10 Myths of High Potential and Gifted Education: Let’s Set the Record Straight

We are excited to share a special podcast episode featuring Jacqueline Wilkinson, Director of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, in conversation with Maree Karaka, Leader of High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE). Together, Jacqui and Maree delve into how the Diocese’s HPGE Strategy is being brought to life across our schools — moving beyond policy documents to create dynamic learning environments where high potential is identified early, nurtured intentionally, and celebrated holistically. The episode shines a light on the Virtual Academy, a flagship initiative that extends and enriches the learning of gifted students through personalisation, challenge, and creativity.

Hear from AAEGT Director Rhiannon Lowrey as she welcomes you Gifted Awareness Week 2025 

The AAEGT has a Gifted Education Policy that is available for use and adaptation in Australian schools.

There is a vast amount of literature related to gifted students and their education. Decades of research has culminated in clear and consistent information about identification, characteristics, underachievement, strategies in the classroom, accelerative options, social/emotional needs, and how to plan appropriately challenging learning programs. Despite this, gifted students remain widely under-served, under-stimulated and demonstrate limited academic growth on school-based, standardised and national testing. Karen Rogers, in her meta-analysis of decades of research in the field of gifted and talented education, identifies five key “lessons” that describe what is consistently known and understood to be key strategies for gifted students. 1. Gifted learners need daily challenge in their specific areas of talent. 2. Opportunities should be provided on a regular basis for gifted learners to be unique and to work independently in their areas of passion and talent. 3. Provide various forms of subject-based & grade-based acceleration to gifted learners as their educational needs require. 4. Provide opportunities for gifted learners to socialise and to learn with like-ability peers (most likely not same-age peers). 5. For specific curriculum areas, instructional delivery must be differentiated in pace, amount of review and practice, and organisation of content presentation. (Rogers, 2007) The “daily challenge” message makes it clear that classroom teachers are the critical ingredient in ensuring gifted students are learning every day, and this message is reiterated within the AITSL Australian Professional Standards for Teachers Standards. Teachers of ability grouped, streamed or mixed-ability classes have strategies available to them as they are planning and implementing differentiated learning for gifted and talented students within their class. Engagement In order to maintain engagement in their education, it is important that gifted students are actually learning when they come to school each day, and see school as a place where their prior learning is recognised and new learning occurs. To ensure this happens on a daily basis, we must: Pre- and formatively assess students to determine prior knowledge and avoid students practicing and repeating skills, knowledge and understandings they have already mastered. Gifted students often experience school as a place where week after week, topic after topic, and year after year, they are asked to unnecessarily practice and repeat skills. It is important to find quick and efficient ways to find out what students know and have mastered, and to plan class and homework that introduces and builds upon new learning. Make sure students are not asked to complete ‘core’ work before they can access the work that is genuinely at their level and will offer challenge. Extension and challenge tasks that are given out after students have finished, fall into this category. A core principle of differentiation is that all students are working at their level from the beginning of a class, rather than having to ‘earn’ the work that they should be able to access from the beginning of a lesson. Gifted students often experience years of being ‘rewarded’ for completing their work by being given more, and over time they become demoralised or learn to avoid the extra work by finding ways to waste time. Avoid asking the strongest students to mentor, coach or teach other students. Teachers often do this with the rationale that this helps both students. In reality, neither the weak nor the strong student benefits from this arrangement. It is important to remember that our brightest students deserve to be learning new material rather than being a substitute teacher, just as other students expect to do every day. Gifted students enjoy and should be able to work with intellectual peers on a daily basis, in order to feel accepted, express their ideas without fear of criticism and to be appropriately challenged. Avoid asking students to catch-up on missed work if they are out of the classroom to access extension work or gifted programming. This is especially true if the missed work includes unnecessary practice and repetition! Whenever students are involved in withdrawal