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• Learns rapidly and easily.

• Has an extraordinary memory and a vivid imagination.

• Is good at abstract reasoning and problem-solving.

• Curious and persistent, and is interested in cause and effect.

• Has a wide range of interests and often develops one or more interests to a considerable depth.

• Uses a large vocabulary.

• Is an independent, self-directed learner.

• Inventive, original, and often gives unusual responses.

• Capable of sustained concentration on topics or activities of interest to them.

• Easily bored with routine.

• Sets high standards for self and may be perfectionistic.

• Shows initiative, originality, and flexibility in thinking; considers problems from a number of viewpoints.

• Generates many ideas.

• Possesses a keen sense of humor.

• Often enjoys spending time with adults instead of age-peers.

• Maybe be overly sensitive and possess a strong sense of justice
   

See also:  Twelve Traits of Giftedness from the Colorado Dept. of Education
 

Regardless of a student's cultural or linguistic background, gifted students are able to:
                        - Manipulate some symbol system held valuable in the subculture,
                        - Think logically, given appropriate information,
                        - Use stored knowledge to solve problems,
                        - Reason by analogy, and
                        - Extend or extrapolate knowledge to new situations or unique applications

                         (Mary Frasier in Cultural Diversity: Challenges for Gifted Education)

Young and Potentially Gifted Children

Uses advanced vocabulary or asks about a new word heard in a story and then practices that word.
Uses metaphors or analogies   ("The cotton candy is like snow.").
Spontaneously makes up songs.
Creates symmetrical patterns with blocks or in drawings.
Modifies his or her language when talking to younger children.
Can put together difficult puzzles.
Becomes totally absorbed in one kind of knowledge, is an "expert" (trucks, dinosaurs).
Has skill in ordering and grouping.
Has a sense of humor, makes up clever jokes.
Makes connections between past and present experiences.
Sensitive to the needs or feelings of others.
Can carry out complex instructions.
Is unusually attentive and notices subtle changes in the environment.
Uses verbal skills to handle conflict.

 Roedel, W.C., Jackson, N.W. and Robinson, H.B. (1980). Gifted Young Children. New York: Teachers College Press.

Additional signs of very young abilities:

teach themselves to read at age 3  (signs in stores, reads books at 2^nd grade level)
compute equations in their head
express mature, abstract ideas about the nature of the world
have extraordinary memories

Helen Krasnow NAGC 1998 handout

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