What Defines "Gifted Child"

To ask the question - what is a gifted child, is to open a flood gate of responses. Some responses are fact and some are opinion. Some people feel that all children are gifted. Yes, children are a gift; but not all children are gifted. Some use the term talented interchanged with gifted.

A lot of resources often refer to gifted children as those having an IQ over 130 (110 in other references). Some facilities will define it as a child preforming at least 2 grade levels above his peers. Still others see giftedness as the ability to preform on an adult level while still a child.

Giftedness can manifest it's self in a variety of ways - intellect, artistic or physical ability, emotional and/or cognitive development.

And then there are different levels of giftedness. 5 levels to be exact (but that's another post).

Gifted children are infamous for their asynchronous development. Albert Einstein being one of the most famous. He didn't speak until he was 4 and couldn't read until he was 7.

One of the best resources on the web for gifted children is "Hoagies Gifted". If you check out the link below you can see what they have compiled from various resources about what defines a gifted child.

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/gifted_101.htm