What does giftedness mean? Giftedness Gifted. Modern concepts of giftedness

All parents dream of their children being healthy and happy. When loving mothers and fathers find out that their fidgets have the ability to do something, there is no limit to pride and happiness. We invite you 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 certain combination of inclinations. The ability to achieve success while performing a certain activity may depend on it. This term is usually understood not as a mechanical set of abilities, but as a new quality that is born in the mutual influence and interaction of components. In psychology, giftedness is 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 how do children with special abilities stand out? 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 using previously acquired knowledge and skills.
3. They are able to critically evaluate what is happening around them and at the same time penetrate into the essence of things.
4. They are immersed in 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 as best as possible. This entails setting high goals and experiencing when there is no way to achieve them.
7. Able to fully concentrate attention and immerse themselves in problems.

What is the difference between giftedness and talent?

Is there a talented or gifted child growing up in the family? What 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, a person is born with certain inclinations for something. Such inclinations are usually called talent. As for giftedness, there is a need for the development of 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 these types of giftedness and their characteristics:

1. Intellectual giftedness – a child’s abilities can manifest themselves in different areas. This could be special knowledge in mathematics, literature, languages.
2. Creative - a fidget with such inclinations draws, embroiders, dances or sings better than her peers.
3. Academic – children with such inclinations have a pronounced ability to learn. This will help you become an excellent specialist in the future.
4. Social – the ability to establish constructive relationships with others.
5. Musical – the child shows abilities in music. Such children can easily read music, they sing beautifully and have perfect pitch.
6. Sports – children with athletic inclinations perform 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 language. Fidgets with such inclinations can become journalists and writers in the future.
9. Literary - in literature lessons, gifted children show their skills at their best. They can easily navigate literary trends.

Intellectual giftedness

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

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

Creative talent

Often caring mothers and fathers are interested in whether their child has creative abilities. 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 detecting the creative inclinations of children was E. Torrance. They are called creativity tests. Subsequently, it was discovered that in order to realize personality in creativity, there is a need to combine the levels of development of logical and .

Academic talent

All parents are sincerely happy if their child has talent and ability for something. One of their types is academic talent. Children with such inclinations excel at learning. Capable children are divided into groups:

1. Children with significant learning abilities.
2. Children whose abilities to absorb knowledge can manifest themselves in one or several areas of activity. These can be exact sciences or humanities.

Musical talent

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

Social giftedness

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

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

Social talent is often a prerequisite for high success in some areas. It implies the presence of the ability to understand, empathize, and 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, including sports talent. It is understood as a complex of natural qualities that allow one to reach the top in sports over many years of training. These are innate characteristics of a person that determine a certain level of his achievements. In this case, the makings may be formed unevenly. One can observe periods of accelerated and slow development of inclinations, but there are also children with a slow rate of development of abilities.

Mathematical talent

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

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

Linguistic talent

Not everyone knows what is called linguistic giftedness. Linguistic giftedness is not the ability to learn languages, as many may think. Children with such giftedness have the ability to convey information expressively and at the same time in an interesting and accessible way to people, thanks to linguistic means. In the future, such children can become poets, journalists, writers, and copywriters. When you have the ability to persuade, then also as lecturers or public people.

Literary talent

Many people are interested in what types of giftedness there are. Among the most common is literary talent. This type is characterized by pronounced abilities to create artistic texts. Thus, from an early age, a child can become interested in writing poetry and enjoy coming up with interesting, mysterious stories in which he himself would gladly participate. Psychologists recommend that parents actively assist in the development of such abilities, encourage the child’s hobbies and support all his literary endeavors.

Dear readers! I would like to touch on an important topic that all parents need - identifying and developing abilities in children. In addition, in the passages given you will learn how not to harm a child with studies and activities, how to develop and not ruin talents and abilities.

I want to continue publishing excerpts from Victoria Yurkevich’s wonderful book “The Gifted Child: Illusions and Reality.”

Chapter 2. So what is giftedness?

We should start with a completely mysterious concept, which we use every now and then, but we hardly know exactly what it is. It's about ability. It must be said that no one has yet given a concept of abilities that satisfies everyone, and all those available most often revolve around one thing: abilities are what is needed to perform some activity. That is, I don’t know what, but only what is needed...

As a worker, we propose the following concept of abilities: these are ways of performing an activity. Not individual techniques, but global, fundamental methods. Whose methods are better (from the point of view of the same activity), he has higher abilities. This, in essence, is the difference in abilities. Some solve the problem by simply trying out options, others search and find the optimal way. Some, having encountered a new situation, look for something familiar in their memory in order to somehow cope with it, others are looking for a completely new solution.

From this understanding of abilities, it becomes clear that by nature there are no abilities and cannot exist - after all, every person needs to develop methods, acquire them in some way, primarily in activity. Another thing is that one person develops these methods faster, another slower, and the effectiveness of the methods and their usefulness for activities also differ greatly. Here, most often (except, of course, for different conditions of training and upbringing), natural characteristics, i.e., inclinations, appear.

Inclinations are natural capabilities that may or may not turn into abilities. Most often, most of them remain “buried” in the psyche, and no one suspects what this person was capable of if his abilities were developed. To make this complex connection - “inclinations-abilities” - completely clear (although it cannot be said that it is clear to at least one scientist in the world), I will give a self-evident analogy: inclinations are the seeds of a future plant, which may themselves be better or worse, but We can judge their quality only after something has grown out of them.

