Aren't ALL children gifted and talented in something?

[pamelat]

Sorry I am new to this topic area but had a quick flick through and may not have done the topic justice, its just that I feel that all children/people are gifted or talented.

Take my DD, 10 months and only just learning to crawl (lazy monkey) and only doing commando style crawling BUT I am so proud that in my opinion she is so talented! She may as well be the first baby to ever crawl for how proud I am of her!!

I think that parents, friends, relatives and even schools are bias.

Who can really say whether anyone is of superior intellect or not?

At school my parents were always told that I was G&T (oh I quite fancy a gin and tonic!) but really I am very average but just went to a poor school. I was only G&T compared to the other students there. This came as a bit of a shock to me in the big wide world of work!

I am sure that there are the few exceptional cases of child genius, but I think that we all have the "right" to consider our little angels or terrors are exceptionally talented.

[Podrick]

I think you are correct

[lijaco]

didn't you know that only the top 10% identified at school are!!! lol
EVERY child has gifts and talents that is very true, and there are none that are superior in my view.
Very debateable topic but some people on here come across very opinionated. It seems that they are under the illusion that there are very few gifted and talented kids and only their kids are the superor few!

[SoupDragon]

No, not all children are gifted or talented.

[TheGoat]

my child is gifted but not remotely talented and i want my own topic NOW!

[needmorecoffee]

of course. dd has learned to use a head switch to talk. This is depite huge chunks of her brain missing. I'd like to see your average G&T child manage that.
Giftedness is actually pretty rare and has little to do with the school label or getting 12 A stars at GCSE.
And of course, for some people, 'normal' is never good enough.

[thatsnotmymonster]

ds is g&t at getting his own way
dd1 is g&t at being a cheeky monkey
dd2 is g&t at being adoreable- she's only 6mths

[FrannyandZooey]

"all children/people are gifted or talented."

"Who can really say whether anyone is of superior intellect or not?"

you what? whether you CARE or not is another matter, but the above makes no sense

[Ronaldinhio]

i agree that everyone is gifted and or talented

[TheProvincialLady]

I don't think everyone is gifted or talented. A lot of people are actually rubbish at pretty much everything and never excel at a single thing. Many people are average...in fact, erm, most people are I suppose. But so what? If they are a decent human being that beats any amount of algebra or jazz dancing in my opinion.

[TheProvincialLady]

And NO ONE is to post after me and say that decent human beings are gifted at being decent human beings

[Ronaldinhio]

good for you but I still disagree.
I depends on whose frame of reference it is measured.
Being average at most things is fine but there will be something that they have a talent in.
"actually rubbish at pretty much everything"

[TheProvincialLady]

I was only being light hearted with that statement, but I do seriously mean that there are many people who have no particular talent at anything. Why should they anyway? Why does having a talent make you better than someone who doesn't? I still don't believe everyone is talented at something. Unless of course you define talent as being vaguely good at something, which I don't.

I count myself in the untalented group. I am reasonably intelligent and well educated but it doesn't make me gifted or talented. I enjoy ballet classes, always have done but I am actually fairly poor at it - and have seen enough talented people to recognise the difference.

[asdmumandteacher]

Its all subjective - in my last school where i worked someone would be G and T who could read notes fairly well and was about grade3/4 on an instrument - in my present school as it is a GS its kiddies who are grade 6 plus really

[needmorecoffee]

gifted to me is someone is is blindingly good at something. Not just super-bright.
Genius is someone like Einstein who discovers new things but is also highly intelliegent and has insight into so many things.
Getting 10 A stars or 3 A's at A level is not 'gifted' That is just bright.
I have met some very bright children but not many 'gifted' ones.
dd1 for example is very bright - taught herself to read at 2, did Y6 SATS when in Y2 and beat the 11 yo's and has now got all A stars in her GCSE's. She is bright. I don't think she is 'gifted'.
This gifted label is bandied about way too much.

[asdmumandteacher]

i agree nmc

bright is indeed different to gifted

[alleve]

Needmorecoffee, your dd1 would be classed as intellectually gifted in our state school. 'Gifted not genius'. It's just a label that you would probably not want.

[needmorecoffee]

its a label that means nothing. If she doesn't work she will still fail her A levels. It wont neccassarily lead to a good job. Its just being good at a narrow range of academic stuff.
And I find it weird that only that narrow range of academic stuff is what is valued.

[asdmumandteacher]

yup same here. My son not academic at all but knows a hell of a lot about empathy, vulnerable people in society (thanks the his bro) and lots of other things... i think i should say he is gifted in emotional intelligence!

[TheNewsMonger]

I never believe people who think their child is gifted. I just take a dislike to them.

PP, gifted in Emotional Intelligence, now that is something that will HELP a child through life. IF he has a gifted child himself, he'll have the EQ not to go on about it!

[asdmumandteacher]

absolutely newsmonger - am loving your work

[MollieO]

I would think that to be gifted and talented you would need to be higher than just the top 10% at school. Such a meaningless statistic. I imagine it is there to identify children who are brighter than their peers rather than those who are genuinely gifted.

[alleve]

I wish they had called in 'really bright and talented'. Would there be anything to argue about then?

[Heated]

I teach quite bright kids, a few are super bright but genuinely gifted?? I've taught a handful and know of a few more who really are exceptional.

[asdmumandteacher]

In my subject in 14 years of teaching i have taught 3 who are genuinely gifted but have prob put down 10 times that amount of school's G and T registers

[asdmumandteacher]

on not of -oops