Page 69 - Kukanja Gabrijelčič, Mojca, and Maruška Seničar Željeznov, eds. 2018. Teaching Gifted and Talented Children in A New Educational Era. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 69
Gifted Children’s Drawings and Significant Others’ Needs
Looking at his class drawing it seems that John does not face difficulties
in his relationships with his peers, but he looks like enjoying the game with
them during breaks. However, the fact that he chose to paint himself, his
classmates and his teacher during a break and not within the classroom, per-
haps reveals his difficulty in participating in a teamwork, since he often finds
it difficult to follow instructions and respect the limits and rules of a team.
It may also be related to the fact that in the classroom he is placed in one
of the last desks and sits alone. As a whole, the painting produces positive
emotions, the children are in a break and everyone has a wide smile. A very
positive impression is created by the smiling sun at the top left angle, which
seems to give rays of warmth to the whole painting.
Discussion
Content analysis of parents’ requests, showed that parents of the gifted chil-
dren of this sample primarily are worried about finding age-appropriate
activities in order to address their child’s eager to learn. Quite fewer are
concerned about peer relationships issues and even fewer concerns are ex-
pressed about relationships with siblings. In other words, while in many cases
parents refer current problems with peer relationships, this does not seem
to be the dominant issue troubling them for the future. This contradiction
seems to make sense as many authors have stressed assumptions that, ex-
cept for the case of adolescents gifted in the field of Arts, the other gifted
children do not show higher levels of depression, than that of the general
population (Neihart & Olenchak, 2002). They seem to be endowed with fac-
tors that enhance resilience and thus help them eventually to overcome diffi-
culties that go along with the rapid development of cognitive skills (Neihart,
2002; Reis & Renzulli, 2004;).
Another finding is that the vast majority of teachers sample have high-
lighted students’ exceptional skills in our sample, although it is not easy
for teachers who have not previously trained on gifted/talented students
to nominate children’s high abilities talents (Gari, Kalanzi-Azizi, & Mylonas,
2000; Kaufman & Harrison, 1986), even in the domains of verbal intelligence
and Arts, in which the children of the sample demonstrate high performance.
Therefore, one possible challenge for the future educators and teachers in
state schools is to get trained in the near future in nominating and identi-
fying the gifted/talented students and in embracing enriched activities and
differentiating strategies designated for gifted/talented students.
Regarding the case studies presented in the second part of this paper,
it seems that drawings are a useful tool in the hands of school psycholo-
67
Looking at his class drawing it seems that John does not face difficulties
in his relationships with his peers, but he looks like enjoying the game with
them during breaks. However, the fact that he chose to paint himself, his
classmates and his teacher during a break and not within the classroom, per-
haps reveals his difficulty in participating in a teamwork, since he often finds
it difficult to follow instructions and respect the limits and rules of a team.
It may also be related to the fact that in the classroom he is placed in one
of the last desks and sits alone. As a whole, the painting produces positive
emotions, the children are in a break and everyone has a wide smile. A very
positive impression is created by the smiling sun at the top left angle, which
seems to give rays of warmth to the whole painting.
Discussion
Content analysis of parents’ requests, showed that parents of the gifted chil-
dren of this sample primarily are worried about finding age-appropriate
activities in order to address their child’s eager to learn. Quite fewer are
concerned about peer relationships issues and even fewer concerns are ex-
pressed about relationships with siblings. In other words, while in many cases
parents refer current problems with peer relationships, this does not seem
to be the dominant issue troubling them for the future. This contradiction
seems to make sense as many authors have stressed assumptions that, ex-
cept for the case of adolescents gifted in the field of Arts, the other gifted
children do not show higher levels of depression, than that of the general
population (Neihart & Olenchak, 2002). They seem to be endowed with fac-
tors that enhance resilience and thus help them eventually to overcome diffi-
culties that go along with the rapid development of cognitive skills (Neihart,
2002; Reis & Renzulli, 2004;).
Another finding is that the vast majority of teachers sample have high-
lighted students’ exceptional skills in our sample, although it is not easy
for teachers who have not previously trained on gifted/talented students
to nominate children’s high abilities talents (Gari, Kalanzi-Azizi, & Mylonas,
2000; Kaufman & Harrison, 1986), even in the domains of verbal intelligence
and Arts, in which the children of the sample demonstrate high performance.
Therefore, one possible challenge for the future educators and teachers in
state schools is to get trained in the near future in nominating and identi-
fying the gifted/talented students and in embracing enriched activities and
differentiating strategies designated for gifted/talented students.
Regarding the case studies presented in the second part of this paper,
it seems that drawings are a useful tool in the hands of school psycholo-
67
