Reaching Your Gifted Child's Education Potential

I am the parent of four children. Two are still infants, so it is too early to tell if they are gifted. The older two, however, ages 6 and 8, are gifted children. Furthermore, I have a BA and MS in elementary education and I teach enrichment classes for gifted students at a nearby university. So, my experience with gifted children and gifted education is somewhat extensive.

As a parent of a gifted child, the most important thing you can do is to closely monitor your child's education. Many educators are not schooled in teaching gifted children, as this is not a mandated component of teacher education. So, as a parent, you may find yourself educating the teacher on how to best service your child.

One method that you may suggest to your child's teacher is differentiation of the curriculum. What this means, is allow your child to work ahead of other children in his classroom. Some teachers are apprehensive about such an approach because they fear angering teachers in higher grades, since their curriculum is being taught early to your child. If this is the case, you may want to meet with the school administration and ask about your child receiving part of his schooling in a higher grade level. For example, your child may be gifted in mathematics, but not gifted in language arts. Talk with your administration and see if your child can leave his regular classroom during math time to go to a higher grade classroom to receive instruction in math.