or pull-out programs, it is important to look for ways to assess knowledge and credit learning between the classroom and pull-out program. Gifted students enjoy learning when they can see the big picture and whole-to-part teaching works well to achieve this. Strategies such as introducing an ‘essential question’ or ‘big idea’ at the beginning of a unit of work, can increase student motivation to learn the necessary underlying skills and knowledge, and serve as a reminder to teachers to keep a focus on the high order aspects of the learning. Essential questions or big ideas must be higher order and interest can be increased by making them provocative, ambiguous and/or thought-provoking. Daily challenge There are a number of ways that teachers can offer daily challenge to students as they plan their differentiated success criteria, learning goals, resources, lessons, activities, assessments and programs. Level of abstractness – consider extending the thinking that students do, by increasing the level of abstractness. This can be done through questioning and task design, and can be a simple way to ensure students are thinking about and engaging with learning at a higher level without necessarily changing the activity or resource. Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956) is a good resource to assist with this planning, and research done by Davis and Rimm (2004) found that it is important for gifted and talented students to be working in the top three high order areas (Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation) the majority of the time. Pace – differentiating the pace at which gifted and talented students are able to access and move through new material is vital to ensuring students are engaged and experiencing daily challenge. In order for teachers to differentiate pace, they need to be pre and formatively assessing to determine what students already know and how quickly they are grasping new knowledge, skills and conceptual understanding, with an aim to reduce the amount of unnecessary repetition and practice. Degree of complexity – making a task more interconnected with other ideas can increase the rigour of the thinking required from students. We extend students when we ask them to think about multiple ideas and the connections between these ideas, rather than asking them to engage with one idea at a time. The SOLO Taxonomy (1982) is a good resource to assist with planning this type of learning, questioning and assessment, and teachers should aim for gifted and talented students to be consistently working in the top two areas (“Relational” and “Extended Abstract”). Accelerative options – Extension, enrichment and the strategies listed above are important ways to plan appropriately challenging learning experiences for gifted and talented students, however accelerative options are equally important, if not more so. Accelerative options are any learning material that offers above-grade material or access to this material. For many gifted and talented students, there is only so much differentiation, extension and enrichment that is possible before they genuinely need to explore and learn above-level material. VanTassel-Baska and Stambaugh (2006) argue that accelerating content must be considered as a priority by teachers when planning learning experiences for gifted and talented students. Learning gain As teachers we need to ask if we have the information we need to measure the learning gain of our gifted students. If we can’t measure learning gain, it is unlikely we are offering them daily challenge and may mean they are not learning at all, even if they seem to be achieving. To ensure we can measure learning gain, we need to design our pre assessments so that we can find out the point at which students do not know material. If a preassessment is too easy and students get every aspect correct, then we have not discovered a baseline from which to plan our teaching and we will not be able to measure learning gain if it occurs. We also need to ensure our summative assessments offer enough difficulty to assess the advanced learning that students have been accessing. Implementing these strategies in no way implies that gifted students deserve more than any other student. Rather, we are endeavouring to level the playing field for these students, to provide the same degree of challenge as other students experience each day at school, to foster the same ability to persevere with tasks that are difficult, to see themselves as learners, and to experience school as a place where learning occurs on a daily basis. References Biggs, J., and Collis, K. (1982). The SOLO Taxonomy. New York: Academic Press. Bloom, B.S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain. New York: Longmans, Green. Davis, G.A., and Rimm, S,B. (2004). Education of the gifted and talented. University of Michigan: Pearson. Rogers, K.B. (Fall, 2007). Lessons Learned About Educating the Gifted and Talented: A Synthesis of the Research on Educational Practice. Gifted Child Quarterly, 51(4), 382-396. VanTassel-Baska, J., and Stambaugh, T. (2006) Comprehensive Curriculum for Gifted and Talented Learners, 3rd Edition. College of William and Mary: Pearson.

