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Training of parents of gifted and talented students

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472 Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 13, Suppl. 1, 2015
Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 13, Suppl. 1, pp 472-479, 2015
Copyright © 2015 Trakia University
Available online at:
http://www.uni-sz.bg
ISSN 1313-7069 (print) doi:10.15547/tjs.2015.s.01.082
ISSN 1313-3551 (online)
TRAINING OF PARENTS OF GIFTED AND TALENTED STUDENTS
A. Zlateva*, E. Lavrentsova
Faculty of Education, Trakia University, Srtara Zagora, Bulgaria
ABSTRACT
In the paper there are analysed the organisation, conduct and results from training of parents of gifted and
talented children as a part of the work for the GATE Project 2013-1-TR1-LEO04-47702. A special
attention is paid to providing theoretical and practical help to parents so that they are able to recognize,
support and fully help the realization of the gifted child.
Purpose: To give the parents of GAT children the opportunity to get acquainted more closely with the
phenomenon of giftedness so as they become able to more easily recognize any manifestations of the gift
in their own children, learn about the characteristics of their personality, understand better their
difficulties and problems and work with them at home.
Results: The knowledge of what types of characteristics are 'normal' for talented/gifted young people was
provided. The difficulties which GAT students encounter at school and at home, were outlined. Main
problems with working with gifted children were identified.
Conclusions: In the modern society it’s extremely necessary to create tolerance and pro-active format in
the parents’ attitude towards the problems of their GAT children and to support the parents in the process
of constructing maximum favourable conditions for the development of giftedness and creativity in their
children.
Key words: educating, support, gifted and talented children
INTRODUCTION
One of the most important objectives of the
educational policy of Europe is the use of the
intellectual potential of students, which
initiates the creation of educational models
aimed at the development of every child to the
fullest possible range of its individual
psychological resources and providing
opportunities for its subsequent self-sufficient,
enterprising and productive life activities. In
these conditions there is a growing interest
both in the scientific and theoretical level and
the practical aspect of the different types of
work with gifted children.
The existence of many layers of the
phenomenon of "talent", the consistency and
therefore, the complex and multi-dimensional
relations between the mental qualities and the
abilities of the gifted child require both from
the psychologists and the educators, on the one
hand and the parents and family environment
of a child, on the other, to pay a particular
attention to the level of development of the
____________________________
Correspondence to: Ani Dimova Zlateva, assoc.
prof. Trakia University, Faculty of Education,
Srtara Zagora,ani_zlateva@yanoo.com
child’s talent. And if with the study of the
manifested, obvious talent the main focus is on
its protection and development, in the study of
children with potential talent the most acute
task is related to its "disclosure" and
manifestation.
In the process of spotting out a gifted and
talented child and active support for the full
development of his or her abilities and talents
undoubtedly an especially important role and
influence is attributed to the parents, their
concerns, interest and attention to the child's
problems.
In this connection it’s very important to
provide theoretical and practical help to
parents so that they are able to recognize,
support and fully help the realization of the
gifted and talented child. Its main purpose is to
give the parents of gifted children the
opportunity to get acquainted more closely
with the actual phenomenon of giftedness so as
they become able to more easily recognize any
manifestations of the gift in their own children,
obtain information about the characteristics of
the personality of gifted children, understand
better their difficulties and problems, learn
about their rights and obligations when raising
ZLATEVA A., et al.
Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 13, Suppl. 1, 2015
473
such children, and especially - master
advanced ideas and effective approaches to
creating maximum favourable conditions for
the development of giftedness and creativity in
their children.
CONTENT
The main focus is to present the research of
training of parents of gifted and talented
children as part of the work of The Lifelong
Learning Program Leonardo da Vinci
partnership 2013-1-TR1-LEO04-47702
PROJECT “GIFTED AND TALENTED
CHILDREN TEACHER‘S AND PARENT‘S
TRAINING” – GATE.
The aim of the training of parents of gifted and
talented children was to support them in their
work with them at home, in collaboration
where possible with teachers and significant
others in the educational community.
This support took the form of an interactive
half-day workshop. It had been developed
from an analysis of Pan-European research and
experience into ways parents could best
support their children.
