How do YOU define “Giftedness”?

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I am a gifted child. I used to think that meant i was a prodigy, or that there was something in particular i was good at since birth. (I’ve always spoken in a peculiar way, using big words since i started speaking.)
Now i understand “giftedness” as someone with a higher intelligence than people who are not gifted. You see the world in a different way. You understand the world in a different way.

The American Heritage Dictionary of The English Language’s definition is:

Gifted(gǐf’tǐd) adj. 1. Endowed with natural ability, talent, or other assets: a gifted child. 2. Revealing talent: a gifted rendition of an aria.


What do YOU understand “Giftedness” as? What is it to you?

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It means that you think outside the box or solve problems in creative ways. Being neurodivergent could play a role since we tend to solve problems in "atypical" ways compared to NTs.

Being Gifted doesn't necessarily mean you have a Mensa brain or that you memorized lots of stuff.

Giftedness wasn't a thing when I was young so I don't know about myself.

Two of my kids were formally identified as Gifted by school testing. My son was so advanced in Kindergarten that he was given the test which was designed for fourth and fifth graders. He was off-the-charts with a high IQ but also out-of-the-box creative thinking in a number of ways (music, mathematics, art, languages, spatial thinking, prediction etc.) *He didn't go for ASD testing but we're confident he's HFA.

My daughter was ID as Gifted when she was in fifth grade. Her IQ isn't generally as high so I was kind of surprised at the time. She's smart, but not the type of "little professor" my son is. She doesn't know strings of information on any particular topic except for her special interests. Her reports said she was Gifted because of her creative thought alone. I'd have to look up the paperwork to see how it's all defined. *She was later diagnosed HFA and ADHD.

Technically then, my kids are twice exceptional. They have ASD and developmental disabilities but also Giftedness. In my daughter's case she also has some learning disabilities (dyscalculia being the most prominent).

Understanding the world in a different way, or "seeing things in ways that others don't", sounds like a good definition.

I don't really know what qualifies as "gifted" with respect to intelligence.

It is easier for me to think of someone as being "gifted" if they have some unusually strong talent.

However, if your IQ is in the top 2% of the general population then I hope you find your way into Mensa.

125-130 IQ +

I think that anyone can become good at anything if they work hard enough.
I think being gifted means that you have a higher intelligence, so many things are naturally easier for you.
Gifted people definitely see the world in a different way, although I'm not sure I can specify what that difference is, since I have no experience with not being gifted.
I think autistic people are more likely to be gifted. Possibly because we already see the world differently.
However, in my experience being gifted is seen as a positive thing in NTs, whereas if you're autistic it just adds to the perception of "weirdness". I often lie about my ACT score because if people see me as being "gifted", it distances me from them even more.

An extreme positive outlier.
Whether or not it's measured by IQ test alone, yet at the same time not necessarily specialized (that's savantism).

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There's some controversy as to whether it's even a good idea to label kids as "gifted." They become afraid to fail and it can stunt their academic growth, at least sometimes. It can also make other kids resent them. Apparently a classroom environment works best when it's focused on the growth of all students, even if some may not be able to achieve as highly as others. At least this is one point of view.

I was never labeled as gifted. I went to an Ivy League university where many students had an inflated sense of themselves and their importance, and were competitive, while at the same time being kind of clueless about things outside of academia. Many of them were the sort of kids who might have been labeled as gifted at some point. It didn't seem like a particularly healthy learning environment.

I agree. ^

My kids didn't gain much from it. In Primary they were withdrawn from their regular class to have an "enrichment" class once or twice a week. The focus was on doing open-ended research. They didn't find any of it particularly interesting and resented being singled out or removed from their peers. Maybe it's because they were autistic but they got really tired of everything being open-ended and self-directed. They just wanted to learn MORE of the regular curriculum in the normal ways.

Later they had the opportunity to attend full-time Gifted programs for middle school and high school. My son chose not to do either one. My daughter went to an Arts-based school instead of a Gifted school.

Apparently it's a trope now for their generation to feel disillusioned by all the grandeur their giftedness was supposed to impart. They're no different from anyone else and it turns out most of them were neurodivergent kids just wishing they could fit in, instead of being segregated or treated like they were special.

I'm more or less OK with the dictionary definition but I'd lean more towards it being an uncommonly high aptitude for a specific subject or field of endeavour. Sometimes you get people who have that in a number of subjects, but I'm wary of labelling a person as gifted in everything, and I don't really believe in IQ.

Here's an interesting link about the CCAT.

https://www.testingmom.com/tests/ccat-test/

I wouldn't say I'm gifted but I reckon I'm quite good with people. I can easily know a person without really trying.

I try and put this to good use and to help people because I think that's the right thing to do