You will have students in your group or class who upon entry, will already know how to read, or have an inherent knowledge of numbers and their patterns. It is vital for you, as a teacher, to understand student mastery of concepts, which is best done through pre-assessment and talking to the student’s parents. This will guide you to plan appropriate adjustments to meet each child’s learning needs. Every student has the right to learn something new every day. A question, that you, as a teacher, can ask yourself is: Am I meeting the needs of ALL my students, or just some of them? While it is vital that teachers know their students and how they learn, this response focuses on the overall classroom learning environment. The learning environment must meet the needs of all students in an inclusive, safe, and accepting way. All student contributions should be valued and respected equally by both teachers and classmates. Play based structures are one way of meeting these needs. Activities, tasks, lessons and enrichment, for this age group, are best done incorporating play, discovery and inquiry. Consider the unit you are currently teaching. Consider the main concept and translate that to ‘big picture’ ideas. Gifted students love ‘big ideas.’ Some examples (F-2) using the Australian Curriculum HASS (Humanities and Social Sciences) units include: My personal world: Key concept Identity How my world is different from the past and can change in the future: Key concept Change Our past and present connections to people and places: Key concept Connections Science-based tasks and activities where creativity abounds, lend themselves beautifully to this ‘key concept’ scenario. This way all students can access the activity, but the gifted students will take it to a deeper level. Observe these students and create annotations, which can be used as just one identification tool. This will provide data for recommending further identification measures. You could have several activities grouped under one theme e.g., Change . Provide the activities as part of play-based choices but extend student thinking by providing provocative questions. These could be written on large cards. This provides the students with choices, which is a strategy to meet the needs of gifted students. Some examples: 1. How can we change plastic bottles so they can grow plants? (Adult supervision will be needed for cutting) Provide : plastic bottles, pictures, plants and other relevant materials. Design: Arrange plants and rocks in a way that people will be able to see them all clearly. Provocative questions: You are making a terrarium. In a terrarium you do not need to water your plants. Where will the plants get their water from? How has changing the bottle to a terrarium helping the environment? What other objects could we make out of plastic bottles? Adjustment to the core curriculum : Complexity 2. How can we change a torch into a communication device? Provide: torches, a dark space and a Morse code chart Design: Choose a word to send to a friend in Morse code Provocative questions : Invent a new method of communication. How will your new method of communication change people’s lives? Adjustment to the core curriculum: Choice 3. How can we change a paper glider to turn left or right or loop the loop? Provide: templates to make paper gliders, cardboard, plasticine, paperclips, sticky tape, scissors Design: Add weight and/or folds to change flight trajectory. Test and modify. Provocative questions: How is the way my glider flies, similar to that of birds? What makes you say that? (Provide a way to observe bird flight e.g., near a window, you tube clip) What other changes could be made to an airplane and why? Adjustment to the core curriculum: Abstraction 4. How have push/pull toys changed over the years? Provide : old and modern push/pull toys, pictures of old push/pull toys and modern push/pull toys, websites that demonstrate the push/pull action, materials to build a toy that moves Design : Invent a toy that moves. Provocative questions: How can your toy be changed to move uphill? How can your toy be changed to carry a load? Adjustment to the core curriculum: Critical and creative thinking These differentiated adjustments to the core curriculum will give you an idea of the strategies that can be employed for young, gifted children. They may be inspired by the provocative questions, or they may come up with their own. Providing open-ended activities will allow each student to shine, swap ideas respectfully and discuss collaboratively. Allow students to share their thinking and encourage their classmates to actively listen. Promote respect and awe by praising and encouraging innovation and invention in student-constructed products. These strategies will create whole class cohesion and a safe space for ALL students to thrive.

Identification of giftedness can help schools and parents determine their child’s academic and social emotional needs. Educators in the field of gifted education recommend multiple assessment strategies be used in the classroom to determine giftedness. However formal identification showing levels of giftedness, can only be administered by a registered professional. These can include school psychologists and private educational and clinical psychologists. Commonly used assessments in Australia include: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children WISC-V (Age 6 -16) Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence WPPSI-IV (Age 2 -7.7) Stanford-Binet V (Age 2 - 85+). Educational psychologists consider a gifted IQ to be 130 or higher (98th percentile) on the WISC or WPPSI, or around 132+ on the Stanford-Binet. It's important to note that the WICS and WIPPSI return very different scores to the Stanford-Binet. For example, a child that scores 145+ on the WISC-IV will score 180+ if administered the Stanford-Binet. If you need to compare these two different tests, you can look at the percentile score, rather than the IQ number. A child's percentile will be the same, regardless of the IQ test. So a profoundly gifted student whose IQ is at the 99.9 percentile will score a full-scale IQ of 145+ on the WISC-V and WPPSI-IV and they will score 180+ if administered the Stanford-Binet V. However their percentile score will always be 99.9. Levels of giftedness on the WISC-V and WPPSI-IV roughly equate to: 130+ Gifted or mildly gifted 135-141+ (or 145+ on either a verbal or nonverbal domain of the test) Highly, exceptionally to profoundly gifted 145+ Profoundly gifted IQ and levels of giftedness on the Stanford-Binet V are as follows:  Moderately gifted, IQ range 130-144 (prevalence 1:40 - 1:100) Highly gifted, IQ range 145-159 (prevalence 1:1000 - 1:10 00) Exceptionally gifted, IQ range 160-179 (prevalence 1:10 000 - 1:1 million) Profoundly gifted, IQ 180+ (prevalence < 1:1 million). The challenges in administering these tests vary. They take several hours to administer and score, which makes them expensive. The verbal component scores may be impacted by culturally or linguistically diverse student groups and so they can be less effective in these individuals. They also do not measure other forms of giftedness, such as creative giftedness The strengths of these tests are that they are written for targeted age groups. They also have rigor in standardisation, rigor in the medium of measurement and consistency in administration requirements. These tests, therefore, are reliable, valid, and objective. The assessments have a long history based on large normative samples and validity has been established in multiple countries. These instruments measure both verbal and non-verbal reasoning. They are administered individually, and the reports not only give a test score but also observations about behaviours during the testing process such as levels of attention and emotional dependence. This individual administration may also reduce anxiety levels for the student.