The workshop engaged parents with four
critical support issues. They are:
Identification & assessment
This helps parents to know the different ways
to identify gifts & talents in young people.
Special emphasis will be given to helping
parents of children who show their gifts &
talents in ways that are not always easy to
identify with the use of standard abilities tests
in school. Children who are divergent thinkers,
who have vivid imaginations, whose biggest
asset is their creativity or physical abilities.
Social and emotional support
Rising happy, thriving young people who are
working towards being the best they can be, is
the ultimate aspiration for most parents and yet
sometimes G&T learners can seem in more
need of social and emotional support than
other people their age. The workshop explores:
(a) Asynchronous Development (b)
Hypersensitivity (c) Perfectionism.
Supporting a growth mind-set
This engages parents in knowing how to: (a)
supports a child to learn and grow from every
experience they encounter (b) manage
high/unrealistic expectations and (c) avoid
experiencing everything as success or failure.
(d) That less than perfect is also acceptable.
Out-of-school support
As a parent, it is often difficult to find
interesting, enriching and constructive web-
based and out-of-school activities for your
G&T child. In this workshop we illustrate what
might be done if your child is talented in sport.
From this we will generalise to help parents
find out more about educating, supporting and
entertaining their G&T (1).
To encourage parents to formulate a
personally significant question about parental
support for a gifted children.
To support parents of GAT students to
work with them at home, in coherence with
teachers and educational community approach.
To try to answer the questions, ‘which
person has what kind of gift/talent?’
To discuss with other parents the many
meanings of a ‘talented’ child.
To explore different ways to support
children with talents (2).
Giftedness: essence and meaning
In psychology, the term "talent", "giftedness"
is used in two main meanings: 1. A peculiar
blend of high quality of capabilities, which
determines the possibility of achieving success
in the implementation of one or other activity;
2. (a narrower sense) anatomical and
physiological traits, innate abilities which are
genetic prerequisites for the development of
abilities, their natural fund. Traditionally, there
is a distinction between general or multiple and
special talent. At the present stage of
development of the pedagogical science,
giftedness is mostly seen as a potential for
achievements at an extremely high level
compared with other people of a given age,
education and social environment (3).
Considering the content complexity of the
concept of "giftedness", in some educational
systems (the British one, for example) it is
preferred that the term "highly able" is used,
for example, for a student with high abilities.
The term "talented" is correspondingly more
often used for those children who exhibit high
capabilities in the fields of arts and sports.
A gifted child this is the child who stands out
with bright, clear, sometimes extremely high
performances (or there are internal
prerequisites for such achievements) in one or
another activity (4).
There are three categories of gifted children
that can be outlined:
1. Children of unusually high general level of
mental development, with all other conditions
being equal (such children are most often
found at preschool and school age);
2. Children with signs of special mental
giftedness - in a specific area of science
(mainly adolescents);
3. Students who, for one reason or another,
have not been successful in training but
manifest bright cognitive activity, originality,
sound and an extraordinary mental reserves
ZLATEVA A., et al.
474 Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 13, Suppl. 1, 2015
(this often occurs in students in the upper level
of education).
One of the most popular models of giftedness
is "A Developmental Model for Creative
Productivity" by Joseph Renzulli. According to
Renzulli there is a difference between the
terms "school giftedness" and "creative
productive giftedness." To clarify the nature of
the latter, Renzulli developed a three-circle
concept which includes the following key
features: ability, dedication and creativity. The
term capability here means “above the average
general and special abilities” (over 80-85%),
creativity the potential for creativity and
dedication - very strong motivation for activity
in a particular area of life. Creativity is the
result of the intersection of the three classes of
characteristics of the students. The section in
question is the core of the creative talent or the
so called "creative potential".
Often there is a tendency to identify
intelligence as creativity. But as pointed out by
several studies, the relation appears in three
varieties: a lack of connection, a partial
connection, or a weak correlation. There is the
so called category in science "gifted stragglers"
(”idiots savants”).