This is also stated in the famous biblical parable:
“Behold, a sower went out to sow;
And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and birds came and devoured them;
Some fell on rocky places where there was little soil, and soon sprang up because the soil was shallow;
When the sun rose, it withered and, as if it had no root, withered;
Some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew and choked them;
Some fell on good soil and brought forth fruit…” (Matt. 13).

A person can live his entire life without suspecting the possibilities that nature has given him. Mark Twain has a story about a very inconspicuous man, it seems he was a simple barber, who, having gone to heaven, suddenly learns that his place is next to the great commanders. He is very surprised, because he has never been in any battles, but it turns out that places here are distributed depending on what a person is destined for, and not on his real talents. But this is in Mark Twain’s book, but in life it is completely different. In some regions we have up to 80% of incapable children, offended not by God, but by the general circumstance that the seeds of their inclinations fell among the thorns...

What is meant by the concept of “giftedness”? This is a high level of development of any abilities, and gifted children, accordingly, are children with fairly highly developed abilities. Recently, however, there has been a tendency to primarily use the concept of talent (talented pianist, artist, etc.) to denote artistic talent, and giftedness is, as it were, a generic concept for any kind of bright abilities.

Giftedness will thus include not only artistic talent, but also mental (intellectual) talent itself, and talent in the sphere of social relations (leadership), and psychomotor (for example, in sports), and, of course, creative - a high ability to create new ideas. Without going into the content of different types of giftedness, I want to draw attention to the problem general abilities and correspondingly, general talent.

As a result of special experiments and lengthy scientific discussions, it turned out that all abilities have a certain common basis, which is important for the development and manifestation of almost any abilities. These general abilities determine the level and originality of any mental activity, and therefore they are often called mental abilities. There is not and cannot be, say, an outstanding mathematician with a low level of language ability; another thing is that his language ability may be somewhat less developed than his actual mathematical ability. Moreover, the presence of the fact of a common basis for all abilities, general abilities, allows us to assert that the intelligence of outstanding athletes, say, the same football players, will obviously be higher than that of non-gifted football players. This, by the way, has been confirmed many times both in special studies and simply in life (it is no coincidence that Pele turned out to be a very successful businessman).
Accepting the fact of the existence of general abilities, we already take for granted the fact that the verbal development of students in special mathematics schools (for example, in Novosibirsk) turned out to be significantly higher than that of students in language schools (we are talking, say, not only about vocabulary, but even about the level of essays, about the very elaboration of one or another literary or cultural idea).

It must be said that although the idea of ​​the existence of general abilities has long been the subject of almost “bloody” disputes between scientists, and even now it has become unconditional, nevertheless teachers, and many parents, perceive it, as they say, “right away.” After all, the teacher, from his daily experience, is convinced every time that children, as a rule, are either generally “smart,” “intelligent,” “smart,” “capable” (here in the sense of a high level of ability), or not very smart, not very smart and smart. And although there is almost no complete correspondence of all abilities, a student who shines in history may still be bad in mathematics not so much because of his inability to do it, but because of his complete neglect of it.
The idea of ​​general abilities helps to understand the well-known fact that bright abilities are rarely found individually. Pushkin's outstanding drawings are no coincidence. It is no coincidence that, according to contemporaries, he was one of the smartest people of his time, which was recognized by the not at all enthusiastic tsar. It is no coincidence that Griboyedov’s musical and diplomatic talent or, from another time, Landau’s brilliant abilities as a historian. It is no coincidence that the outstanding athlete Yu. P. Vlasov became a good writer. From this point of view, both the great Leonardo and Goethe are not exceptions, but the most striking expression of the existence of precisely general abilities.

In the future, the subject of our conversation will be children with a high development of general, i.e., primarily mental, abilities. It must be said that when speaking about gifted children - “child prodigies”, they most often mean children who are highly developed in general: they began to read at a time when others are just beginning to speak, and they know a foreign language by the time when others only they begin to read in their native language, and almost from the first grade they try to master higher mathematics (and so on, and so on). By the way, such “miracle children” really exist, and due to the nature of my interests I have to constantly meet with them.

How early are extraordinary abilities discovered? There are different points of view on this matter. Some believe that certain indications of unusual capabilities can be seen already in an infant. Without disputing these facts, I want to note that although certain glimpses of future bright abilities can be seen very early, we can still seriously talk about the existence of giftedness no earlier than 3-4 years. We are talking, as I already said, about general talent.

In this regard, it is worth briefly mentioning the so-called sensitive periods of ability development. It was found that for the development of various special abilities there are certain periods during which the development of abilities occurs at the most accelerated pace and most successfully. Such periods are different for different abilities. For example, the earliest sensitive period, apparently, for musical abilities is up to three years. In other words, for a child to develop musical abilities, he needs to live in a musically rich environment until he is three years old - real music should sound around him, songs should be sung to him (the same lullabies), he should try to sing something himself. There is even evidence that the development of musical abilities begins already in the womb - serious experiments and quite noteworthy results. Once again, the ancients were right when they believed that the expectant mother should listen to good music and look at beautiful pictures of nature. After the sensitive period, i.e. after three years, the development of musical abilities is possible, but much more difficult. That is why truly gifted musicians appear, as a rule, in families of musicians, or at least where the family loves music.

