiation. The level and breadth of integration determine the characteristics of the formation and maturity of the very phenomenon - giftedness. The progress of this process, its delay or regression determine the dynamics of the development of giftedness.

One of the most controversial issues concerning the problem of gifted children is the question of the frequency of manifestation of children's giftedness. There are two extreme points of view: "all children are gifted" - "gifted children are extremely rare." Supporters of one of them believe that almost any healthy child can be developed to the level of the gifted, provided that favorable conditions are created. For others, giftedness is a unique phenomenon, in this case the focus is on finding gifted children. This alternative is removed within the framework of the following position: potential prerequisites for achievements in various types of activity are inherent in many children, while real outstanding results are demonstrated by a significantly smaller part of children.

This or that child can show particular success in a fairly wide range of activities, since his mental capabilities are extremely plastic at different stages of age development. In turn, this creates conditions for the formation of various types of giftedness. Moreover, even in the same type of activity, different children can discover the originality of their talent in relation to its different aspects.

Giftedness is often manifested in the success of activities that have a spontaneous, amateur character. For example, a child who is passionate about technical design can enthusiastically build his models at home, but at the same time not show similar activity either at school or in specially organized extracurricular activities (circle, section, studio). In addition, gifted children do not always strive to demonstrate their achievements in front of others. So, a child who writes poetry or stories can hide his passion from the teacher.

Thus, the giftedness of a child should be judged not only by his school or extracurricular activities, but by the forms of activity initiated by him. In some cases, the reason that delays the development of giftedness, despite the potentially high level of abilities, is certain difficulties in the development of the child: for example, stuttering, increased anxiety, the conflict nature of communication, etc. When providing such a child with psychological and pedagogical support, these barriers can be removed.

As one of the reasons for the lack of manifestations of one or another type of giftedness, there may be a lack of necessary knowledge, skills, and also the inaccessibility (due to living conditions) of the subject area of ​​activity corresponding to the child's talent. Thus, giftedness in different children can be expressed in a more or less obvious form. Analyzing the characteristics of the child's behavior, the teacher, psychologist and parents should make a kind of "tolerance" for insufficient knowledge about his true abilities, while understanding that there are children whose giftedness they have not yet been able to see.

Giftedness in childhood can be considered as a potential for mental development in relation to the subsequent stages of a person's life path.

However, one should take into account the specifics of giftedness in childhood (in contrast to the giftedness of an adult):

Children's giftedness often acts as a manifestation of the patterns of age development. Each child's age has its own prerequisites for the development of abilities. For example, preschoolers are characterized by a special predisposition to learning languages, high level curiosity, extreme brightness of fantasy; for senior adolescence characteristic are various forms of poetic and literary creativity, etc. The high relative weight of the age factor in the signs of giftedness sometimes creates the appearance of giftedness (i.e., the "mask" of giftedness, under which - an ordinary child) in the form of accelerated development of certain mental functions, specialization of interests, etc.

Under the influence of changing age, education, mastering the norms of cultural behavior, the type of family education, etc. there may be a "fading" of signs of children's giftedness. As a result, it is extremely difficult to assess the degree of stability of giftedness displayed by a given child over a certain period of time. In addition, there are difficulties in predicting the transformation of a gifted child into a gifted adult.

The peculiarity of the dynamics of the formation of children's giftedness often manifests itself in the form of uneven (mismatch) of mental development. So, along with a high level of development of certain abilities, there is a lag in the development of written and oral speech; a high level of special abilities can be combined with insufficient development of general intelligence, etc. As a result, according to some signs, the child can be identified as gifted, according to others - as mentally lagging behind.

It is often difficult to distinguish manifestations of children's giftedness from learning (or, more broadly, the degree of socialization), which is the result of more favorable living conditions for a given child. It is clear that with equal abilities, a child from a family with a high socioeconomic status (in cases where the family makes efforts to develop it) will show higher achievements in certain types of activities compared to a child for whom similar conditions were not created.

Evaluation of a particular child as gifted is largely conditional. The most remarkable abilities of a child are not a direct and sufficient indicator of his achievements in the future. We cannot close our eyes to the fact that the signs of giftedness manifested in childhood, even under the most seemingly favorable conditions, can either gradually or very quickly disappear. Accounting for this circumstance is especially important when organizing practical work with gifted children. You should not use the phrase "gifted child" in terms of stating (hard fixing) the status of a certain child, because the psychological drama of the situation is obvious when a child, accustomed to being "gifted", at the next stages of development suddenly objectively loses signs of his exclusivity. A painful question may arise as to what to do next with a child who began training in a specialized educational institution, but then ceased to be considered gifted.

Based on this, in practical work with children, instead of the concept of “gifted child”, the concept of “signs of giftedness of the child” (or “child with signs of giftedness”) should be used.

Signs of giftedness

Signs of giftedness are manifested in the real activity of the child and can be identified at the level of observation of the nature of his actions. Signs of obvious (manifested) giftedness are fixed in its definition and are associated with a high level of performance. At the same time, the giftedness of a child should be judged in the unity of the categories “I can” and “I want”, therefore, the signs of giftedness cover two aspects of the behavior of a gifted child: instrumental and motivational. The instrumental one characterizes the ways of his activity, and the motivational one characterizes the child's attitude to one or another side of reality, as well as to his own activity.

The instrumental aspect of the behavior of a gifted child can be described the following signs: Presence of specific activity strategies. The methods of activity of a gifted child ensure its special, qualitatively unique productivity. At the same time, three main levels of activity success are distinguished, each of which is associated with its own specific strategy for its implementation: rapid development of activities and high success in its implementation; the use and invention of new ways of activity in the conditions of finding a solution in a given situation; putting forward new goals of activity due to a deeper mastery of the subject, leading to a new vision of the situation and explaining the appearance of ideas and solutions that are unexpected at first glance.

The behavior of a gifted child is mainly characterized by the third level of success - innovation as going beyond the requirements of the activity performed, which allows him to discover new techniques and patterns.

