Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment 2 deviations away from the norm

I volunteer at a school, and this year, I have regular exposure to 3 children who have IQ's of approximately 70. I also work with a number of kids with LD, most of whom are of average intelligence (although 2 are gifted), and with a variety of ND kids, with a range of IQs (probably a few are also gifted). I also happen to live with one child who has tested gifted and a couple more who may or may not be. The 3 with the lowest IQ's coupld possibly be in another type of program, but parents can always opt to keep their children in the regular school.

The gifted children are a mixed blessing in class. They may call out answers, zone out, or not show much in the way of patience. However, you can count on them for a meaningful answer when nobody else can come up with one and to save you from losing your mind (because at least someone gets what you're trying to explain). On the other hand, the children with the very low IQ'a don't learn things because they don't remember or never understood the part that comes before. I once heard a speaker who said you can only learn around the edges of what you already know. For example, you can't learn addition if you don't have a concept of what numbers are. Because those lower kids have such smaller edges, they can't a lot of the learn grade-level material. The teachers are pretty much teaching grade-level material, even if there are gifted or very low children in the class.

I think gifted kids are a different challenge. Everybody has different strenths and weaknesses, and just being gifted doesn't guarantee you are emotionally stable, socially adept, physically able, and not learning disabled. A class of only gifted children can be pretty diverse.