In recent years, for a working definition of
giftedness and possession of talent, the formula
has been accepted which recognizes that the
individual can be distinguished by their
functional or potential abilities in one or more
areas: intellectual, academic (success in
training), creative, artistic, in the field of
communication or psychomotor performance.
Such a wide definition proved extremely useful
as a basis for developing the methods for
searching and detection of gifted and talented
children with physical or sensory deficiencies.
Based on this approach, Gardner describes the
following species or types of intelligence,
independent of, but interacting with each other:
linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial,
musical, bodily-kinaesthetic, interpersonal,
intra-personal, naturalistic and existential.
Comparing creativity and intelligence, he
stated that both involve solving problems and
creating products. Creativity, however,
includes also an additional category - asking
new questions within a domain that are
innovative initially, but gradually become
accepted in one or more cultural backgrounds.
Creativity is distinguished by intelligence in
two additional aspects: 1. the creative person
always operates within a discipline or
profession and most creative people stand out
in one or two at the most domains; 2. what
defines the creative act of an individual is the
subsequent widespread adoption of innovation.
The touchstone is the proven effect on the
domain.
The classic IQ tests, designed for "closed
tasks," measure mainly the convergent and not
the divergent, i.e. creative thinking and its
matching creative abilities required for
problem solving and creative tasks. Through
them usually only the first two types of
intelligence are covered and rarely the 3rd type
the spatial intelligence. As for the rest - they
remain uncovered.
And precisely here is the special role of the
parents, which is to detect one or another kind
of intelligence in the child and to put targeted
efforts in order to create maximum beneficiary
conditions and opportunities for its further
development.
Рpersonality of gifted children
The basic emotional characteristics that are
most commonly prevalent in gifted children
the scientists determine to be the following:
Striving for dominance and
superiority;
Striving for taking risks,
Striving for independence, radicalism
and violation of the habitual order.
The following characteristics are also pointed
out:
Optimism;
Willingness to help;
A feeling for the beautiful;
Sense of humour (5, 6, 7).
Gifted students, especially in the elementary
school, demonstrate high performance on the
level of involvement in the content of the
activity and the level of perfectionism. As far
as the peculiarities of the emotional
development are concerned, high performance
levels of stress-resistance and sustainability of
interests can be seen. Their social competence
is characterized by openness in social relations
and intellectual egocentrism (8).
Some other personality traits that distinguish
the gifted, creative children are also noted.
These are: recklessness, complacency and not
recognizing the social restrictions. It is
important to point out that the personality traits
of gifted children and adult gifted individuals
match. That probably makes the prediction of
the existence of creativity in the subject
according to his personal peculiarities obvious
as early as in childhood. Therefore, it is very
important that the parent closely monitors the
personality characteristics of the child and be
able to capture the relevant personal emotional
manifestations of giftedness.
ZLATEVA A., et al.
Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 13, Suppl. 1, 2015
475
Often scientists note that creative people have
the following characteristics:
1. independence their standards are more
important than the standards of the group,
independent assessments and judgments;
2. openness of the mind - willingness to review
their own and those of the others fantasies,
readiness to accept the new, the unusual;
3. high tolerance to uncertain and insoluble
situations, constructive activity in these
situations;
4. a well-developed aesthetic sense.
Other common traits are conscientiousness,
responsibility, perseverance, sense of duty,
high control over the behaviour and the
emotions, determination, enterprise, social
courage, intellectual variability. Studies show
that connected to creativity are also: taking
initiative, confidence, absorption in work,
criticism regarding their own and the
disadvantages of the others, but also
combining such opposites as personal maturity
and childish sense of world. Other qualities
are: persistence, energy, ambition, forward
looking, tolerance for ambiguity, synthetic
thinking, insightfulness, thinking in images,
clarity, sensitivity, imaginativeness, ability to
make associations, intuitiveness, erudition,
analytical thinking and ability for
concentration.
Some studies show that the level of creativity
of teenagers proves statistically associated with
such properties of the individual as the ability
to take decisions independently, self-
confidence, striving for power and ability to
act adequately when in company, tolerance (9).