The formation of a qualitatively original individual style of activity, expressed in the tendency to "do everything in your own way" and associated with the self-sufficient system of self-regulation inherent in a gifted child. For example, for him, along with the ability to almost instantly grasp an essential detail or very quickly find a way to solve a problem, a reflexive way of processing information is very typical (the tendency to carefully analyze the problem before making any decision, focusing on justifying one's own actions).

A special type of organization of knowledge of a gifted child: highly structured; the ability to see the subject being studied in a system of various connections; curtailment of knowledge in the relevant subject area, while at the same time their readiness to unfold as a context for finding a solution at the right time; categorical character (enthusiasm for general ideas, a tendency to seek out and formulate general patterns). This provides an amazing ease of transition from a single fact or image to their generalization and extended form of interpretation.

In addition, the knowledge of a gifted child (as, by the way, of a gifted adult) is distinguished by increased “stickiness” (the child immediately grasps and assimilates information corresponding to his intellectual orientation), a high proportion of procedural knowledge (knowledge of the methods of action and conditions for their use), the volume of metacognitive (managing, organizing) knowledge, the special role of metaphors as a way of processing information, etc.

It should be borne in mind that knowledge can have a different structure depending on whether a person is interested in the relevant subject area. Consequently, the special characteristics of the knowledge of a gifted child can be found in more in the area of ​​his dominant interests.

A kind of learning. It can manifest itself both in high speed and ease of learning, and in a slow pace of learning, but with a subsequent sharp change in the structure of knowledge, ideas and skills. Evidence shows that gifted children, as a rule, have a high level of self-learning ability from an early age, so they need not so much targeted educational influences as the creation of a varied, enriched and individualized educational environment.

Motivational aspect of behavior A gifted child can be described by the following features:

Increased selective sensitivity to certain aspects of objective reality (signs, sounds, color, technical devices, plants, etc.) or certain forms of one's own activity (physical, cognitive, artistic and expressive, etc.), accompanied, as a rule, by experiencing a sense of pleasure.

An increased cognitive need, which manifests itself in insatiable curiosity, as well as a willingness to go beyond the initial requirements of activity on one's own initiative. I

a pronounced interest in certain occupations or areas of activity, an extremely high enthusiasm for any subject, immersion in one or another business. The presence of such an intense propensity for a certain kind of activity has as its consequence an amazing perseverance and industriousness. Preference for paradoxical, contradictory and uncertain information, rejection of standard, typical tasks and ready-made answers.

High demands on the results of their own work, a tendency to set super-difficult goals and perseverance in achieving them, striving for excellence.

The psychological characteristics of children who demonstrate giftedness can only be considered as signs that accompany giftedness, but not necessarily as factors that give rise to it. Brilliant memory, phenomenal powers of observation, ability for instant calculations, etc. by themselves do not always indicate the presence of giftedness. Therefore, the presence of these psychological characteristics can only serve as a basis for the assumption of giftedness, and not for the conclusion about its unconditional presence.

It should be emphasized that the behavior of a gifted child does not necessarily have to correspond simultaneously to all of the above characteristics. Behavioral signs of giftedness (instrumental and especially motivational) are variable and often contradictory in their manifestations, since they are largely dependent on the subject content of the activity and the social context. Nevertheless, even the presence of one of these signs should attract the attention of a specialist and orient him to a thorough and time-consuming analysis of each specific individual case.

Types of giftedness

The systematization of the types of giftedness is determined by the criterion underlying the classification. Giftedness can be divided into both qualitative and quantitative aspects.

Qualitative characteristics of giftedness express the specifics of a person's mental capabilities and the features of their manifestation in certain types of activity. Quantitative characteristics giftedness allow us to describe the degree of their severity.

Among the criteria for distinguishing types of giftedness are the following:

The type of activity and the spheres of the psyche that provide it.

The degree of formation.

manifestation form.

The breadth of manifestations in various activities.

Features of age development.

According to the criterion “type of activity and the spheres of the psyche that provide it”, the allocation of types of giftedness is carried out within the framework of the main types of activity, taking into account different mental spheres and, accordingly, the degree of participation of certain levels of mental organization (taking into account the qualitative originality of each of them).

The main activities include: practical, theoretical (taking into account the age of children, it is preferable to talk about cognitive activity), artistic and aesthetic, communicative and spiritual value. The spheres of the psyche are represented by intellectual, emotional and motivational-volitional. Within each sphere, the following levels of mental organization can be distinguished. So, within the framework of the intellectual sphere, there are sensorimotor, spatial-visual and conceptual-logical levels. As part of emotional sphere- levels of emotional response and emotional experience. Within the framework of the motivational-volitional sphere - the levels of motivation, goal setting and meaning generation.

Accordingly, the following types of giftedness can be distinguished:

In practical activities, in particular, talent in crafts, sports and organizational skills can be distinguished.

In cognitive activity - intellectual giftedness of various types, depending on the subject content of the activity (giftedness in the field of natural and humanitarian sciences, intellectual games and etc.).

In artistic and aesthetic activities - choreographic, stage, literary and poetic, visual and musical talent.

In communicative activity - leadership and attractive giftedness.

And, finally, in spiritual value activity - giftedness, which is manifested in the creation of new spiritual values ​​and service to people.

Each type of giftedness implies the simultaneous inclusion of all levels of mental organization with the predominance of the level that is most significant for this particular type of activity. For example, musical talent is provided by all levels of mental organization, while either sensorimotor qualities (and then we are talking about a virtuoso) or emotionally expressive (and then we are talking about rare musicality, expressiveness, etc.) can come to the fore. Each type of giftedness, in its manifestations, covers to some extent all five types of activity. For example, the activity of a performing musician, being artistic and aesthetic by definition, is also formed and manifested in practical terms (at the level of motor skills and performing techniques), cognitively (at the level of interpretation of a musical work), and communicatively (at the level of communication). with the author of the performed work and listeners), spiritual and value plan (at the level of giving meaning to one's activity as a musician).

