Chapter 14: Children on Different Developmental Paths Children Who Thrive: Gifted, Talented, and Resilient Children Kati Tumaneng (for Drs. Cook and Cook)

Gifted and Talented Children Children who show extraordinary achievement in one or more areas. Some are globally gifted while others are unevenly gifted. Three characteristics Precocious March to their own drummer A rage to master! (Ellen Winner) GT World:

A Longitudinal Study of Gifted and Talented Teens (Csikzentmihalyi) Teachers in Chicago suburbs nominated 208 students who were felt to show great promise (Csikzentmihalyi, Rathunde, & Whalen, 1997). Students followed through high school; activities compared to “average” teens. Talented teens more self-critical, rated selves as less happy, showed strong intrinsic motivation, desire for challenge.

Time Spent by Talented High School Students (Csikzentmihalyi et al., 1997)

Terman’s Kids: The Classic Study of Gifted Individuals Began in 1921: sampled more than 1,500 children with exceptional intelligence or talent (Terman, 1947). Goal to see how they fared in life. “Termites” were larger, healthier, better adjusted than “average” children (Shurkin, 1992; Terman, 1925). Study still continues today, more than 80 years after it began (Holahan & Sears, 1995). Terman:

Resilient Children: Thriving through Adversity Resilient children – Children who succeed, achieve, or otherwise have positive developmental outcomes despite growing up under negative conditions (Garmezy, 1985; Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000; Rutter, 1987). When researchers study resilient children, they consider risk factors and protective factors that interact throughout their development.

Resilient Children: Thriving through Adversity Risk factors – Characteristics of children or aspects of children’s environments that tend to be associated with developmental problems. Risk chains – Situations where one risk factor leads to another. Protective factors – Characteristics of children or aspects of children’s environment that block or reduce the negative impact of risk factors. Resilient Children:

Risk and Protective Factors and Characteristics of Resilient Children (Kirby & Fraser, 1997; Katz, 1997)

Risk and Protective Factors and Characteristics of Resilient Children (Kirby & Fraser, 1997; Katz, 1997)

Resilient Children: Thriving through Adversity Children demonstrate resilience in different ways (Kirby & Fraser, 1997). Some use intelligence and coping skills to play a bad hand well (Katz, 1997). Others suffer negative effects but find a way to bounce back. Others beat the odds. Keep in mind that they may seem well adjusted and successful, but may show signs of trauma on the inside (Luthar et al., 2000). Never know how much better their lives could have been if they had not been exposed to risk factors.

A Few Final Thoughts Children’s development is complex. Think about children’s development from several different perspectives. Be active in your thinking about and analysis of child development information. Most importantly, be an active advocate for children!

Graph on Slide 4: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 583). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Table on Slide 8: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 589). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Table on Slide 9: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 589). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. All other images retrieved from Microsoft PowerPoint Clip Art.