It has been found out that in gifted adolescents
aggressiveness is more pronounced. At the
same time, the index of hostility has little
connection with creativity. This means that
aggression in them constitutes a means of self-
assertion rather than hostile defensiveness.
But the most common characteristic of
giftedness is the pronounced cognitive
capability (exhibited as striving for new
knowledge, techniques or a way to absorb the
activity), which makes up the basis of
cognitive motivation, dominant in the gifted
child in comparison to other types of
motivation (10).
Moreover, several studies have shown that in
gifted adolescents there is a distinctive position
which consists in the attitude towards life as an
open, creative task in which man has to
consciously choose values and goals for his or
her existence and to seek ways and resources
to achieve them. There is a vividly manifested
desire to search the meaning of life and a
pronounced orientation towards the future.
Their distinctive feature is associated with the
demonstration of metaphorical ideas about
their life.
But at the same time it should be noted that
there are certain specifics regarding the
personal qualities and emotional and
behavioural manifestations in the different
categories of gifted children. There is an
interesting research performed by Wallach and
Kogan (11), showing the dependence of certain
personal characteristics of students on the ratio
between intellect and creativity. Of the total 4
output groups, three were directly related to
gifted children and the following specific
differences in their emotional and personal
characteristics were identified:
1) Children with a high level of intelligence
and creativity are highly socially active (they
demonstrated protest against boredom, the
deficiencies in the training programs, etc.); a
desire to attract attention to themselves was
expressed, over aggressiveness, self-
confidence, independence, sociability and
popularity among peers. They were able to
achieve internal freedom and external control
and their behaviour combined maturity and
infantile behaviour;
2) Children with low intelligence and high
creativity are unpopular among their peers;
they feel disadvantaged and often are in
constant conflict with their own selves and the
surrounding;
3) Highly intelligent children with low
creativity (with the so called "schools
brilliance") are characterized by self-
confidence, they are popular among their peers
and teachers. But they themselves will not seek
the society of their peers, do not show social
activity and take failures in learning painfully.
Regarding the above differences, it is very
important that parents do not fail to recognize
the specific personality and psycho-emotional
characteristics of their gifted children and to be
able to apply the most appropriate educational
methods and approaches according to these
characteristics.
Difficulties and problems with gifted
children
Scientists note that gifted children have
specific needs and thus often face many
difficulties and problems. If they are not taken
into account, that will not allow the children to
realize their potential. Generally, in society and
at school, sports and artistic talents are
perceived positively, but high intelligence does
not produce any serious sympathy. People are
annoyed by intellectuals. In this respect, it was
found that children with faster mental
ZLATEVA A., et al.
476 Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 13, Suppl. 1, 2015
development often try to hide their abilities so
as they do not seem "overly smart". Moreover,
they often find themselves among the laggards,
as they cannot overcome boredom and
therefore do not master sufficiently even the
necessary basic skills, so they come into
conflict with the environment.
A number of studies have established that
gifted children, having high, outstripping their
peers’ level of intellectual abilities, often show
some retardation in their physical, social and
psycho-emotional development. And this, in
turn, raises accompanying difficulties with
their social adaptation.
Among the problems of gifted children the
most common ones are the following:
1. Hostility towards the school environment
due to the fact that the curriculum does not
correspond to their abilities;
2. Preference for specific games: gifted
children like complex games, they do not show
interest in games which their peers with
average abilities find attractive;
3. Nonconformity: gifted children tend to
reject the standard requirements, especially if
those standards are not aligned with their
interests;
4. A certain detachment and inclination
towards philosophical questions involving
phenomena such as death, afterlife, religious
belief;
5. Discrepancy between the physical,
intellectual and social development: they
prefer to play with children of older age and
therefore find it difficult to take up leadership
positions.
Other scientists, studying the vulnerability of
gifted children, outline the following factors:
1. Striving for perfection, which
manifests itself very early;
2. Feeling of their own vulnerability:
they are exceptionally critical towards their
own achievements and hence exhibit a low
self-esteem;
3. Being hypersensitive: gifted children
tend to be hyperactive and constantly react to
different stimuli and incentives;
4. Need for adult attention, that
sometimes leads to monopolization, which in
turn creates tension with other children;
5. Intolerance in relation to children with
a lower level of intellectual development,
which can lead to repulsion of their peers.