The classification of types of giftedness according to the criterion “type of activity and the spheres of the psyche that provide it” is the most important in terms of understanding the qualitative originality of the nature of giftedness. This criterion is the initial one, while the rest determine the special forms that are currently characteristic of a person.

Within the framework of this classification, the following two questions can be posed and resolved:

What is the relationship between giftedness and individual abilities?

Is there a "creative giftedness" as a special kind of giftedness?

Identification of the types of giftedness according to the criterion of types of activity allows us to move away from the everyday idea of ​​giftedness as a quantitative degree of manifestation of abilities and move on to understanding giftedness as a systemic quality. At the same time, activity, its psychological structure act as an objective basis for the integration of individual abilities, which forms the composition of them that is necessary for its successful implementation. Consequently, giftedness acts as an integral manifestation of various abilities for the purposes of a specific activity. One and the same type of giftedness can be inimitable, unique in nature, since individual components of giftedness in various people may be expressed to varying degrees. Giftedness can take place only if the reserves of the most diverse abilities of a person make it possible to compensate for the missing or insufficiently expressed components necessary for the successful implementation of activities. Bright giftedness or talent indicates the presence of high abilities for the entire set of components required by the activity, as well as the intensity of integration processes "inside" the subject, involving him in the personal sphere.

The question of the existence of creative giftedness arises insofar as the analysis of giftedness necessarily poses the problem of its connection with creativity as its natural result.

Consideration of “creative giftedness” as an independent type of giftedness, which became widespread in the second half of the last century, is based on a number of initial contradictions in the very nature of abilities and giftedness, which are reflected in paradoxical phenomenology: a person with high abilities may not be creative and, conversely, cases when a less trained and even less capable person is creative.

This makes it possible to concretize the problem: if skills and special abilities do not determine the creative nature of the activity, then what is the key to “creativity”, the creative potential of the individual? It is easier to answer this question by appealing to a special creative talent or to a special mental operation that determines it (for example, divergence).

At the same time, another approach to the interpretation of this phenomenology is possible, which does not resort to the concept of creative giftedness as an explanatory principle, since it allows us to single out the mechanism of the phenomenon of giftedness.

The different contribution of the leading components in the structure of giftedness can give a paradoxical picture, when sometimes success in mastering educational activities (achievement), intelligence (wit) and "creativity" do not coincide in their manifestations. The facts of such a discrepancy in the manifestation of giftedness do not speak unambiguously in favor of its dilution by type (academic, intellectual and creative), but, on the contrary, allow, as in a cut, to see the role and place of these manifestations in the structure of giftedness and explain the above-mentioned paradox of the human psyche without attracting a special kind of giftedness - creative.

Activity is always carried out by a person whose goals and motives influence the level of its implementation. If the goals of the individual lie outside the activity itself, i.e. the student prepares lessons only in order "so as not to be scolded for bad grades or not to lose the prestige of an excellent student, then the activity is carried out in good faith at best and its result, even with brilliant performance, does not exceed the normatively required product. Noting the abilities of such a child, one should not talk about his giftedness, since the latter presupposes enthusiasm for the subject itself, preoccupation with activity. In this case, activity does not stop even when the initial task is completed, the initial goal is realized. What the child does with love, he constantly improves, realizing all the new ideas born in the process of the work itself. As a result, the new product of his activity significantly exceeds the original plan. In this case, we can say that there has been a “development of activity.” The development of activity on the initiative of the child himself is creativity.

With this understanding, the concepts of "giftedness" and "creative giftedness" act as synonyms. Thus, "creative giftedness" is not considered as a special, independent type of giftedness, characterizing any kind of labor. Relatively speaking, "creative talent" is not just a characteristic of the highest level of performance of any activity, but its transformation and development.

Such a theoretical approach has an important practical consequence: speaking about the development of giftedness, one should not limit one's work only to the preparation of training programs (acceleration, complication, etc.). It is necessary to create conditions for the formation of internal motivation of activity, orientation and value system, which create the basis for the formation of the spirituality of the individual. The history of science and especially art gives a lot of examples of the fact that the absence or loss of spirituality turned into a loss of talent.

According to the criterion degree of giftedness» can be differentiated:

actual giftedness;

potential talent.

Actual giftedness- this is a psychological characteristic of a child with such cash (already achieved) indicators of mental development, which are manifested in a higher level of performance in a specific subject area compared to age and social norms. In this case we are talking not only about learning, but also about a wide range of different activities. Talented children constitute a special category of actually gifted children. It is believed that a talented child is a child whose achievements meet the requirement of objective novelty and social significance. As a rule, a specific product of a talented child's activity is assessed by an expert (a highly qualified specialist in the relevant field of activity) as meeting, to one degree or another, the criteria of professional skill and creativity.

Potential giftedness b - this is a psychological characteristic of a child who has only certain mental capabilities (potential) for high achievements in a particular type of activity, but cannot realize his capabilities at a given time due to their functional insufficiency. The development of this potential can be hindered by a number of unfavorable reasons (difficult family circumstances, lack of motivation, low level of self-regulation, lack of the necessary educational environment, etc.). The identification of potential giftedness requires high predictiveness of the diagnostic methods used, since we are talking about an unformed systemic quality, the further development of which can only be judged on the basis of individual signs. The integration of components required for high performance is still lacking. Potential giftedness manifests itself under favorable conditions that provide a certain developmental influence on the initial mental capabilities of the child.

According to the criterion manifestation form"we can talk about:

obvious giftedness;

hidden talent.

Explicit giftedness reveals itself in the child's activity quite clearly and distinctly (as if "by itself"), including under unfavorable conditions. The achievements of the child are so obvious that his giftedness is not in doubt. Therefore, a specialist in the field of child giftedness with a high degree of probability manages to draw a conclusion about the presence of giftedness or high abilities of the child. He can adequately assess the "zone of proximal development" and correctly outline a program for further work with such " promising child". However, talent does not always reveal itself so clearly.