I wasn’t always a Gifted Education advocate. In fact, when I was studying my dual undergraduate education and music degrees in NSW in the early 2000’s, subjects surrounding this field weren’t available at my university. Whilst I was repeatedly taught the importance of nurturing the academic and socioemotional wellbeing of students with a disability or learning disorder, gifted learners were never discussed. Upon entering the teaching profession, my understanding of giftedness was, mistakenly, founded purely on the stereotypes that society had presented me throughout my young life. That all changed in my second year of teaching, however, when I was fortunate to teach Anna (name changed), a seemingly happy and well-adjusted 11-year-old girl. Anna’s IQ exceeded 153, she was a virtuosic musician on two orchestral instruments, had previously been year level accelerated, had a great group of friends and a loving family, and also, told me she self-harming. Anna was the first time a gifted student had broken the ‘life is easy for gifted students’ adage that I had, until that moment, held dear, and I nor any of her other teachers at the time, ever saw it coming. Anna epitomised the stereotypical gifted profile that many educators continue to resonate with. She was incredibly high achieving, excelling far above year level despite her acceleration, attentive, well-mannered, softly spoken, meticulous and responsible. In the days, weeks and months which followed, we, her teachers, pondered how Anna’s wellbeing had been overlooked to the point whereby she sought release through self-harm? How had we been so blind to the pain she was experiencing? What could we have done, or could do in the future, to support Anna’s wellbeing further? Accordingly, Anna unknowingly set me on a path of deep personal and professional reflection, resulting in the creation of a relentless motivation to advocate for the needs and wellbeing of gifted learners within the school environment. Fast forward 13 years and I have since completed my Masters in Gifted Education and have worked almost exclusively in this field for the past 6 years. Thanks to Anna I am uncompromisingly driven to help teachers and schools provide for, and nurture, gifted students’ wellbeing. Like anything in education, it is not an easy job. Through my eyes it appears that some schools prefer their G&T Coordinator to be seen and not heard (aside from after events such as the Da Vinci Decathlon, GERRIC programs, Math Olympiad, and ICAS testing.) I continue to have teachers tell me that they don’t understand why student X is feeling frustrated in class, as they are providing extra worksheets at year level for the student to do. Additionally, I also hear ‘student Y can’t be gifted, he’s only getting a C in (insert subject name here)’, thus exemplifying the role gifted stereotypes continue to play within today’s education system. Other schools, thankfully, are further along on their gifted education journey. These schools are more receptive to the needs of gifted students by way of their gifted education programming, differentiation programmes and views toward acceleration practices. Also, and perhaps even more importantly, their willingness to educate teaching staff as to the needs of this heterogeneous population. One such school instigated a monthly Gifted Girls morning tea, whereby the gifted high school students had a regular unstructured social get together, thus greatly improving the students’ sense of belonging. One parent described these meetings as the single biggest highlight in her daughter’s 10 years of schooling. Another school recently began including aspects of gifted education into their regular staff meeting schedules across Prep-Year 12, as a way of not only upskilling staff, but also having gifted students viewed as priority learners within the school. What about Anna, you ask? I, together with her team of teachers, worked diligently to modify our teaching practices, curriculum planning and pastoral programs to better cater for her and other gifted students’ academic and socioemotional needs. She also received extensive external support. Unfortunately, thing got worse before they got better, but with the right support, Anna has since grown to become a happy, healthy, highly educated and successful young lady. Little does she realise, but she also changed my life. by: Kellie Clarke

From July to December 2004, I lived in Australia, specifically in the beautiful seaside town of Coogee. I lived in a house of 35 college students from all over the world. As you can probably imagine, there was a lot of wonderful chaos. Between the beach, the bars, the travel, the accents (!), the wildlife, and the general exoticness of being Down Under, there was a lot of competition for our time when it came down to choosing whether to go to class (which was, of course, what we ostensibly there to do). Now I would be lying to you if I said that I didn’t miss classes for the occasional day of surfing in Bondi or lunchtime pints of VB at the Coogee Bay Hotel. I certainly traded some evenings of study for games of footie or wandering around Circular Quay. Many of my fellow travelers and students did the same. Oddly, it was because of those