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The Young Gifted Learner: What We Know and Implications for Early Educational Practice

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Handbook of Giftedness and Talent Development in the Asia-Pacific

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE))

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Abstract

Research into giftedness in early childhood has been a neglected area in gifted education studies, there being until relatively recently only a handful of older studies carried out in the USA (Gottfried, Gottfried, Bathurst, & Guerin, Gifted IQ. Early developmental aspects. The Fullerton Longitudinal Study. Plenum Press, New York, 1994; Robinson, Identifying and nurturing gifted, very young children. In: Heller KA, Monks FJ, Passow AH (eds) International handbook of research and development of giftedness and talent. Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1993; Roedell, Socioemotional vulnerabilities of young gifted children. In: Whitmore JR (ed) Intellectual giftedness in young children. The Haworth Press, New York, 1986). Over the last two decades, in the Asia-Pacific area research into giftedness and gifted education in the early years has become an area of relative strength. Some major areas of investigation have been gifted development from infancy to early school years, transition of gifted children into formal education settings, response of early childhood teachers to young gifted children, gifted early readers, and educational planning and practice with young gifted children (Grant, Australas J Early Childhood 38(2):23–30, 2013; Harrison, Young gifted children: their search for complexity and connection. Inscript Publishing, Exeter, 2005; Hodge & Kemp, J Educ Gift 30(2):164–204, 2006; Margrain, Int J About Parents Educ 4(1):39–48, 2010; Morrissey, Relationships between early pretence, mother-child interactions, and later IQ: a longitudinal study of average to high ability children. Unpublished PhD thesis, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 2007; Walsh, Bowes, & Sweller, J Educ Gifted 40(3):220–246, 2017). However, the real value of a body of evidence-based information is in its application to educational practice to enable young gifted children to thrive in their educational programme. While a reasonable body of evidence about early characteristics of giftedness is now available, there is less empirical detail about reliable educational practice. Nonetheless, these current findings about young gifted children can be applied to high-quality early educational practice with them, including across cultures. The chapter provides many research-based suggestions for effective practice and considers, towards the end, the implications for future research directions within the early childhood field.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deakin University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Anne Grant & Anne-Marie Morrissey

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  1. Anne Grant
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  2. Anne-Marie Morrissey
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Correspondence to Anne Grant .

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  1. School of Education, UNSW Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Susen R. Smith

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  1. Faculty of Education, The University of Waikato, Waikato, New Zealand

    Roger Moltzen

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Grant, A., Morrissey, AM. (2019). The Young Gifted Learner: What We Know and Implications for Early Educational Practice. In: Smith, S. (eds) Handbook of Giftedness and Talent Development in the Asia-Pacific. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3021-6_57-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3021-6_57-1

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