Hidden talent manifests itself in an atypical, disguised form, it is not noticed by others. As a result, the danger of erroneous conclusions about the lack of giftedness of such a child increases. It can be classified as “unpromising” and deprived of the necessary help and support. Often, no one sees the future “beautiful swan” in the “ugly duckling”, although there are numerous examples when such “unpromising children” achieved the highest results. The reasons that give rise to the phenomenon of hidden giftedness lie in the specifics of the cultural environment in which the child is formed, in the peculiarities of his interaction with the people around him, in the mistakes made by adults in his upbringing and development, etc. Hidden forms of giftedness are mental phenomena that are complex in nature. In cases of latent giftedness, which does not manifest itself until a certain time in the success of an activity, understanding the personal characteristics of a gifted child is especially important. The personality of a gifted child bears clear evidence of his originality. It is the peculiar personality traits, as a rule, organically associated with giftedness, that give the right to assume that such a child has increased opportunities. The identification of children with hidden gifts cannot be reduced to a one-time psychodiagnostic examination of large groups of preschoolers and schoolchildren. Identification of children with this type of giftedness is a long process based on the use of a multi-level set of methods for analyzing the child's behavior, including him in various types of real activities, organizing his communication with gifted adults, enriching his individual living environment, involving him in innovative forms of education, etc. .d.

According to the criterion breadth of manifestations in various activities» can be distinguished:

general giftedness;

special talent.

General giftedness manifests itself in relation to various types of activity and acts as the basis of their productivity. The psychological core of general giftedness is the result of the integration of mental abilities, the motivational sphere and the value system, around which the emotional, volitional and other qualities of the individual are built. The most important aspects of general giftedness are mental activity and its self-regulation. General giftedness determines, accordingly, the level of understanding of what is happening, the depth of motivational and emotional involvement in the activity, the degree of its purposefulness.

Special talent reveals itself in specific activities and is usually defined in relation to certain areas (poetry, mathematics, sports, communication, etc.).

At the heart of giftedness in various types of art is a special, complicit attitude of a person to the phenomena of life and the desire to embody the value content of one's life experience in expressive artistic images. In addition, special abilities for music, painting and other types of art are formed under the influence of a pronounced originality of the sensory sphere, imagination, emotional experiences, etc. Another example of special abilities is social giftedness - giftedness in the field of leadership and social interaction (family, politics, business relations in the work team). General giftedness is associated with special types of giftedness. In particular, under the influence of general giftedness, manifestations of special giftedness reach a qualitatively higher level of mastering specific activities (in the field of music, poetry, sports, leadership, etc.). In turn, special giftedness has an impact on the selective specialization of the general, mental resources of the individual, thereby enhancing the individual originality and originality of a gifted person.

By criterion "peculiarities of age development" can be differentiated:

early giftedness;

late giftedness.

The decisive indicators here are the rate of the child's mental development, as well as those age stages at which giftedness manifests itself explicitly. It must be borne in mind that accelerated mental development and, accordingly, the early detection of talents (the phenomenon of "age giftedness") are by no means always associated with high achievements at an older age. In turn, the absence of bright manifestations of giftedness in childhood does not mean a negative conclusion regarding the prospects for further mental development of the individual.

An example of early giftedness are children who are called "wunderkinds". A child prodigy (literally "wonderful child") is a child, usually of preschool or primary school age, with extraordinary, brilliant success in any particular activity - mathematics, poetry, music, drawing, dance, singing, etc.

A special place among these children is occupied by intellectual geeks. These are precocious children, whose abilities are manifested in an extremely high outstripping rate of development of mental abilities. They are characterized by extremely early, from 2-3 years old, mastering reading, writing and counting; mastery of the three-year study program by the end of the first grade; choosing a complex activity of his own free will (a five-year-old boy writes a "book" about birds with illustrations made by himself, another boy at the same age compiles his own history encyclopedia, etc.). They are distinguished by an unusually high development of individual cognitive abilities (brilliant memory, unusual power of abstract thinking, etc.).

There is a certain relationship between the age at which giftedness is manifested and the field of activity. The earliest talents are manifested in the field of art, especially in music. A little later, talent manifests itself in the field of fine arts. In science, the achievement of significant results in the form of outstanding discoveries, the creation of new areas and research methods, etc. occurs usually later than in art. This is due, in particular, to the need to acquire deep and extensive knowledge, without which scientific discoveries are impossible. At the same time, mathematical talents appear earlier than others (Leibniz, Galois, Gauss). This pattern is confirmed by the facts of the biographies of great people.

So, any individual case of child giftedness can be evaluated from the point of view of all the above criteria for classifying types of giftedness. Giftedness is thus a multidimensional phenomenon in nature. For a practitioner, this is an opportunity and, at the same time, a need for a broader view of the uniqueness of the giftedness of a particular child.

Features of the personality of a gifted child

It has already been noted above that differences in giftedness can be associated both with the degree of manifestation of signs of giftedness, and with an assessment of the level of achievement of the child. The division of giftedness on this basis, despite its conditionality, occurs on the basis of a comparison of various indicators that characterize children's giftedness with the average age norm of achievements.

Children who are so superior in their abilities and achievements to others are usually referred to as children with exceptional, special gifts. The success of their activities can be unusually high. However, these children are more likely to have serious problems which require special attention and appropriate assistance from teachers and psychologists.

Therefore, when grading giftedness, it should be borne in mind that it should be differentiated (naturally, in real life there is no such clear line) into giftedness with harmonious and disharmonious types of development.

Giftedness with a harmonious type of development can be called a "happy" version of a child's life. Such children are distinguished by their age-appropriate physical maturity. Their high, objectively significant achievements in a certain subject area are organically combined with a high level of intellectual and personal development. As a rule, it is these gifted children who, as adults, achieve extraordinary success in their chosen professional activities.