The main danger that accompanies the lives of
gifted children is the fact that their exceptional
giftedness often leads to social isolation. Their
nonconformist and independent style of
communication determines their desire for
privacy - a desire which on the one hand
reflects the richness of their inner life and on
the other - becomes a necessity for the
development of their talents. At the same time
gifted children seek the support and approval
of those around them and may suffer from its
eventual lack. Not surprisingly, in comparison
with their peers, gifted children, especially
girls, admit experiencing great social and
emotional difficulties, including low self-
esteem and depression.
Due to the above reasons, the opinion that
giftedness is not only a gift but also a
challenge for the individual is asserting itself
among scientists.
Another difficulty, which gifted children often
face, is related to their inability to fully realize
their creative potential and that consequently
results in delinquent behaviour. Various
studies indicate that gifted children whose
achievements are lower compared to the level
of their abilities, experience serious problems
in terms of their emotional and personal
development, as well as in the field of
interpersonal relations. It is in fact that
inability to realize their creative potential
which appears to be one of the reasons for
school disadaptation.
Experience shows that the development of
giftedness and talent can be stopped and the
sometimes even lost at any stage of individual
development. Gifted children are not always
the most successful students. They have their
own problems and dramas. In the family, they
can experience a number of difficulties related
to misunderstanding on the part of parents. The
latter are worried by the strangeness of their
children, their detachment and perseverance,
and often demonstrate their clear desire for
their children to be like everyone else. At
school such children may also be neglected,
triggering their teachers’ irritation with their
extraordinary knowledge and mental abilities.
Students who demonstrate special abilities in
relatively specialized areas of studies within
the mainstream school in many cases remain
misunderstood. Educators and parents alike
tend to attribute such inconsistency in
motivation and intelligence to a child’s fault or
whim of character.
According to Torrance, gifted and highly able
children comprise about 30% of students
dropping out of school because of low
achievement scores. Studies by Guilford
indicate that, by the end of their school
education gifted and talented children
experience severe conditions of depression and
are forced to disguise their brilliance to hide it
from their peers and adults. Other studies show
ZLATEVA A., et al.
Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 13, Suppl. 1, 2015
477
that the suicide rate among gifted children is
2.5 times higher than among their peers.
This requires special support from the parents
(besides expert psychological and pedagogical
help) for the development of a talented and
gifted individual.
Proactive Parenting
The possibility of achieving remarkable results
is determined not only by giftedness, inborn
abilities and motivational factors, but also by
the conditions contributing to the full
manifestation of talents and the realization of
one’s creative potential. Talent development
requires appropriate family environment, the
lack of which may destroy it.
The fact that the development of creativity
requires a supportive environment including
the parents is evident in several studies. In
analysing biographies of gifted children and
prosperous adults it is often noted that their
family have focused on their interests and
needs - the parents have been attentive and
cordial, providing a stimulating environment at
home and actively encouraging the
development their children’s abilities.
A number of studies show that children who
are gifted in mathematics, chess, music, etc.
have lived in a family environment that is
conducive to the advancement of their talents
and that their parents have supported them
through encouragement and praises (12, 13).
Divergent thinking is characteristic for those
children whose parents have encouraged their
intellectual curiosity, stimulated their
intellectual activity and provided them with
considerable freedom to choose their interests
without preventing the expression of their true
individual characteristics.
It is extremely important for parents to be able
to quickly recognize the talents of their
children and contribute to their development.
A high level of creativity is observed in
children with a broad range of communication
and democratic mother-child relationship. This
testifies to the significant role of the conditions
of one’s life as well as the personal resources
in the development of giftedness and
creativity.
Scientists emphasize that providing the child
with a relative independence, freedom,
respectful attitude and lack of excessive
strictness outlines the range of conditions in
the family which favor the development of
giftedness. What is also important is paying
increased attention to the abilities of the child
and showing sincere interest and involvement
in his/her creative self-disclosure. Moreover,
families where on the one hand attention is
focused on the child and, on the other hand,
there is little external control on the child’s
behaviour, where creativity runs in the family
and where unconventional thinking and non-
stereotypical action are encouraged, children's
abilities and talents are brought forth.
