Maria Herskovits
Budapest Institute for Education,
Vas u. 8. H-1088 Budapest, Hungary
Abstract. This would be the place where you can write the abstract of your article.
The Centre for Gifted in the Municipal Pedagogical Institute of Budapest is available for those children, whose abilities are obviously prove to be above the average, and their parents or teachers expect help in their development and related problems. The Centre provides enrichment programs and summercamps as well [1], but its basic activity is pedagogical and psychological counselling. The parents’ problems vary from choosing the proper school through asking for help for the child’s optimal development to serious educational, psychological problems. After a few years of counselling we became interested in collecting information on the development of these children, and estimate the impact of their family and school on it.
With the help of the OTKA Foundation T29273, we began a follow-up study with nearly 500 children, who took part in counselling (interviews, testing) and/or attended our enrichment programs between 1994 and 1998. Beside the systematical analyses of their earlier data we make a structured interview with the 12-22 years old former clients, and they are tested with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), the Big Five Personality Assessment, Level of Aspiration Test, Guilford Creativity Test. The parents are asked to complete a questionnaire.
At first, we analysed part of the questionnaires consisting of 35 questions (1.), and the checklists consisting of 37 items (2.) completed by all parents at the first interview. The device was prepared for the purposes of the newly established Centre at 1994, based on the works Renzulli, Rimm, Landau, and our earlier experiences [2].
The results of the questionnaires
First we analysed 200 questionnaires. Besides gathering the necessary sociological data, the questions are organised around the development and education of the child, the characteristics of the child through the parents’ eyes, and the parents’ attitudes to them. The questions are partly open-ended, partly checklist type. The first sign of giftedness mentioned by the parents was experienced mostly between the age 2-4 years, and the event was usually in connection with an amazing question, the performance of memory or logical thinking. Most parents were rather ambivalent with these phenomena, and especially ambivalent with the increased level of activity, intrinsic interests, and an early striving for autonomy, which many of them experienced. They also felt an increased responsibility for the proper development of the child.
The majority of the children (more than half of them) were 5-7 years old - the parents came around the date of the schooling. The proportion of gender is a 3 to 1, three times as many boy as girls. (Table 1-2)
Table 1. Distribution of genders
|
Boys |
153 |
|
Girls |
47 |
Table 2. Distribution of ages
|
Years |
Number |
|
3 |
2 |
|
4 |
12 |
|
5 |
28 |
|
6 |
47 |
|
7 |
31 |
|
8 |
15 |
|
9 |
12 |
|
10 |
18 |
|
11 |
9 |
|
12 |
10 |
|
13 |
5 |
|
14 |
5 |
|
15 |
3 |
|
16 |
1 |
|
17 |
2 |
This proportion is similar to the experiences of the educational services: the parents and schools have much more problems with boys than with girls. That is why we cannot differentiate, whether this general fact’s impact is decisive, or the parents are more ready to find gifted their suns than their daughters, or really, there are more gifted boys than girls. Anyway, our experience is that more boys than girls are sent to enrichment programs without asking for counselling too. The majority of the parents are highly educated (Table 3), although we have relatively much parents who attended “only” colleges providing Bachelor’s Degree. This, and the high number of parents without higher education shows that a lot of families who are not part of the so-called “elite” ask for our help. They are not familiar with the means and ways of fostering talent, but appreciate very high intellectual excellence. Compared to the experiences of other educational services, fathers were present relatively much. The interest and participation of the fathers in the development and achievement of the child may have an important impact.
Table 3. Schooling of the parents
|
Father |
Mother |
|
| 8 years or less (elementary school) |
8 |
5 |
| Trade |
19 |
9 |
| Secondary school |
40 |
62 |
| Secondary+course |
6 |
5 |
| High school |
38 |
51 |
| University |
86 |
67 |
The most frequently checked item on the checklist (Table 4) was „sensitivity”, which in itself is ambiguous, - it may mean the open-minded attitude, but may considered as a synonym of being easily hurted - but the accompanying items: „friendly, helpful, cheerful, initiating, reliable” refer to that the parents consider their children basically positive. The high frequency of the items „stubborn” and „tireless” rather shows possible problems with the parents. However, nearly half of the parents told that there are no difficulties with the child.
