There are, however, some characteristics that seem to be common among such children. Profoundly gifted individuals seem to be characterized by their uniqueness each is different from others their age and from others who are highly and profoundly gifted. Although many school settings give limited priority to differentiating learning experiences for gifted students in general, even less concern is given to the highly and profoundly gifted student. The higher the expressed intellectual ability, the more difficult will be the problem of finding a match between the school programs and the child. Typically, schools offer these students little some educators suggest that tutoring with eminent authorities or homeschooling would be a far more productive educational plan. They seldom seek popularity or social acclaim.Ī pressing issue is the provision of an appropriate education for profoundly gifted students. They tend to be more isolated by choice and more invested in concerns of a meta-nature (e. They seem to have different value structures, which usually allow them to cope with the dissonance they find between their perception of life and that of the average person. Studies of the profoundly gifted learners suggest that they differ significantly from highly gifted students as a result of differently wired neurons that allow more complex and efficient neural highways for transmitting information. Such children are less able to benefit from regular classroom experiences, and modifications to their educational programs need to be more comprehensive and developed to a much higher degree to meet their needs than is necessary for less gifted learners. They exhibit a higher degree of ability in most of the traits we have identified with giftedness. The highly and the profoundly gifted learners tend to evidence more energy than gifted individuals they think faster and are more intent and focused on their interests. The area of gifted education recognizes three levels of giftedness, the moderately gifted students that comprise the major group of gifted learners, the highly gifted persons who are as different from this major group as the moderately gifted are from average learners and the profoundly gifted learners. Siegel (1999), medical director of the Infant and Preschool Service and associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles concludes, “Genes contain the information for the general organization of the brain’s structure, but experience determines which genes become expressed, how, and when” (p. It is misleading to think of either genes or the environment as being more important: Genes can only express themselves in an environment, and an environment has no effect except by evoking genotypes already present. Whereas genes provide us with our own unique menu, the environment makes the actual selection within that range of choice. Genes provide us with a structure or pattern but are dependent upon the environment for the particular characteristic that they will express. Enriched education can increase intelligence. Moreover, even when a trait has been built and set, environmental intervention may still modify inherited effects. However, genes do not make specific bits and pieces of a body they code for a range of forms under an array of environmental conditions. How we use this complex system is guided by the patterns provided by our genes, the element within the cell nucleus that transmits a hereditary character and forms essential parts of our DNA that become critical to our development of intelligence, personality, and the very quality of life we experience as we grow. However, it is estimated that we actually use less than 5% of this capability. Such a structure will allow us to connect cells to process trillions of bits of information in our lifetime. Each neural cell is in place, ready to be developed and used for actualizing the highest levels of human potential. It has been established that at birth nearly all human infants come equipped with a marvelous, complex heritage that contains some 100 to 200 billion brain cells. Being familiar with the basic structure and function of the human brain will prove invaluable as we seek to understand how we might nurture profound giftedness. We can discuss this development in general terms, however, much of what we discuss will apply differently to each profoundly gifted child. The very definition of profound giftedness includes the extremely individual nature of the development of these children.
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