Another thing is gifted children with a disharmonious type of development. The differences lie not only in the very high level of individual abilities and achievements (it is often these children who have IQs from 130 to 180). This variant of giftedness may be based on a different genetic resource, as well as other mechanisms of age-related development, which is most often characterized by an accelerated, but sometimes slow, pace. In addition, its basis may be another structure with a violation of integrative processes, which leads to uneven development of various mental qualities, and sometimes calls into question the existence of giftedness as such.

The process of developing the giftedness of such children is almost always accompanied by a complex set of various kinds of psychological, psychosomatic and even psychopathological problems, due to which they can be included in the "risk group".

Personality characteristics of gifted children with a harmonious type of development

personality traits

Committed to creative activity considered a hallmark of such gifted children. They express their own ideas and defend them. By virtue of the fact that they are not limited in their activities to the requirements that the task contains, they open up new ways of solving problems. They often abandon traditional methods of solving if their methods are more rational and beautiful.

These students, as a rule, show increased independence in the learning process and therefore, to a lesser extent than their classmates, need adult help. Sometimes teachers mistakenly take the student’s independence in completing assignments as giftedness: he picked up the material himself, analyzed it and wrote an essay, etc. However, the independence of gifted children is associated with the formation of "self-regulatory strategies" of learning, which they easily transfer to new tasks. According to experts, the measure of "autonomous self-learning" can act as a kind of indicator of the presence of outstanding abilities. For self-learning, it is necessary to acquire metacognitive skills that underlie the child's ability to control their own cognitive processes to one degree or another, plan their activities, systematize and evaluate the knowledge gained. Excessive intervention of teachers and excessive parental care can have a negative impact on the course of education of gifted students, slow down the development of self-regulation processes, lead to a loss of independence and motivation to learn new things.

Given these features of gifted children and adolescents, when organizing the educational process, it is necessary to provide for opportunities to increase the independence, initiative and, to a certain extent, responsibility of the student himself. Gifted children often seek to independently choose which subjects and sections of the curriculum they would like to study quickly and / or in depth, plan their learning process and determine the frequency of assessment of acquired knowledge. They should be given these opportunities. In modern pedagogy, there are many innovative developments that allow the child to initiate his own learning. At the same time, such training requires the organization of special forms of interaction with adults (primarily with teachers). A gifted child needs adult mentors as much as other children, but he makes special demands, both on the level of knowledge of such a tutor and on the way of interacting with him.

As noted above, the motivational features of gifted children are a high level of cognitive need, great curiosity, passion for what they love, and the presence of pronounced intrinsic motivation. From early childhood, gifted children show an intense interest in learning, while showing an amazing ability to focus on a problem and even a kind of obsession.

Contrary to popular belief that giftedness is always "global", which is why gifted children do well in all school subjects, because they generally like to learn, this phenomenon is not so natural. Often there is a specific orientation of the cognitive motivation of gifted children: a high level of motivation is observed only in those areas of knowledge that are associated with their leading abilities. At the same time, a gifted child may not only not show interest in other areas of knowledge, but also ignore “unnecessary”, from his point of view, school subjects, because of this, entering into conflict with teachers. A characteristic feature of the motivation of a different sphere of gifted children and adolescents is associated with the specifics of the questions with which they literally “fall asleep” to those around them. The number, complexity, and depth of questions that gifted children ask far exceed those of their peers. It is not easy for teachers to satisfy this heightened curiosity in the classroom. In addition, many questions can be so complex and require such deep and versatile knowledge that it is difficult even for specialists to answer them. In this regard, it is necessary to develop pedagogical technologies allowing gifted students to independently search and find answers to their questions. For these purposes, new information technologies (including the Internet), teaching students how to work independently with literature, research methods, including them in professional communication with specialists, etc. can be used.

A significant part of gifted children is characterized by the so-called perfectionism, that is, the desire to achieve excellence in the performance of activities. Sometimes a child spends hours redoing an already completed work (essay, drawing, model), achieving compliance with the well-known criterion of perfection alone. Although in general this characteristic is positive, in the future turning into a guarantee of a high level of professional achievement, teachers and psychologists nevertheless need to introduce such exactingness into a reasonable framework. Otherwise, this quality turns into a kind of "self-discipline", the inability to complete the work.

Since the giftedness of a child is often judged by his achievements, primarily in his studies, the following features can distinguish a gifted child from just a very capable and well-trained child, who has a certain amount of knowledge, skills and abilities that exceeds the usual average level. A gifted child strives for new cognitive situations, they not only do not frighten him, but, on the contrary, cause him a feeling of joy. Even if difficulties arise in this new situation, the gifted child does not lose interest in it. A capable student with a high achievement motivation perceives any new situation as a threat to his self-esteem, his high status. A gifted child enjoys the very process of learning, while an ordinary child is much more concerned about the result. A gifted child easily admits his lack of understanding, simply says that he does not know something. For a capable child with external motivation, it is always stressful situation, a failure situation. Hence the different attitudes towards marks: the gifted give priority to the content of the activity, for the capable, the result and its assessment are important.

Persistently high self-esteem, on the one hand, is a distinctive characteristic of a gifted child. On the other hand, his actual self-esteem may fluctuate. It is this inconsistency of self-esteem that is the condition for the progressive development of his personality and abilities. Hence the strategy of encouraging the gifted, and indeed any child, should be quite restrained - you can’t constantly praise him. It is necessary to accustom him to the thought of the possibility of failure. Moreover, the child himself must perceive the presence of constant success as evidence of the insufficient difficulty of the activity that is offered to him and for which he undertakes.

One of the main characteristics of gifted children and adolescents is independence (autonomy): lack of inclination to act, think and act in accordance with the opinion of the majority. In whatever field of activity their talent is manifested, they are guided not by a general opinion, but by personally acquired knowledge. Although this personal characteristic helps them in their activities, nevertheless, it is she who makes them uncomfortable for others. Gifted children behave less predictably than others would like, which sometimes leads to conflicts. The teacher should always consider this psychological feature understanding its nature. For example, a clearly gifted teenager, completing the assignment to write an essay on geography, writes an essay “Is geography a science?”, where it vividly, but defiantly in form, proves the descriptive nature of this subject and deprives geography of the status of a science. He does not care that geography is taught by the director of the school. All this cannot but cause a certain wariness of the teaching staff in relation to such children, their internal, and often open rejection. In many cases, such manifestations of a gifted child are incorrectly interpreted as his lack of education or a desire to be outside the team. In general, apparently, we can talk about a certain non-conformity of brightly gifted, creative children.