Such sensitive periods exist for all abilities without exception. But in this case, what is the sensitive period for the development of general abilities, general talent?

Since there are no serious studies in this regard yet, the answer can only be given approximately. Experience shows that, starting from 3-4 years and up to 7 years, the child rapidly masters his mental capabilities. During this period, the child acquires a certain direction: either along the path of a gifted child, or along the path of an ordinary child, or along the path, alas, of an incapable one. This is not fatal yet, but every year it becomes more and more definite.

This year I had to select children for special education at a school for the gifted. Children at the age of 6-7 were already, of course, divided into gifted and ordinary. Sometimes no special tests were needed to determine a child's obvious giftedness. This means that, at least, the sensitive period for general abilities began long ago. And now we enroll gifted children in pro-gymnasium - and at the age of five the differences become quite clear.
After all that has been said, the most pressing questions become the priority: what kind of inclinations determine the existence of general talent, how do abilities develop from inclinations? And finally, the most important thing for teachers and parents - why do some children become gifted, while others - the majority - still do not?

Read the continuation of the material here: chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5

In this article, the reader will learn how concepts such as “ability” and “giftedness,” “ability” and “qualities” differ; are there general and special abilities; how abilities are related to inclinations; what is the role of activity in the manifestation and development of abilities and talent; Is it possible to compensate for the lack of one ability by another?

Giftedness

For a long time, “giftedness” was considered synonymous with “ability.” However, according to S. L. Rubinstein, which he expressed back in 1935, it is determined by a complex of personality properties. And there is some strong evidence for this. One of the newspapers told about a biologist who published a scientific work that included an extensive bibliography - 300 titles, which he dictated to a typist from memory and without a single mistake. However, his extraordinary memory did not make this biologist an outstanding scientist.

A. R. Luria (1968) studied the phenomenal memory of a newspaper reporter for many years. Experiments showed that this reporter could instantly remember and repeat enormously long series of words and numbers in direct and reverse order and starting from any link in these series. He reproduced them without any difficulty a month, a year, and even sixteen years after memorizing them. But in all other respects, the reporter was an ordinary person, he changed many professions during his life, but never achieved anything in it.

B. M. Teplov (1941) also understood giftedness as a set of abilities. At the same time, he believed that they not only coexist, but acquire a different character depending on the presence and degree of development of each other. This is a qualitatively new education, and not the sum of a certain number of abilities. However, such education remains, according to B. M. Teplov, purely psychological.

In his opinion, the originality of the concepts of “giftedness” and “ability” is due to the fact that they are viewed through the prism of activity, the success of which is ensured by them. Therefore, as the author wrote, one cannot talk about giftedness in general, but only about giftedness in some specific activity.

So, domestic psychologists believe:

Giftedness - this is a combination of a number of abilities that ensures the success (level and originality) of performing a certain activity.

A. Kholodnaya (1990) identifies six types of intellectually gifted people:

1) with a general intelligence index of more than 135-140 units; 2) with a high level of academic success;

3) with a high level of development of creative intellectual abilities - indicators of the speed of generating ideas and their originality;

4) with a high degree of success in performing certain types of activities;

5) with extraordinary intellectual achievements;

6) with extraordinary intellectual capabilities associated with the analysis, assessment and prediction of events in people's everyday lives.

The following characteristics of gifted individuals are highlighted:

Combining vivid imagination with attention to detail while testing ideas objectively;

Ability for non-standard perception;

Intuition, ingenuity, unconscious mind;

Divergent thinking;

Curiosity;

Courage;

Imagination;

Concreteness of thinking;

Courage;

Aesthetic sensitivity.

Western psychologists have slightly different approaches to intellectual giftedness. According to some authors, it represents the result of the interaction of three characteristics: above average ability, involvement in the task (having strong motivation) and creativity. What is important is a positive self-concept, a feeling of being able to come up with new ideas, theories, create something new, or find innovative solutions to problems. At the same time, outstanding successes are achieved if the above characteristics are manifested in certain activities.

According to other authors, the possibility of achieving exceptional success is the result of the interaction of five factors: two factors of intelligence, individual psychological abilities, environmental characteristics and chance.

Western psychologists distinguish several types of giftedness: general intellectual; specific academic; creative: artistic and performing arts; psychomotor; leadership; social.

Intellectual giftedness is characterized by “above average” intelligence. It provides the opportunity for creative intellectual activity associated with the creation of subjectively and objectively new ideas, the use of non-standard approaches in developing problems, sensitivity to the key, most promising lines of searching for solutions in a particular subject area, and openness to any innovation. A correlation has been identified between giftedness and vitality (in terms of active longevity).

Consideration of motor (physical) talent, manifested in sports activities and in a number of types of work, forces us to take into account the manifestation of psychophysiological and morphological characteristics of a person in it, which acquire even greater importance than in motor abilities and qualities. The success of an athlete’s activities sometimes directly depends on his anthropometric characteristics, genetically predetermined (for example, height in basketball, volleyball; body type in gymnastics, figure skating, etc.; Fig. 13.1). So, no matter what motor abilities a person has (strength, sharpness of movements), without great weight and height he cannot achieve high results in throwing. Conversely, low weight and height are important components of a gymnast's talent.

