What is high giftedness?

Many people associate high giftedness with a high IQ. It is true that an IQ test is often used as a standard for high giftedness and if you have a score over 130 in an IQ test, you are called highly gifted. However, only a high IQ does not make a person highly gifted. As a standard for high giftedness, Renzuli once invented 'The Three Ring Concept' or the three features of high giftedness, viz intelligence, creativity and motivation:                                                                                                                                                                     

• Intelligence is the IQ score over 130 mentioned above.

• Creativity stands for using your inventive intellectual capacity to solve problems successfully.

• Motivation stands for perseverance, inquisitiveness and a strong will to keep on learning and developing yourself. 

How to recognise high giftedness

How can you recognise a highly gifted person? To put things into perspective, it could be your brother or sister, son or daughter, boyfriend or girlfriend, not forgetting yourself of course. What are their traits?

A few traits of highly gifted children

• very curious and perceptive, desire to know, good sense of observation

• a wide range of interests, many 'why' questions

• very deep thoughts, such as the meaning of life and death, even at a very young age

• always occupied with several things at a time

• excellent long term memory

• often more at ease with children older than themselves

• verbal ability, fascinated with words, a knack for making linguistic jokes

• creative talent for music, drama and writing

A few traits of highly gifted adults

• they have problems with authority

• a proneness to addictions such as drugs, alcohol, gaming etc.

• easily bored and invariably looking for stimuli or new challenges

• an unusual sense of humour, a knack for making linguistic jokes in particular

• good at finding creative solutions to problems, considers them from a number of viewpoints

• involved in many unfinished projects

• a feeling that their way of thinking sets them apart from other people

• a complex way of thinking, runs mind on multiple tracks at the same time and gives explanations in doing so

• a negative self-image, little self-confidence

• good sense of justice, outrage at injustice or moral breaches

• loyal and true to other people

• creative talent for music, drama and writing

High giftedness: gift or handicap?

High giftedness can be both an innate gift and a handicap, depending entirely on the social circumstances of the person in question. In case of the absence of enough challenges as, for instance, subject matter at schools, children may get bored and, as a result, start performing below their abilities. As the need for stimuli remains, they are prone to develop drug, alcohol or gaming addictions. Likewise, they may get the feeling they are stuck in their bodies and minds because they cannot develop themselves as they would like to. This may even lead to depressions and excessive worrying.

Consequently, it is very important that their cause should be brought to the attention of the mass media, the authorities concerned and a broad public, so they get the support they need: specially adapted subject matter and schools for highly gifted children, possibilities of testing for high giftedness and help and information for parents of highly gifted children.