Rooted interests and inclinations, developed since childhood, serve as a good basis for successful personal and professional self-determination of gifted children. Difficulties in vocational orientation that arise in some cases, when students continue to “scatter” until the end of school, are associated with high development they have abilities in many areas.

The role of the family

The development of the giftedness of such children is facilitated by the high cognitive interests of the parents themselves, who, as a rule, are not only employed in the field of intellectual professions, but also have various kinds of intellectual "hobbies". In communicating with a child, they always go beyond the circle of everyday problems; in their communication, the so-called joint cognitive activity is represented very early - common games, joint work on a computer, discussion of complex tasks and problems. Often parents and children are united by common cognitive interests, on the basis of which stable friendly relations arise between them. The attitude towards school education of the parents of these children never assumes a self-sufficient character. The content side of the child's development is always a priority for them than the marks themselves. In these families, there is a much smaller distance between parents and children, the very fact of the reduction of which can have not only clearly positive, but sometimes even negative features.

Relationships with peers and teachers

In general, this group of gifted children is characterized by a high, in comparison with their peers, adaptation to schooling and, accordingly, to the team of fellow students. Peers treat gifted children mostly with great respect. Due to higher learning ability and creative attitude to the learning process, including social and everyday skills, physical strength, many gifted children are highly popular among their peers. In those schools where learning is a value, such children become leaders, "stars" of the class.

True, these children can also have problems if their increased capabilities are not taken into account: when learning becomes too easy. It is very important to create conditions for these children that are optimal in terms of difficulty for the development of their giftedness.

Firstly, a gifted student should have a real opportunity not only to get acquainted with different points of view on the issue of interest to him (including those that contradict each other), but also, if desired, interact with other specialists (teachers, consultants, etc.). ).

Secondly, since the position of a gifted child in this case can be very active, he must be given the opportunity to realize it. Therefore, the teacher must be prepared for the fact that his student can challenge other people's points of view (including very authoritative ones), defend his own opinion, justify his own point of view, etc.

The development of the personality of these children rarely causes significant anxiety among teachers and their parents. Sometimes they have expressed, as noted above, ambitions and criticality towards teachers and peers. In rare cases, a conflict with a teacher (most often not professional enough) nevertheless arises, taking the form of an open confrontation, however, with a calm and respectful attitude towards the student, this conflict can be relatively easily extinguished.

Personality features of gifted children with a disharmonious type of development. Uneven mental development

The idea of ​​a gifted child as frail, weak, and socially absurd is not always true. However, in some children who are exceptionally gifted in any one area, there is indeed a pronounced unevenness of mental development (dyssynchrony), which directly affects the personality during its formation and is the source of many problems for an unusual child.

For such children, a significant advance in mental or artistic and aesthetic development is quite typical. It is clear that all other mental spheres - emotional, social and physical - do not always keep pace with such rapid growth, which leads to pronounced uneven development. This unevenness in development is strengthened by excessive specialization of interests in the form of dominance of interest corresponding to their outstanding abilities. The most important characteristic of the personality of children with manifestations of bright giftedness is a special system of values, i.e. a system of personal priorities, the most important place in which is occupied by activities corresponding to the content of giftedness. The vast majority of gifted children have a biased, personal attitude to activities that constitute the sphere of their interests.

Self-esteem, which characterizes their idea of ​​their strengths and capabilities, also has its own characteristics in such children. The fact of extremely high self-esteem in these children and adolescents is quite natural. However, sometimes in especially emotional children, self-esteem is distinguished by a certain inconsistency, instability - from a very high self-esteem in some cases, the same teenager rushes to the other extreme in others, believing that he cannot and cannot do anything. Both those and other children need psychological support.

The desire to achieve perfection (the so-called perfectionism) is also characteristic of this category of gifted children. In general, perfectionism is, as already mentioned, positive in nature, contributing to the achievement of the heights of professional excellence. However, increased demands can turn into excruciating and painful dissatisfaction with oneself and the results of one's work, which negatively affects the creative process and the life of the creator himself. Often the tasks that a child sets for himself can far exceed him. real opportunities at this stage of learning and development. A number of examples are known when the impossibility of achieving the set goal gave rise to severe stress, a long experience of one's failures.

Often these children have problems in emotional development. Most of them have an increased impressionability and a special emotional sensitivity associated with it, which is selective in nature and associated primarily with the sphere of their subject interest. Events that are not too significant for ordinary children become a source of vivid experiences for these children. So, for example, these children are characterized by taking responsibility for the results of their activities, recognizing that it is in them that the cause of success and failure lies, which very often leads to not always justified feelings of guilt, self-flagellation, sometimes even to depressive states.

Increased reactivity in some cases manifests itself in a tendency to violent affects. These children may come across as hysterical when difficult situations show a clearly infantile reaction, for example, a critical remark causes them immediate tears, and any failure leads to despair. In other cases, their emotionality is hidden, internal, revealing itself in excessive shyness in communication, difficulty falling asleep, and sometimes some psychosomatic diseases.

From the point of view of helping these children, the problem of volitional skills or, more broadly, self-regulation is very difficult. For especially gifted children, the situation of development often develops in such a way that they are engaged only in activities that are interesting and easy enough for them, which is the essence of their giftedness. Any other activity that is not within the scope of their inclinations, most gifted children avoid, taking advantage of the condescending attitude of adults towards this. Many gifted children have noticeable problems associated with their physical development. So, some children clearly avoid everything that requires physical effort, are clearly burdened by physical education lessons, and do not go in for sports. In this case, the physical lag manifests itself, as it were, in a multiplied version, when the child’s obvious unwillingness to engage in a boring, in his opinion, business is superimposed on the natural age discrepancy. To a certain extent, this is condoned by the parents of such a child.

