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Gifted and talented

Talk to other parents about parenting a gifted child on this forum.

Where to find research

4 replies

Duckskitbank · 11/04/2023 22:13

I’m looking for research papers, results of studies etc into children with high learning potential.
We have a child who appears to qualify. Her class teacher noticed very quickly but there has been a bit of disagreement between the teacher (who wants to test and then set up a plan for advanced learning) and the staff member in the school who is responsible for pedagogy
(who sees she is relatively happy in class and not yet being disruptive and wants to leave her alone).
We feel that the time has come to act and we want to get a plan in place before DD gets completely bored. I’d like to go to the school with some evidence, in the form of research etc. I remember reading that HLP children who aren’t stimulated often switch off around age 8 but I can’t remember where I read that. Can anyone help with sources?

OP posts:
LetItGoToRuin · 12/04/2023 14:54

I don't have any links to sources, but have you looked at PotentialPlus? They may have relevant data.

Is your child in a UK state school? I don't believe the curriculum is all that good at providing for exceptional children: the Gifted and Talented scheme stopped some years ago, and the 'mastery' approach encourages breadth rather than going ahead. Moving up a year is extremely rare, and can be problematic socially, and in any case wouldn't make much difference for a really exceptional child.

We found each teacher varied in their approach in primary. Some teachers were happy to extend and clearly enjoyed teaching an outlier, but in other years our DD just had to make the best of it. We encouraged her to finish her work quickly (but accurately) and to ask politely for something harder, which sometimes worked. She always had a book in her bag, and sometimes a puzzle workbook for those times when she'd finished everything but the teacher was busy with other children.

For our DD, primary school was a happy place, with some learning and plenty of good social development. We didn't expect too much from the school - we decided early on not to push unless DD was unhappy - and it was fine. She still passed the 11 plus easily without external tutoring and is now happy in her chosen grammar.

Extra-curricular activities stretched her in different ways. Most waking hours are not spent at school!

Our DD probably isn't as exceptional as yours though. She never became disruptive or disengaged in primary, but whether that's because she's not exceptionally bright or is just very compliant, I can't be sure.

parietal · 12/04/2023 15:31

google scholar is the best source for primary research papers but it is not easy to read through them and get a balanced opinion.

Duckskitbank · 19/04/2023 11:03

Thank you for your replies. @LetItGoToRuin your DD sounds like she is doing really well. It's great that primary school was such a happy time for her.
I have had a quick look at Potential Plus but perhaps I need to buy a subscription so that I can ask specific questions there.

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