Every children is unique and we do see many children whether gifted or not, do wonders in professional world. The question always comes to me as why a kid is “gifted”. The question comes as they compare other “bright” or “high-achievers” students when he/she does not always show brightness in terms of having straights “A” or perfect GPA. I have used following guidelines as I observe both gifted and high-achiving kids:
High-achieving student always works hard, while gifted students plays around, enjoys and still tend to “test” well.
High-achieving student knows the answer and can provide answer eloquently, while gifted students asks the questions and makes effort to have deeper understanding for good discussion.
High-achieving student have good ideas for projects, science olympiads etc , while gifted students many times have out of the box ideas
High-achieving student have strong memory, absorbs information readily and is pleased with own learning, while gifted students may use inference rather than memory, know of how to draw inferences from information and tend to show strong feelings and opinions.
High-achieving student enjoys peers, enjoys school, completes assignments, while gifted students enjoys adults, enjoys learning and initiates new projects.
High-achieving student listens with interest and may need certain set of repetitions to grasp complex concepts, while gifted students effortlessly acquire complex concepts