Ultimately, a specific situation arises when especially gifted children, being in a certain respect "workaholics", i.e. showing an obvious inclination for their favorite work, they still do not know how to work in those cases when they are required to express strong-willed efforts. To a much lesser extent, this applies to children with psychomotor (sports) giftedness, and to a much greater extent - to children with increased cognitive abilities. Another serious problem of some of the children with the highest intellectual abilities is the dominance of the focus only on the assimilation of knowledge. This is especially true for children who have an accelerated pace of mental and general age development. From early childhood, they receive the approval of others for the amazing volume and strength of knowledge, which subsequently becomes the leading motivation for their cognitive activity. Because of this, their achievements are not of a creative nature, and true talent has not been formed. At the same time, with an appropriate system of education and upbringing, with a well-thought-out system for the development of motivation, this problem of intellectually gifted children can be successfully overcome. At the same time, the system for the development of a child's giftedness must be carefully built, strictly individualized, and its implementation must fall on a fairly favorable age period.

The role of the family

No matter how we consider the role and weight of natural factors or the influence of purposeful education and upbringing (school) on the development of the personality and giftedness of the child, the importance of the family is decisive. Even seemingly unfavorable conditions (poor life, insufficient material security, incomplete family, etc.) turn out to be relatively indifferent to the development of abilities. Particularly important for the formation of the personality of a gifted child, above all, is the increased attention of parents.

As a rule, in the families of gifted children, a high value of education is clearly observed, and often the parents themselves turn out to be very educated. This circumstance is a favorable factor that largely determines the development of high abilities of the child.

The main, practically obligatory feature of the family of any especially gifted child is an extraordinary, unusually high attention to the child, when the whole life of the family is focused on him. In many cases, such attention leads to symbiosis, i.e. close interweaving of the cognitive and personal interests of parents and the child. Although such attention may subsequently become a brake on his spiritual autonomy, however, it is undoubtedly one of the most important factors in the development of outstanding abilities. Often the parents of such gifted children are elderly people for whom a child is the only meaning of life. Even more often, gifted children are the only children in the family, or at least actually the only ones (the older one has already grown up and does not require attention), and the attention of parents is directed only to this child. In many cases, it is the parents who begin to teach a gifted child, and often, although not always, one of them becomes his mentor for many years in a variety of activities: in artistic and aesthetic, sports, one or another form of scientific knowledge. This circumstance is one of the reasons for the consolidation of certain cognitive or any other interests of the child.

A certain “child-centeredness” of the family of a gifted child, the fanatical desire of parents to develop his abilities, in some cases has its negative sides. Thus, in these families there is a certain conniving attitude towards the development of a number of social and everyday skills in their child.

Parents of gifted children show special attention to their child's schooling, choosing textbooks or additional literature for him and consulting with the teacher how best to study them. This circumstance sometimes has negative sides: parents often interfere in the educational process and in some cases even provoke a conflict with the administration and teachers.

Relationships with peers and adults

Of great importance for understanding the personality traits of a gifted child with a disharmonious type of development is the analysis of his relationships with peers and adults, which, being a consequence of the unusualness of the child himself, largely determine the history of his life and thereby form his personality. Quite often, special cognitive development occurs in some sense at the expense of other spheres. So, up to a certain time, communication with peers in the sphere of personal interests occupies much less space for many gifted than for other children of the same age. That is why such children rarely become leaders in their yard or school group.

So, due to the uneven development already described above, some children with sharply increased intellectual and artistic and aesthetic abilities often lack sufficiently formed and effective skills. social behavior and there are communication problems. This can manifest itself in excessive conflict. In many cases, special giftedness is accompanied by unusual behavior and oddities, which causes bewilderment or ridicule among classmates.

Sometimes the life of such a child in a team develops in the most dramatic way (the child is beaten, insulting nicknames are invented for him, humiliating practical jokes are arranged).

As a result of such relationships with peers, communication problems are generated and further intensified. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for their non-compliance with certain norms and requirements of the team. The non-conformity inherent in all gifted children in this case reinforces this negative moment. As a result, this leads to a kind of alienation of the child from the peer group, and he begins to look for other niches for communication: a society of younger or, conversely, much older children or only adults.

True, much depends on the age of the children and the value system adopted in this children's community. In specialized schools, the likelihood that the special intellectual abilities of such a gifted child or adolescent will be appreciated and, accordingly, his relationships with peers will develop in a more favorable way is much higher.

Teachers are also ambivalent about especially gifted children, but it all depends on the personality of the teacher himself. If this is a teacher who knows how to abandon the position of infallibility, who does not accept the methods of education "from a position of strength", then in this case the increased criticality of an intellectually gifted child, his high mental development, which exceeds the level of the teacher himself, will cause him respect and understanding. In other cases, the relationship with the teacher is characterized by conflict, rejection of each other. Some of the personality traits of these gifted people cause teachers to resent their perception of these children as extreme individualists, which is exacerbated by the lack of a sense of distance from adults in many of these children. That is why understanding the uniqueness of the personality of a gifted child with a disharmonic type of development is fundamentally important for the successful work of a teacher with such a contingent of children and adolescents.

In general, a situation arises of some maladjustment of a particularly gifted child, which can take on a rather serious character, at times fully justifying the assignment of gifted children of this type to a high-risk group.

It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the sample of gifted children is heterogeneous and the features inherent in one group cannot be extended to all gifted children. It is important to emphasize that the problems that arise in them are not a consequence of the giftedness itself, its immanent characteristic.

All parents want their children to be healthy and happy. When loving moms and dads find out that their fidgets have the ability to do something, there is no limit to pride and happiness. We offer to find out what giftedness is and why giftedness is sometimes understood as a deviation in mental development.

What is giftedness?