Table 4. Characteristics of the children
| sensitive |
162 |
| friendly |
149 |
| cheerful |
142 |
| helpful |
135 |
| stubborn |
109 |
| reliable |
100 |
| iniciator |
100 |
| tireless |
95 |
| adaptive |
86 |
| neat,orderly |
44 |
| reserved |
41 |
| lazy |
31 |
| selfish |
25 |
The parents found mostly enjoyable and satisfying their relationships with their highly able children. (Table 5.) It seems, the are able to percieve the special challange, and they can learn from their children. Although, the low proportion of the items refering on problems is a bit different than our experiences based on the interviews.
Table 5. How does the parents consider the relationship with the children?
| Well-balanced |
101 |
| Great variety |
101 |
| I can learn from |
65 |
| Amusing |
63 |
| Great challenge |
49 |
| Difficult task |
45 |
| Enjoyable adventure |
43 |
| Tiring |
36 |
| Fight |
16 |
| Tensed |
9 |
2. The results of the Early Signs of Giftedness Checklist
A 37-item checklist was used to survey the possible signs of early giftedness. (Table 6)
Table 6. Early Signs of Giftedness checklist (E.S.G.C.) Please describe your child circling the appropriate number for each statement3 – much typical of him/her
2 –not more typical than of other children
0 – not typical at all
| 1) Has a rich vocabulary |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 2) Thinks fast |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 3) His/Her motions are rather clumsy |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 4) Wants to know how things work |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 5) Had an early interest in the letters of the alphabet |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 6) Knows His/Her environment very well |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 7) Likes to take things to pieces |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 8) Draws appropriate conclusions quickly |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 9) Had an early interest in numbers |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 10) Makes correct observations |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 11) Asks Much |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 12) Has a remarkably good memory |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 13) Has a Vivid Imagination |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 14) Curious, receptive to new things |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 15) Likes conventional solutions |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 16) Has a good sense of humour |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 17) Takes risks, goes into uncertain situations |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 18) Has unusual, perplexing questions, ideas |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 19) Has a critical mind |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 20) Tries to shift everyday routine tasks onto others |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 21) Impulsive, acts before thinking it over |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 22) Arranges things independently |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 23) Sets his/her objectives high |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 24) Attempting a task that interests him/her, he/she always carries it through |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 25) Oversensitive |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 26) Likes school/kindergarten |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 27) Has a good school/kindergarten performance |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 28) Aggressive, picks quarrels |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 29) Unobtrusive, diffident, shy |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 30) Stubborn, obstinate |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 31) Concerns him/herself with typically adult problems |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 32) Confident, has a high self-esteem |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 33) It is usually hard for him/her to come to decisions |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 34) Only satisfied with the perfect |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 35) Truth-seeker, has a sense of justice |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 36) Difficult for him/her to tolerate failure or unsuccess |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 37) His/her company tends to follow him/her |
1 |
2 |
3 |
The E.S.G.C. is built upon the behavioural, intellectual and personality qualities of the children who, through elaborate testing and interviewing, proved to be gifted or able above average. Not all items are concerned with giftedness, there are a few, which are important for having information about the possible problems, that is why we do not use a total score. 420 children were surveyed for this part of the project, 114 girls and 306 boys. The average age of the children was 7,5 years with a standard deviation of 2,6 years. One-sample T-test was used to verify the below data, the significance level is marked + for (p<0,1), * for (p<0,05) and ** for (p<0,01).
The parents’ answers showed that:
a) The gifted children are high above average in:
i. Richness of vocabulary**
ii. Speed of thinking**
iii. Making correct observations**
iv. The frequency of asking questions**
v. Memory capacity**
vi. Richness of imagination**
vii. Curiosity**
b) They are below average in:
i. Clumsiness**
ii. Conventionality**
iii. Shyness**
iv. Difficulty in decision making **
c) They are not different from the average in:
i. Liking of school / kindergarten
ii. Self-esteem
iii. Shifting everyday routine tasks onto others
There are also gender differences in parents’ perception of gifted children, however these differences seem to be in accordance with gender differences of this age in general. Independent-samples T-test was used to verify the below results.
a) boys are described as:
i. more clumsy**
ii. more interested in how things work**
iii. more likely to find their way in their environment well**
iv. much more likely to enjoy taking things to pieces**
v. slightly more interested in numbers*
vi. slightly more imaginative*
vii. more likely to pass their everyday tasks onto others*
viii. more impulsive*
ix. more likely to get into fights**
x. slightly more stubborn +
xi. slightly more interested in “grown-up matters” +
b) girls are described as:
i. more independent**
ii. more likely to love their school*
iii. having better school performance**
iv. having less difficulty making decisions**
v. having less difficulty tolerating failure or unsuccess*
vi. more likely to have their company follow them*
Age does not seem to have an effect on qualities surveyed with E.S.G.C. There was practically no correlation between age and the 37 items (the Pearson-r never exceeded 0,2), which makes us think that these characteristics are relatively independent of the passing of time in this period, therefore they may constitute traits of giftedness.
To test this hypothesis, we subjected the data from the E.S.G.C. to factor analysis in order to find more basic lines of giftedness. As the result of the factor extraction there emerged six main directions towards which the individual items of the checklist aggregated:
I. VERBALITY, Cr-α =0,65
Consists of items such as rich vocabulary (1), early interest in the alphabet (5) and in numbers (9), asking many (11) and unusual (18) questions – many of which are concerned with “grown-up matters” (31).
II. SPATIO-VISUAL, CREATIVE PERFORMANCE Cr-α =0,6
Consisting of items such as finding out how things work (4), being well informed and easy in immediate physical and social environment (6), taking things apart (7), being curious and receptive to new things (14).
III. LOGIC Cr-α = 0,56
Consisting of ease in drawing conclusions (8), having apt observations (10), being critical-minded (19) and sense of justice (35).
IV. SOCIALISATION Cr-α =0,65
Consisting of reverse items such as risk-taking (17), shifting tasks upon others (20), impulsivity (21), aggressiveness, and stubborness (30).
V. EFFICIENCY Cr-α =0,6
Incorporating high objectives (23), persistence (24), perfectionism (34) and good school performance (27).
VI. SOCIAL PENETRANCE Cr-α =0,6
Made up from items such as liking of school (26), having self-confidence (32), having others follow (37), and being unobtrusive (29, reverse).
Concerning reliability, all six factors have been put through item-analysis which showed that all six factors have a Cronbach-alpha value considerably high. The factors themselves have a low correlation coefficient when correlated one to another, but the entire questionnaire has a 0.71 Cronbach-alpha value.
Some items, for example humour (16), memory (12), being quick-minded, failure-tolerance (36), conventionality (15, reverse) seemed not to fit in any of the six directions, some of them probably because they are too general {memory, speed, etc} or describing a rather specific area {humour, failure-tolerance, originality, clumsiness}.
Five factors can be interpreted as a talent profile of young individuals, it gives an opportunity to compare profiles to each other and to use the profile as a diagnostic-prognostic tool in the future. One of the factors (socialisation) may call attention on the possible adaptation problems.
References:
1. Herskovits, Maria: Developing Programs for Science-minded Children at the age of 7-12, in: Science Education (ed. Csermely, P. ad Lederman, L.) IOS Press, Amsterdam, 2003
2. Herskovits, Maria: Family Influences at the Counselling Centre for Gifted, in: Gifted Education International, Vol. 4. No.2. p. 36-247, ABA, London, 2000.