similarities that I felt so disconnected from them. And my disconnectedness couldn’t be explained away by something as simple as “oh I actually came here to learn” (which, sure) or “I actually like my classes” (I really did! Especially my Stand-Up Comedy class). My disconnect grew from the fact that I wanted different things from my time in Australia, and it was hard to articulate those differences. I wanted to explore the “soul” of the city where I found myself, and I knew that I wouldn’t find it in the various bars and clubs of downtown Sydney (though Pancakes on the Rocks came close). Of course, one wants to see the major tourist attractions, and I checked off those boxes: I’ve climbed the Harbour Bridge, seen a show at the Opera House, and held a koala at the Taronga Zoo. But I wanted to get deep into the neighbourhoods, parks, museums, and institutions that revealed something more ephemeral, more authentic… more me . The best way that I can explain this phenomenon is noting that I grew up outside of New York City here in the US and spent a lot of time wandering around the Five Boroughs in my youth. When friends or family came to visit, they wanted to go into Manhattan and inevitably wanted to see the “postcard spots:” 30 Rockefeller Place, The Empire State Building, Central Park, etc. And there is tremendous value and beauty to those places! But when I truly love a place, when I want to become a citizen of its community, I want to get deeper than going to Bubba Gump Shrimp in Times Square. I want to know the best Korean sandwiches in the Bronx; I want to find a hole-in-the-wall pub with original signage in Bed-Stuy; I want to tour an obscure museum that’s only open on Tuesdays in Queens. I wanted that experience in Sydney, so I set off to find it. I wandered around the Western suburbs with a transit map and a bottled water. I got horrifically lost in Parramatta. I went to the Sydney Observatory, Victoria Barracks, and the Powerhouse Museum. I got stung by a jellyfish at Manly Beach. I tried to list all the things named after Lachlan Macquarie. I did most of these things alone, not because I wanted to be (mostly), but because I was sure that no one would understand what I was trying to do. How do you articulate that you’re seeking the soul of a place without sounding super strange? How do you know who would listen… and get it? I think that this is why being gifted can be so lonely without a community. These questions are strange and abstract, but still powerfully meaningful to the right person. And just because I was seeking these experiences doesn’t make me better or worse than anyone else; just as I wanted to see the ANZAC memorial, some people wanted to find all the best shopping in Sydney. To each their own. It’s just that some activities are much easier to bring company to and be accessible. You’re much more likely to find someone who wants to listen to Garth Brooks than your favourite indy K-Pop piano-cello duo. But that example leads me to my point: You can still enjoy what you love while seeking that community. There is no reason to wait to be happy. Our brains often default to a space of “I’ll do X once I have accomplished Y.” Sometimes that helps us (one should learn to drive a car because deciding to road trip to Spring Break), but sometimes it unnecessarily holds us back. If I had waited to find my people to go visit my obscure museums and parks, I might not have ever seen them. If doing something that you want to do would be 100% perfect if you did it with friends, but only 84% as good if you did it alone, then your brain might tell you to wait until things are perfect to try something new. Good can certainly be the enemy of great, but great can also be the enemy of done. Last time I checked, 84% good is still a lot more than 0% good, which is what you’d get if you never tried. I don’t regret my solo touring of greater Sydney. I wish that I had been more confident in who I was, and thus more willing to be open about my neurodivergent interests, but I cannot change the past. Instead, I can blog about it so you can hopefully learn from my experiences. Do what makes you happy, regardless of whether people are coming along for the ride. Keep your eyes open for when you reach your various destinations, because your spiritual travellers may be there as well: looking, listening, whispering fun facts about the venue to themselves. Those are your people, and I guarantee that they’ll be as excited to meet you as you are to meet them. We are not meant to travel this world alone, but when your people are harder to find, we must practice two vital skills: patience and self-confidence. We must be patient and knock on many doors to find our people. That might be difficult, and you’re basically guaranteed to have some rough and lonely days, but the wait is totally worth it. The key here is to set your expectations using the concept I mentioned above. Things might be better with company, especially if it is meaningful company, but that doesn’t mean that following your passions alone as no value at all. In fact, the process of doing things solo may increase your engagement because you learn to rely on yourself. Plus it gives you something to do while you’re waiting! To