An Introduction to the Concept of Levels of Giftedness

Over the years I’ve modified and edited my Ruf Estimates of Levels of Gifted.

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Over the years I’ve modified and edited my Ruf Estimates of Levels of Gifted.

After all, they are estimates. And as different things pop up as I keep talking and writing about longitudinal results of young gifted children through grown up gifted adults, I see more clues myself about giftedness and its many dimensions.

In my opinion, assessing giftedness or genius is always an estimate! Think about it: through any given day each one of us has our highs and our lows, let’s compare it to arcadian rhythms, shall we? From the National Institutes of Health website:

Circadian rhythms include some of the physical, mental, and behavioral changes an organism experiences over a 24-hour cycle. Light and dark have the biggest influence on circadian rhythms, but food intake, stress, physical activity, social environment, and temperature also affect them. Most living things have circadian rhythms, including animals, plants, and microorganisms. In humans, nearly every tissue and organ has its own circadian rhythm, and collectively they are tuned to the daily cycle of day and night.

Circadian rhythms influence important functions in the human body, such as:

• Sleep patterns

• Hormone release

• Appetite and digestion

• Temperature [1]

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I originally published a version of this post in 2004 before my first book was released. That book was called 5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options and formerly titled Losing Our Minds: Gifted Children Left Behind). Through my own experiences reading Substack posts, and whatever I read before that, I’ve learned I don’t really want to read each one every day and I really don’t want any of those posts I read to be too long. So, I’ve divided my original Ruf Estimates of Levels of Gifted piece into first two parts and now 6 parts. It’s easier to share what you want with others as you find the parts that feel important to you.

This Introduction pertains to the whole paper which was 10 single-spaced pages long. Part II will focus on the actual milestones and early behaviors and interests of the gifted children at each level. Keep in mind, just like standardized testing, there are no real cut-offs or absolutes. Also, schools and their approaches to meeting the needs of their students have not appreciatively changed since I wrote my first book.

Introduction

Any parent who has more than one child knows that regardless of the way they parent or what they provide for their children, the children are different from one another in many, many ways. Although certain characteristics certainly run in families, the looks, temperaments, abilities, talents and interests of each child are usually at least somewhat dissimilar between them. Even our school systems acknowledge that children vary in their learning abilities; but at the same time that we recognize that children are different from one another, we set up school instructional and social situations that treat them as though any differences are either small or nonexistent. The problem may be that there is little or no understanding in schools of how vast the learning differences are.

Author Note: At the same time that we recognize that children are different from one another, we set up school instructional and social situations that treat them as though any differences are either small or nonexistent.

The customary method of grouping children for instruction in schools is heterogeneous (mixed ability) grouping and “whole class” instruction. Despite considerable evidence that the achievement span among children of the same age can be — and usually is — quite significant [2], children are almost always strictly grouped with others who are the same age as they. The intellectual differences between children of the same age become socially and academically problematic when the children are continually grouped together in schools all day for all their instruction and activities. For example, when a little girl routinely uses advanced vocabulary and wants to guide the play of her more typical classmates, they may resent her and see her as “bossy” or strange because of the words she uses. If a boy who enjoys reading books on history and wants someone to discuss his passionate interest with, he may be viewed as socially immature if he keeps turning to his teacher for attention instead of playing with the boys his age.

I believe that unless we know and understand how different children can be from one another, we cannot effectively address the best methods for meeting the needs of any of them. Some years ago I set out to study learning differences — particularly those of highly intelligent children.