Based on the foregoing, motor talent can be defined as a combination of innate anthropometric, morphological, psychological, physiological and biochemical characteristics of a person that independently influence the success of any type of activity. Consequently, the problem of giftedness, like abilities, is psychophysiological.

Two things should be emphasized. Firstly, all components included in the structure of giftedness must form an integral functional system and contribute to each other. The more such components a person has, the more gifted he is. The presence of one (or even several) abilities without anthropometric inclinations or the existence of the latter, but without abilities, does not make a person gifted for physical and sports activities. The exception is intellectual, where giftedness is a set of mental abilities that do not depend on the structure of the body.

Secondly, anthropometric characteristics can influence the success of an activity directly (for example, giving a height advantage when playing basketball) and indirectly, affecting the manifestation of ability (for example, the length of a limb determines the length of the lever, on which the force applied to a sports equipment depends).

Sociological studies have shown that gifted people make up a relatively small part of the population (these data range from 2.5 to 20%). According to tests to identify general talent or creativity, the data is somewhat higher: the talented part of the population is about 20% (Havinghurst, 1958) (A. M. Matyushkin, D. A. Sisk, 1988, p. 90).

Giftedness, talent and genius. There are different points of view regarding the relationship between these concepts (A V. Libin, 2000). A number of authors consider giftedness only as the natural basis of abilities, sometimes reducing it to inclinations and linking it with the general factor of the ability to create.

Talent (from the Greek talanton - “weight, measure”, then - “level of abilities) is identified by some psychologists with giftedness, by others it is considered as a high level of development of abilities, especially special ones. At the same time, it is believed that the results of a talented person’s activity should be distinguished by originality, fundamental novelty and guided by the need for creativity. This opinion was formed under the influence of the fact that signs of talent in people are noted in childhood precisely when it comes to art and mathematics. However, this is hardly true in relation to talent manifested in motor activity.

A talented (gifted) athlete can be considered as such not by the results of creativity, but by the level and quality of execution of actions and activities, even of a routine nature (for example, in cyclic sports - running, swimming, rowing, etc.). And the talent shown in learning foreign languages ​​is also not related to a person’s creative activity.

B. M. Teplov believed that talent is multifaceted, and it would seem that there is evidence for this statement. As you know, many poets (M. Lermontov, V. Zhukovsky, K. Khetagurov, M. Voloshin) drew well. Griboyedov composed the music, Chaliapin himself created sketches of the costumes of the dramatic characters he was to play. But no one has yet decided to call them outstanding artists or composers. And what kind of “artist” A.S. Pushkin was, there is no need to say. One can only note that those gifted in some form of creativity are not deprived of some other creative abilities, but nothing more.

Genius has been considered since the time of I. Kant as the highest degree of talent, creative manifestations of a person, expressed in a product that has historical significance for the life of society, science, and culture. A genius, breaking outdated norms and traditions, opens a new era in his field of activity. It is recognized that genius is unpredictable and does not lend itself to any schemes or measurements.

The connection between talent and personality traits is noted. L.B. Bogoyavlenskaya (1983) even talks about a certain symptom complex that is conducive to the development of talent. It includes, for example, the desire to go beyond normative activity.

The manifestation and development of giftedness (talent, genius) requires high performance, dedication of a person, stable motivation (personal orientation), mastery of knowledge and skills in a special field of activity.

Taking this into account, attempts are made to separate giftedness and talent, genius, taking into account what is given by nature and its implementation. Then giftedness is a successful combination of different abilities, and talent and genius are a manifestation of a high level of giftedness in something. “Unique” works, according to scientists, are created thanks to unique abilities and complete dedication. The last component corresponds to the opinion of many geniuses and talents about the reasons for their success.

Isaac Newton said that genius is the patience of thought concentrated in a certain direction. When asked how he managed to discover the laws of classical physics, he answered: “I thought about it all the time.” The famous artist Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother that painting is not such a difficult task, you just need diligence and some mastery of the craft.

Research has shown that the most talented are individuals who are dissatisfied with their results, capable of self-development, who, under the influence of new requirements, tirelessly engage in self-education and rebuild their thinking.

Trying to understand the uniqueness of a genius is akin to trying to understand the uniqueness of human individuality... Genius is not just = giftedness + talent. Simple arithmetic equations are not applicable to the evaluation of complex systems. Genius can only be understood by turning to the integral analysis of its bearer - the individuality of the person who is considered a genius (A. V. Libin, 2000, p. 347).

The statement of the outstanding Russian pianist G. Neuhaus deserves attention: although geniuses and talents cannot be created, culture can be created, and the wider and more democratic it is, the easier it is for talents and geniuses to grow. This relates to the question of what role the social environment plays in the realization of talent.