survive that process, you need to turn up the volume on your own self-confidence. That’s a truly proposition, of course, because how do you get self-confidence if you don’t have any self-confidence? (I often say it’s like needing your glasses to find your glasses). Self-confidence comes from two plans: values and identity. If your values are to make the world a better place, then you’ve already got the emotional infrastructure to engage authentically in the world around you. Your values can direct you to find jobs, take classes, volunteer, make friends, or take up self-improvement. My values are travel, self-exploration, and challenging myself; all three are readily apparent in my Australia adventures. Identity is knowing who you are. It is related to values but moves into more autobiographical territory. If you’re a neurodivergent person, then own it. If you’re a member of the LGBTQ+ community, then integrate that into your identity. Knowing who you are allows you to have more self-confidence, because it taps into the most authentic version of you. And if people don’t get it? Then they’re not your people. They’re out there; keep looking. The energy you spend on masking yourself is not energy you get back. The way to take the lessons of this blog post (other than to move to Coogee if you haven’t lived in Australia) is to be brave and authentic in seeking the things, places, and activities that bring you joy. They may not be for everyone, but that’s OK because you’re not everyone. Your people are out there and they’re certainly looking to connect. As a coda to my story of independent travel, I ended up meeting some wonderful other study abroad folks who were studying at the University of Wollongong. After a night out in Sydney, I took the train back to their Uni with them so I could explore “the Gong” properly. After a late breakfast, my new friends looked to me and asked what I wanted to do that day. I hesitated, because I wanted to go see the famous Old Wollongong Lighthouse (I’m from the Jersey Shore; I love lighthouses. Yes, I’m weird.) but I didn’t think that they would understand. With some prompting, they dragged it out of me. There was a moment of silence where I doubted revealing my true nerdiness so early. Then something amazing happened; they all laughed and said that they had all been meaning to go see it but were waiting for the right opportunity to bring it up. My being there give us all the opportunity to do something that we all wanted. My friends not only lifted me up, but I ended up lifting them as well. And that’s how it feels when you find your people. Matthew J. Zakreski, PsyD NB: Please note that this article only represents the views of the author(s), and is not necessarily representative of the views of the Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented.

Giftedness is not what I thought it was. I want to preface this by saying that I know parenting is hard for all of us. And I know there are many big problems in the world today. But I think there are some unique challenges and joys of being gifted that might not be widely known. Why do I think this? Because there was a time when I didn't know gifted so well. A time when I didn't have three gifted kids in my life. There was a time when I'd only vaguely heard of Mensa. A time when gifted children to me were quiet and studious. They had perfect behaviour at school and got straight As. Life was probably super easy for them. They invented things and read big books and spoke well, and probably grew into scientists. But now that I live gifted, I know the truth. I imagine most families with young kids can relate to many parts of life with my lot. Our life is messy and crazy, and loud. It's kids running around the lounge room and jumping on the couch. It's giggles and laughter and constant talking and not listening to mum and dad. It's stubbornness and cheekiness and arguing and never-ending questions. It is siblings who play for hours in amazing worlds that exist only in their imaginations. It's three kids running around the museum with the same enthusiasm as a theme park. It's the fascination with a ladybug on a leaf. It's a great sense of humour, and it's so much clowning around. But gifted is also a house full of big emotions. It is needing fairness and justice like it's oxygen. It's 5-year-olds sobbing about climate change. Because they understand everything they see and hear about it at the level of a much older person, but they only have the emotional skills of a 5-year-old to deal with this. It's 6-year-olds stressing in silence for weeks that overfishing and warming seas mean their grandchildren won't get to see fish in the ocean. It's pre-schoolers having nightmares about being sucked into black holes or an extinction-level asteroid hitting the earth. Pre-schoolers who are genuinely terrified of these things because they can't fathom the unlikeliness of that ever happening to them. As a psychologist once explained, gifted is your 5-year-old wondering whether death is permanent, while everyone else is wondering what's in their lunchbox that day. And just because parenting these little people is not stressful enough, research shows that if the learning needs of gifted children are not