Some researchers say that giftedness is a kind of combination of inclinations. The ability to achieve success by performing a certain activity may depend on it. Under this term, it is customary to understand not a mechanical complex of abilities, but a new quality that is born in the mutual influence and interaction of components. Giftedness is in psychology a combination of abilities that provide an individual with the opportunity to successfully perform a certain activity.

Signs of giftedness

How can mom and dad understand that a capable child is growing in the family? What is giftedness in psychology and what distinguishes children with special abilities? Such fidgets are distinguished by the fact that:

1. They strive to achieve success in learning and gain new knowledge.
2. They can act independently with the help of previously acquired knowledge and skills.
3. Able to critically assess what is happening around and at the same time penetrate into the essence of things.
4. They plunge into philosophical problems concerning the essence of the universe.
5. They are not satisfied with superficial explanations, even when they seem sufficient to their peers.
6. They want to improve themselves and do everything to the best of their ability. From here follows the setting of high goals and experiences when there is no way to achieve them.
7. Able to fully concentrate attention, and plunge into problems.

What is the difference between giftedness and talent?

Is a talented or gifted child growing in the family? What, in fact, is the difference between talent and giftedness, or is giftedness a talent? First of all, it is important to say that talent is a special gift from God. That is, with certain inclinations for something, a person is born. Such inclinations are called talent. As for giftedness, there is a need to develop inclinations. In other words, by developing your talent, improving it and working on it, you can achieve success in life and be called a capable person.

Types of giftedness

It is customary to distinguish between such types of giftedness and their characteristics:

1. Intellectual giftedness - the child's abilities can manifest themselves in different areas. It can be special knowledge in mathematics, literature, languages.
2. Creative - a fidget with such inclinations draws, embroiders, dances or sings better than their peers.
3. Academic - children with such inclinations have a pronounced ability to learn. In the future, this will help to become an excellent specialist.
4. Social - the ability to establish constructive relationships with others.
5. Musical - the child shows abilities in music. Such children are easily given musical notation, they sing beautifully and have absolute pitch.
6. Sports - children with athletic inclinations are better than their peers in sports competitions. They are the best in physical education classes.
7. Mathematical - here the child's abilities are manifested in solving the most difficult mathematical problems and examples.
8. Linguistic - children can easily convey any information using the language. Fidgets with such inclinations may become journalists and writers in the future.
9. Literary - in literature lessons, gifted children show their skills from the best side. They can easily orient themselves in literary directions.

Intellectual giftedness

Experts say that intellectual giftedness is a certain state of private psychological resources that provides the possibility of creative activity. This activity is associated with the creation of new ideas, as well as the use of non-standard approaches to the development of problems. Psychologists call this concept polysemantic. This is due different criteria on the basis of which a person can be called gifted. There are such types of intellectual talent:

1. People with high intelligence.
2. Individuals with high academic achievement. This includes indicators of academic achievement.
3. People with a high level of development of divergent inclinations.
4. Individuals with excellent academic performance in certain activities.
5. Persons with special intellectual achievements.
6. Individuals with high intellectual abilities.

Creative talent

Often, caring mothers and fathers are interested in whether their child has the ability to be creative. Creative talent is the inclinations of a person, manifested in various areas of creativity - music, drawing, singing, embroidery, choreography. One of the first who was able to develop methods for discovering the creative inclinations of children was E. Torrance. They are called creativity tests. Later it was found that in order to realize the personality in creativity, there is a need for a combination of levels of development of the logical and.

Academic endowment

All parents sincerely rejoice if their child has talent and ability for something. One of them is academic talent. Children with such inclinations are excellent learners. Capable children are divided into groups:

1. Children with significant learning abilities.
2. Children who have the ability to assimilate knowledge may manifest themselves in one or more areas of activity. It can be exact or humanities.

Musical talent

Experts are unanimous in their opinion that musical talent is a difficult quality education, which includes special musical abilities, personal and creative components. This term is understood as a separate case of common inclinations and a general case in relation to different musical specializations. One of the features of this giftedness is the presence of musicality, expressed in the individual's susceptibility to music and increased impressionability from it.

Social giftedness

Often, the term social leadership talent is understood as an exceptional ability to establish constructive mature relationships with others. It is customary to single out the elements of social giftedness:

• judgments from a moral point of view;
• managerial abilities.

Social talent often acts as a prerequisite for high success in some areas. It implies the presence of the ability to understand, empathize, communicate without problems with others. Individuals with such abilities in the future can become very highly professional teachers, psychologists, psychotherapists and social workers.

Sports talent

The very concept of giftedness includes a division into certain types, among which is sports talent. It is understood as a complex of natural qualities that allow reaching peaks in sports over many years of training. These are the innate features of a person, which determine a certain level of his achievements. In this case, the makings can be formed unevenly. You can observe periods of accelerated and slow development of inclinations, but there are also children with a slow rate of ability formation.

Mathematical talent

Mathematical giftedness in psychology is understood as a special case of academic giftedness. The structure of mathematical inclinations includes the following components:

1. Obtaining specific mathematical information. Ability to perceive mathematical material, coverage of the formal structure of the problem.
2. Mathematical information processing, ability to generalize quickly and widely.
3. The need to store mathematical information.
4. General synthetic component. Mathematical mind, slight fatigue while solving mathematical problems.

Linguistic talent

Not everyone knows what is called linguistic talent. Language aptitude is not the ability to learn languages, as many might think. Children with such giftedness have the ability to expressively and at the same time interestingly, easily convey information to people, thanks to language means. In the future, such children can become poets, journalists, writers, copywriters. When there is the ability to convince, then also as lecturers or public people.

Literary talent

Many are interested in what types of giftedness are. Among the most frequently encountered is literary talent. This type is characterized by a pronounced ability to create artistic texts. So, a child from an early age can get involved in writing poetry, with pleasure inventing interesting mysterious stories in which he himself would gladly participate. Psychologists recommend that parents actively contribute to the development of such abilities, encourage the child's hobbies and support all his literary endeavors.