A number of scientists defend the point of view that talent and genius are determined by heredity. For proof, the pedigrees of outstanding representatives of science and art are given. Thus, L. N. Tolstoy’s great-grandmother, Olga Trubetskaya, and A. S. Pushkin’s great-grandmother, Evdokia Trubetskaya, were sisters. Five outstanding Germans - the poets Schiller and Hölderlin, the philosophers Schelling and Hegel, the physicist Max Planck - were related: they had a common ancestor - Johann Kant, who lived in the 15th century. However, one cannot help but pay attention to how many descendants of this Kant did not show themselves to be talented during the four centuries after him. Therefore, the aforementioned constellation of outstanding Germans rather testifies to the natural chance of their talent, and not to its hereditary conditioning, especially since they showed their talent in different fields: poetry, philosophy, physics.

The innateness of talent and genius should not be confused with heredity, as is often stated in psychological and popular science literature. Talent and genius are not inherited, otherwise talented people would only be born to talented parents, and all their children would be so. However, they are also born to parents who are not at all talented, and out of many children in a family, one or two children may become talented. For example, of the 16 Bach composers, only Johann Sebastian is recognized as a genius; Of all the Tolstoy brothers, only Lev Nikolaevich became outstanding; of the 14 (and according to some sources, even 17) Mendeleev brothers and sisters, only Dmitry Ivanovich is recognized as a genius; of the 3 Pavlov brothers - only Ivan Petrovich. The same fact that there were 26 people in the Bach family with musical abilities may be associated with their upbringing in a musical environment, with the development of their abilities by their parents.

And the apt popular saying that nature most often rests on children confirms the truth: talent, if inherited, is insignificant. Thus, a study of adopted children adopted at birth showed that their mental abilities were more consistent with those noted in their biological parents than in their adopted ones. However, relative similarity in these abilities between children and biological parents was not always observed and sharply decreased with age.

The ability to achieve outstanding results is determined not only by high natural performance, but also by motivational factors and the conditions available to a person to demonstrate his talent. And the occurrence of such is often a matter of chance. Therefore, talent is often discovered at a fairly late age. So, one woman, unremarkable for the time being, after retiring, took up drawing. Now her paintings are eagerly purchased by museums and private collectors. Or another example. One of the Odessa port longshoremen participated in amateur performances until he was 40 years old, until his voice was noticed by one of the Moscow music teachers. Two years later, the former loader was already singing as a soloist of the Bolshoi Theater.

...The expressions “gifted students” and “outstanding children” are very relative. These terms (in relation to the mental sphere of schoolchildren) designate students with an unusually early mental awakening, with a pronounced expression of certain special mental properties, with signs of favorable prerequisites for the development of scientific talent. But since we are talking about children, all these characteristics have the meaning of only something preliminary: the manifested characteristics may not receive the expected development and remain unrealized (Leites N. S., 1988, p. 106).

Giftedness as a personality quality is the ability to demonstrate the reserve of one’s piety in a qualitatively unique combination of abilities that ensures the success of activities in the field corresponding to the purpose of the individual.

Three fairies were invited to the prince's baptism. The first gifted him with the ability to love. The other is money so he can do whatever he wants. The third endowed him with beauty. But then an evil witch appeared. She was furious that she wasn't invited. Containing her anger, the old woman said: “Even though you already have everything, I’ll give you something more.” You will be talented in everything you undertake! The prince grew up handsome, rich and amorous. However, he was unable to fulfill his destiny on Earth. He was an excellent painter, a gifted sculptor, a brilliant mathematician, a wonderful musician, but in any field he could not complete his task to the end, because, having started one thing, he was immediately distracted and started on another.

A mediocre person receives such an unflattering definition for one simple reason - he is unable to demonstrate his destiny in some area of ​​life due to his erroneous choice or imposition or coercion by someone from the outside. The potential of giftedness is an accumulated stock of piety. It is he who provides a person with the opportunity to manifest himself most fruitfully in the area of ​​life that corresponds to his life purpose. And not just to manifest, but to take the maximum possible steps towards the development of the mind, self-improvement, and spiritual development. Destination is the mission of man on Earth. By fulfilling his destiny, a person optimally realizes his potential of giftedness.

Giftedness is the divine energy given to a person because of his past pious deeds. You can “eat away” your piety without realizing your abilities, without finding your purpose. It is possible, following the conjuncture of the times, to “ruin” your talent by doing something that is not your business because of money. Giftedness turns into mediocrity if it does not reveal its true self, does not realize its “zest”, its true talent. It is not the potential of giftedness that is important, but how it is used. The plane feels comfortable in the hangar, but that is not what it was created for. There is such an Indian wisdom: “Everything on earth has its purpose, every disease has a medicine that cures it, and every person has a destiny.

Giftedness is one of the forms of divine encouragement. There is a Vedic legend about a snake queen whose head is adorned with a jewel. The Vedas say: “if a person is talented, beautiful, gifted, smart, but he only devotes all this to his egoism, does not give himself to society, does not give himself to the country, does not give himself to at least close people, then he is compared to a snake that is decorated with a precious stone " In a word, what matters is not what a person has, but how he uses his talent. Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist writes: “There is one great truth on this planet: no matter who you are or what you do, when you truly desire something, you will achieve it, because such a desire originated in the soul of the Universe. And this is your purpose on Earth.”

The Vedas say that if a person invests in his mind, in his mind power, then this investment is absolutely priceless. It cannot be compared with any equivalent currency or anything else. This investment is priceless. Why? Because it remains with a person after death. We won’t take all the apartments with us. We will not take our clothes with us. We will not take anything with us; we will leave this life naked. But we take away the power of the mind to its fullest extent. She stays with us, and gives us the opportunity to be born in a more favorable form of body. That is, it gives us encouragement after the death of the body.

Giftedness is closely related to talent; they are even often confused. Giftedness manifests the general potential of godliness, revealing itself to higher results when performing certain tasks. It reflects the general direction of a person’s movement along the path of his destiny. There is little specialization in it; it represents an integrative (total, general) quality of personality. Talent reveals itself as unusual abilities in some highly specialized, specific field. Naturally, a gifted person can be both talented and even brilliant. He can achieve success in many activities that meet his life purpose. For example, Leonardo da Vinci was an artist, an engineer, and an outstanding naturalist; M. V. Lomonosov was not only an outstanding scientist, but also a poet and artist; A.S. Pushkin wrote poetry and prose, and in addition, made beautiful illustrations for his works, A.P. Borodin was an excellent composer, chemist and physician. The list of gifted people can be continued for a long time.

Giftedness can manifest itself in very young years, or it can hide for a long time and “become visible” already in adulthood. Modern pedagogy understands a gifted child as a child who stands out for his bright, obvious, sometimes outstanding achievements (or has internal prerequisites for such achievements) in one or another type of activity. Everyone knows the brilliant creative achievements of little V.-A. Mozart, outstanding childhood achievements of F. Galton, I. I. Mechnikov, K. Gauss, N. Winner, G. V. Leibniz, V. Hugo. Giftedness that goes unnoticed in time can be explained by a number of reasons. The potential for giftedness may have been poorly demonstrated until a certain time, or parents and educators showed inattention, lack of a sixth sense and rationality. Often, giftedness dies under the violence of would-be teachers who want to impose their understanding of life and force the child to do something he doesn’t like.

Today, the most popular and accepted concept is the concept of the American scientist Joseph Renzulli, according to which giftedness is a combination of three characteristics: - intellectual abilities (exceeding the average level); creativity; — persistence (task-oriented motivation). It is noteworthy that in the very name of this theoretical model, J. Renzulli uses the term “potential” instead of the term “giftedness.” This is evidence that this concept is a kind of universal scheme applicable to the development of a system of education and training not only for gifted children, but for all children. The triad identified by J. Renzulli is usually presented by the author in the form of three mutually intersecting circles, symbolizing motivation, outstanding abilities (intelligence) and creativity (creativity), which greatly clarifies the nature of the interaction of these three components.

Peter Kovalev

Giftedness - This is a systemic quality of the psyche that develops throughout life, which determines the possibility of a person achieving higher, extraordinary results in one or more types of activity compared to other people.
Gifted child - This is a child who stands out for his bright, obvious, sometimes outstanding achievements (or has internal prerequisites for such achievements) in one or another type of activity.

2.Goals and objectives.

Target– creating conditions for optimal development of children.

Tasks:

Identification of gifted children using various diagnostics;

Using differentiation in the lesson based on the individual characteristics of children;

Selection of teaching aids that promote the development of independent thinking, initiative and research skills, creativity in class and extracurricular activities;

Organization of a variety of extracurricular and extracurricular activities;

Development in gifted children of a qualitatively high level of ideas about the picture of the world, based on universal human values.

3.Principles of working with gifted children.

Individualization of learning (having an individual learning plan for students is the highest level).

The principle of advanced learning.

The principle of comfort in any activity.

The principle of diversity of offered opportunities for the realization of students' abilities.

The increasing role of extracurricular activities.

The principle of developmental education.

The principle of voluntariness.

4. Participants in the implementation of this provision are:

School administration (director, deputies)

Heads of school educational organizations;

Subject teachers;

Cl. managers;

Heads of circles and sections;

Medical workers;

Librarian;

Parents or legal representatives of students.

5.Forms for monitoring the implementation of the provision.

Human talent is a small sprout, barely

hatched from the ground and requiring special

attention. It is necessary to groom and cherish, look after him,

do everything necessary so that it grows and produces abundant fruit.

V.A. Sukhomlinsky.

The problem of working with gifted students is extremely relevant for modern Russian society. High demands are placed on schools today. What does a “good school” mean for parents and society?:

This is a school where they teach well in all subjects, and upon completion, children easily enter universities.

This school should be taught by highly qualified and intelligent teachers.

The school should have its own traditions.

The school must provide modern education.

In a good school, the child’s personality is respected; he is taught not only in the classroom, but also in the additional education system.

That is why it is so important to determine the main tasks and directions of work with gifted children.

Work with gifted children at the Altuninskaya secondary school is carried out in accordance with the “Gifted Children” program. This program provides targeted work with gifted students, starting from elementary school, based on observation, study of speech, memory, and logical thinking.

Every year, a survey of 1st grade students “Determining the readiness of first grade children to study at school” is conducted, which helps to identify the level (high-medium-low) of thinking, speech, memory, and attention of each student.

When working with gifted children, the following principles are taken into account:

For all children, regardless of the level of giftedness and level of intellectual capabilities, teachers develop their creative qualities;

special work is carried out with children who have increased capabilities in acquiring knowledge;

work to develop children's giftedness is carried out not only in the direction of their intellectual and creative capabilities, but also on the development of all personal qualities in general;

educational and individual abilities are constantly correlated.

Subject teachers in lessons, individual-group and extracurricular classes develop the creative and cognitive abilities of students, develop the thinking of such children, encourage independent work, using such forms of work as:

group classes,

carrying out extracurricular activities in subjects,

holding olympiads, competitions,

defense of abstracts, presentations,

work individually with each student according to his interests.

Creative tasks are given at home, which require a non-standard approach to its implementation.

Subject teachers monitor the quality of knowledge in the subjects of these children in order to provide timely assistance in eliminating certain gaps in knowledge in a particular area of ​​the subject.

Working with gifted children in the classroom (A differentiated approach, the use of modern educational technologies in the classroom creates favorable conditions for enhancing the cognitive activity of students, expanding their knowledge of the subject. To develop their intellectual and creative potential, educational technologies such as problem-based learning and project activities are actively used. The use of these technologies helps to enhance learning, giving it a research, creative character and, thus, transfers to students the initiative in organizing their cognitive activity. While working on a project, each student is active and contributes to the common cause, is responsible for the final result, and enjoys a feeling of confidence in themselves, from communicating with each other and from the fact that they complete a project task together. Thus, students develop research and communication skills)

Extracurricular work with gifted children (Due to the modern saturation of educational material in the educational process, it is impossible only in the classroom to create conditions for the complete improvement of creative and intellectual abilities. Additional education helps solve this problem. The additional education system has every opportunity to teach, taking into account the individual characteristics and interests of children everyone in different ways. The content and methods of teaching are designed for the direction (profile) of the intellectual development of children, which allows the activities of the additional education teacher to be adjusted depending on the child’s needs, as well as his specific capabilities. As a result, optimal learning conditions are created for most children: they realize their abilities, master programs, and no one “falls out” of the educational process)

Creating a student portfolio (The creation of a “portfolio” of individual achievements of students (portfolio) is a collection of various creative, design, and research works of a student, as well as a description of the main forms and directions of his educational and creative activity: participation in scientific and practical conferences, competitions, taking elective or elective courses , various kinds of practices, sports and artistic achievements. The focus of creating a portfolio, in our opinion, is the formation of a personality capable of creative self-expression, an active life position, in self-realization and self-determination, in educational and educational activities. And the main point of creating a student’s portfolio is to show everything that each individual student is capable of)

It should be noted that the identification and development of gifted students at the School of Cosmonautics is carried out not only through electives, clubs, competitions, and olympiads, but also through a system of educational work. For this, various forms of work are used:

Role training

Subject Quizzes

Creative and intellectual competitions

Brainstorming

Intellectual marathons, etc.

Groups of children are also created to carry out various types of project activities and creative individual tasks. The effectiveness of work in this direction is determined by the success of students in various intellectual competitions and marathons, subject Olympiads, scientific and practical conferences, in various rallies and events, as well as in sports competitions of various levels.

Thanks to this work, there is a positive trend in students’ interest in attending clubs, children’s interest in knowledge is growing, students’ horizons are expanding, the “quality of knowledge” is improving, and students’ communicative, intellectual, cognitive and creative abilities are developing.

The use of various methods, techniques and techniques to improve the effectiveness of work with gifted children in our school has shown that they not only meet modern requirements for school education, ensuring the achievement of high-quality learning results, but also lead to increased motivation of students, stimulation of their cognitive activity and creativity , comprehensive disclosure and development of abilities.

In gymnasiums and lyceums, where a larger number of capable children study, such forms of work as the creation of interest groups are used (responsible teachers select children with similar interests and abilities). This takes place not only within one class, but also throughout the school. The work of interest groups is most fruitful when connections are made between the content of their work and other activities of the school. It is useful when the activities of interest groups are an addition to the school curriculum and contribute to the growth of students’ theoretical knowledge.

information and categorize experiences. Gifted children know how to use accumulated knowledge, have a large vocabulary, use complex syntactic structures in speech, invent new words, prefer reading dictionaries and intellectual games. In some children, mathematical abilities dominate, suppressing interest in reading. Gifted children have an increased concentration of attention and are persistent in achieving results in an area that interests them.
Gifted children have a highly developed sense of justice and personal value systems, but at the age of two to five they cannot clearly distinguish between reality and fantasy: gifted children have a vivid imagination, a sense of humor, and are constantly trying to solve problems that they are not yet able to handle. ; In addition, the emotionality of such children gives rise to various fears; they are very self-centered in communicating with peers, since they do not understand that everyone’s perception of the world is different.
As a talented child grows up, the main structural component of the giftedness and creative development of a talented child becomes problematic. It ensures the child’s constant openness to new things, is expressed in the search for inconsistencies and contradictions, in his own formulation of new questions and problems, and the desire for creative research activity.
Originality constitutes an indispensable structural element of giftedness. It expresses the degree of dissimilarity, non-standardity, and surprise of the proposed solution among other “standard” solutions. General talent is expressed in a “faster” discovery of a solution. Gifted children

as a rule, they are more active and always busy with something. Keep themselves busy with things that sometimes do not relate to the lesson;

persistently pursue the goals set for them. They want to know everything in more detail and require additional information;

thanks to numerous skills, they are able to engage in independent activities better than others;

are able to quickly identify the most significant information and independently find new sources of information;

Sometimes they set themselves tasks that require a lot of time to complete. Analysis of teaching and educational activities in primary school

The goal of the educational process in primary school is to develop the student’s personality, his creative abilities, interest in learning, and the formation of the desire and ability to learn.

The priority of primary general education is the formation of general educational skills, the level of mastery of which largely determines the success of all subsequent education.

Conducting subject Olympiads and participating in intellectual marathons is an important component of working with gifted children.

Diagnostic work is carried out in groups to identify gifted children. Educators consider it necessary to identify and develop the child’s abilities for certain types of activities already at preschool age. When planning educational work, educators take into account the individual characteristics of gifted children, making tasks more complex, based on the zone of proximal development. Also in the preschool institution, teachers carry out individual work with capable and gifted children, as well as personal consultations and conversations with their parents. Recommendations for preschool teachers: Conducting psychological diagnostics. It is known that teachers traditionally show great interest in diagnostic techniques aimed at identifying gifted children. The task of a psychologist, in addition to conducting the diagnosis itself, is to advise teachers on conducting observations of the developmental characteristics of children. This will take some time, but in the future he will “reap two harvests”: he will receive information about the potential capabilities of preschoolers and will help teachers restructure their view of their students

In elementary school, work with gifted children and children with increased motivation to learn is built in two directions: through the educational process and extracurricular activities according to a certain scheme: diagnosis of individual characteristics of students → planning and organization of work → analysis of results, correction of work performed.
Identification of gifted children is a long process associated with an analysis of the development of a particular child.

The combination of various methods allows for objective monitoring of the development of gifted children. Priority is given to the child’s desire to study in the chosen direction and his motivation to learn.

Work with gifted children in the educational process is carried out through training in the teaching and learning complex “Harmony”. In an effort to implement the ideas of the authors of this program, we came to the conclusion that a personality-oriented approach to learning is a means for forming the foundations of educational independence of junior schoolchildren and contributes to the manifestation of their individual abilities.

One of the necessary conditions in working with gifted children is a principle that takes into account the specific interests and inclinations of students. It is implemented through classes of the child’s own choice as part of additional education (horizontal enrichment of content according to Renzulli).
In the system of extracurricular activities at our school, the following forms of work are used: alternating training, which involves grouping children of different ages during classes, which gives gifted children the opportunity to communicate both with peers and with children of other ages, to find academic equals;
Individual lessons, lessons in small groups according to the plan of clubs and special courses.
System of creative competitions and olympiads.
Children's scientific and practical conferences.
I was faced with the need to find such means and forms of educational work with the class that could captivate children with a common interest and lead them to the heights of success. One of the very important issues of child psychology and pedagogy is the question of children’s creativity and the importance of creative work for the overall development of the child. There is a widespread belief that creativity is the preserve of a select few and that only those who are gifted with a special talent should develop it in themselves and can be considered called to talent. However, this conclusion is controversial, and from the point of view of the school, unacceptable. And my task, as the first teacher, is to make creativity a normal and constant companion of children's development. And this depends on the teacher’s daily work, tact and spiritual generosity.
It is important to determine the pace and find pedagogical opportunities for the child’s creative development. It is important to work with the child to the degree of difficulty that he chooses himself, and every year, depending on the success of the matter, raise this bar in order to have the opportunity to grow.
To reveal the creative abilities of children, I use active forms and methods:
conversations;
discussions;
games;
competitions;
hikes and excursions;
competitions;
tournaments;
interviews;
Olympics;
observations;
creative work;
exploratory experiments;
individual sessions;
artistic and aesthetic activities, etc.
My students and I are interested in the path to knowledge itself. “Knowledge is only knowledge when it is acquired through the efforts of one’s thoughts, and not through memory!” (L.N. Tolstoy).
I continue to work on developing children's giftedness in the special courses “Living Ethics” and “Individual Lessons with Gifted Children in Russian Language and Mathematics.” (Appendix) Depending on the children’s abilities, I give each child an individual creative task. I’m trying to awaken children’s thoughts, make them think, analyze, compare. As a result, the class turns into a collective of individuals.
Those who are eloquent and artistic work with additional sources of literature and prepare messages for lessons and extracurricular activities. When preparing messages, I remind the guys that the most productive way to gain knowledge is to work independently.
For those who are good at writing, I suggest composing riddles, puzzles, fairy tales, and quizzes. The guys love it. They get tired of the monotony. They want to learn in a fun, unique, and exciting way.
Those who love and know how to draw well illustrate poems, excerpts from stories, composed riddles and crosswords. They created a “Handwritten Album” in which they wrote down the poems they liked by famous poets and drew pictures for them.
I suggest that diligent guys create a crossword puzzle with some keyword. While solving these crossword puzzles, we practice literary terms and develop oral and written speech. I edit children's crosswords and use them in my work as multi-level teaching material.
To instill interest in mathematics, I conduct special courses. We solve problems of increased complexity, prepare for and conduct olympiads, get acquainted with the history of mathematics, and solve ancient problems and puzzles. I teach children how to get out of unusual situations and think critically.
I build educational work on the basis of the “Creative Workshop” program I developed. During its implementation, my students have the opportunity to demonstrate their talents and realize their abilities. They are active participants in all school events, regional competitions, and Olympiads at various levels.