met, they're more likely to experience anxiety, social problems, and depression (National Association for Gifted and Talented (NAGC)). Gifted is also not really being understood a lot of the time. Core to the definition of gifted is 'asynchrony'. This is where some of your child's skills are advanced while some are typical for their age, or lagging. So they might be able to think up amazing stories in their mind but be completely unable to write them down. They might be three years ahead in maths but one year behind in English. They might be a young child who can do algebra but not tie their shoelaces. Sometimes gifted means not caring one scrap about what they're learning in school. Sometimes it's the stress of knowing they're smart but getting poor grades. Gifted is being made to learn things in their first year of school that they knew when they were one or two – and being totally confused and frustrated about why. Often it's a seemingly endless repetition of work they already know, that as one of my kids at seven put it, 'makes me want to shut my ears and scream'. Research shows gifted learners not only learn faster but are more likely to unlearn maths, science and foreign languages when made to revise the content more than 2-3 times after mastery (as is done in a normal classroom) (NAGC). All of these things can lead to disengagement from school and kids losing their love of learning. Research also shows that between 18% and 25% of gifted students drop out of school early (NAGC). And when parents go to teachers for help, often the understanding is just not there. As a parent, gifted is not wanting to utter the 'G' word for fear of being judged. It's worry that teachers think we're 'those' pushy parents who have had the flashcards on rotation since our kids were babies. It's always watching what we say about our kids in front of other parents because they might think we're boasting or trying to prove we're somehow better than they are. When someone notices your baby knows all their colours, it's avoiding the questions about how you got them to do that because you yourself have literally no idea. And trying to explain that will result in an awkward silence because... we agree, it doesn't make sense! In fact it's very rarely knowing how these kids learn all the incredible things they learn. Gifted is also constantly wondering whether our kids are getting enough mental stimulation versus enough time to just be kids. It's wondering which of the kids have a second exceptionality, which often goes hand-in-hand with high IQs. This means being gifted plus having another diagnosis that affects learning, such as ADHD, autism, anxiety, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dysgraphia… the list of terms I had literally not heard of until recently, goes on. It's wondering which of your kids needs a psychologist right now, or an OT, and knowing it'll be at least a 6 month wait to see anyone anyway. Gifted is constant worrying and wondering with limited support. But gifted is also being amazed by your own kids on a constant basis. Saying to your partner… ummm I'm pretty sure talking at 8 months isn't normal!? Should she be able to do her older brother's homework while she's still in Kindy? It's your 2-year-old making words with one of the 5 billion alphabet sets you've had to buy from Kmart because it's one of the only things that will keep them occupied right now. It's not knowing enough about the space-time continuum when Santa discussions come up… And, well, not knowing enough about anything really. It's saying 'Hey Siri'. A lot. And then asking weird questions like, 'if there was no air resistance, would raindrops kill us?'. It's your kids having cool favourite animals like tardigrades, and it's learning what tardigrades even are (they can survive in SPACE mummy!). It's knowing way more than you ever thought you would know about the Oort cloud or Rube Goldberg machines or the physics of how geckos climb walls. Having gifted kids teaches you to see the world in new and amazing ways. It allows you to see the beauty and excitement in even the smallest of things. And it is so much joy. I guess what I want to say here is that being gifted isn't a free ticket to an easy life. Gifted people aren't made by flashcards, or Mozart or second languages or any other kind of early education. These people are found across all races, cultures, and socioeconomic groups, globally. Essentially, giftedness is a neurodivergence with social-emotional and learning differences. It is highly genetic, meaning that while early experiences are influential, gifted people are essentially just born the way they are. These kids didn't ask to be born this way! And they aren't always the stereotypes that many believe. Gifted. It seems to me this word has different meanings for different people. I feel so lucky to be sharing life with these amazing little people. To me, gifted means excitement about the world, deep thinking, worry, love and endless laughter. Though sometimes, gifted can just be really hard. NB: Please note that this article only represents the views of the author(s), and is not necessarily representative of the views of the Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented.