Praxis Gifted Education (5358)

This section covers how gifted students develop and what they are like: advanced milestones, asynchrony, early indicators, the people who support talent, the types and traits of giftedness, the factors that help or hinder development, common stereotypes, underachievement and twice exceptionality. Expect many scenario questions that describe a child's behavior and ask what it most likely shows.

Many gifted children reach some developmental milestones earlier than their age peers, but the advance is usually uneven. Gifted children follow the same general sequence of development as other children; they tend to move through parts of it faster and with more depth. The most consistent early advances appear in the cognitive and communicative domains. Physical milestones are often typical, and emotional self-regulation usually tracks chronological age even when reasoning about feelings is advanced. No single milestone proves or rules out giftedness.

Early childhood (birth to about age 5). Advanced language, intense curiosity, early reading or number sense, long attention to interests and vivid imaginary play are typical signs. Because young children are rarely tested formally, parents and preschool teachers are the main observers. Elementary years. Rapid mastery of grade-level skills, boredom with repetition, advanced questions, wide reading and a strong sense of fairness become visible in school. Gaps between thinking speed and handwriting, or between reasoning and emotional control, often cause frustration.

Middle school. Peer acceptance becomes powerful, and some gifted students hide ability to fit in; gifted girls are especially likely to downplay achievement. Abstract reasoning grows quickly, and idealism and questioning of authority increase. High school. Identity, independence and future plans dominate. Many gifted adolescents face multipotentiality (strong ability and interest in many fields, which makes choosing a path difficult), existential questioning, pressure to keep achieving and the risk of burnout or underachievement. Some are ready for college-level work years early.

Asynchrony means uneven development: a child's cognitive, physical, social and emotional growth proceed at different rates. The Columbus Group (1991) defined giftedness itself as asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm. Linda Silverman popularized this developmental view. Asynchrony generally increases as the level of giftedness rises, so highly and profoundly gifted children are the most out of step with age peers.

Two forms are useful to distinguish. Internal asynchrony is unevenness inside the child, such as a seven-year-old who reasons like an eleven-year-old but writes and copes with frustration like a six-year-old. External asynchrony is a mismatch between the child and an environment organized by age: grade-level curriculum, age-based peer groups and adult expectations that assume all skills develop together.

Asynchrony has practical consequences. A child may understand a global problem but lack the emotional tools to manage worry about it, design a complex story but be unable to write it down, or reason with adults but play with age peers. Adults should respond to the developmental age of the domain involved: expect age-typical emotional behavior from a child with advanced intellect, and do not treat uneven skills as a sign that the advanced abilities are not real. Asynchrony is not a disorder, but large gaps (for example, very weak reading with very strong reasoning) can also signal a coexisting disability and warrant a closer look.