Other factors contributing to creativity have
been pointed out:
1. broad range of communication,
including adults with artistic abilities;
2. surrounding environment of adults to
serve as role models;
3. equality in the relationship between
parents and children;
4. providing the child with an
opportunity for free emotional self-expression;
5. active, encouraging and supportive
position of adults;
6. inclusion to creativity by attending
various workshops and extra-curricular
activities;
7. inclusion to the joy of knowledge
through hands-on experience;
8. positive attitude towards the child’s
experiential activities.
Using appropriate methods of parental
guidance is essential in this respect. Among
these methods are:
1. Parents providing a positive example is one
of the key educational methods, especially for
younger children. It is good if the parents are
creative individuals and are able to
demonstrate to the child creative behaviour and
activity. Every adult has certain areas of
knowledge or activities he or she is good at. It
is important for the child to see how
enthusiastic his or her parents are.
2. Suitable object and spatial environment. In
other words, the home environment needs to
contribute to the development of the child’s
creative abilities. Adults should strive
constantly to provoke the interest of the child
and inspire children to long for creativity.
3. Collegial and democratic style of
communication. Collegiality and democracy in
communicating with the child create
conditions that are extremely important for the
formation and development of creative
abilities. On the contrary, the authoritarian
educational approach will produce obedient
and disciplined workers rather than creative
personalities. As properly noted by the famous
philosopher John Locke slavish discipline
generates slave character (14).
4. Reducing conformity. Interacting with the
child, the parent should be careful making the
distinction between useful, creative imitation
versus non-critical copying and unconditional
acceptance of the general opinion or position.
ZLATEVA A., et al.
478 Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 13, Suppl. 1, 2015
5. Support and development of the child’s
autonomy and independence. Ability to think,
decide and act individually and take
responsibility for his or her own actions - these
are the characteristics of creative behaviour
which are nurtured mostly in the family.
6. Stimulating curiosity and the asking of
unusual questions. Parents should not be afraid
of such questions, on the contrary, they need to
stimulate this process since the question is an
expression of the child’s interest and an
evidence for what seems to be an
unconventional and extraordinary view of the
world.
RESULTS
Gaining knowledge of what type of
characteristics are 'normal' for talented/gifted
young people. Discussion of the surrounding
situation of GAT children in Bulgaria. The
problems which GAT students encounter at
school and at home. Main problems with
working with gifted children at home were
identified. Creating tolerance in the parents’
attitude towards the problems appearing in the
intellectual and physiological development of
their GAT children. Educating parents about
the early manifestation of talents in different
areas of knowledge and art, when it comes to
GAT children. Discussions about the support
with finding, developing, and supporting a
talented kid.
Analysis of evaluation questionnaires results
after training of parents of gifted and talented
children shows that more than 90% of parents
think that workshop achieved its aim, for more
than 75% the workshop completely fulfilled
their expectations. Very interesting is to mark
that more of 90 % think their understanding
and attitude towards GAT students has
changed after workshop training. The
percentage of parents who think their
behaviour towards GAT students might change
after the workshop is the same. (cart 1)
In the registration form for the workshop
nearly 100 % of the participants noted they
think it would be useful to form a local GAT
Student Support Group. Some of them said:
“This group would be a great start for the
growing-up gifted and talented kids, directing
them to follow their inner desires, which are
crucial for their inner satisfaction.”
“It will help to develop of their potential,
giftedness and talents.”
“Very often children’s giftedness and talent are
found at school conditions but they didn't
develop. This is the reason it is necessary to
form local GAT Student Support Group.
“It will be useful for parents, teachers,
psychologists.”
“My attitude towards gifted and talented
children didn't change after the workshop
because it always has been positive, and I
always realised that they have special needs.
The workshop helped me understand how to
satisfy these needs of the talented child, even if
the child itself doesn't realize it is in a
possession of such a talent.
Cart 1.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Completely
Partially
Not at all
ZLATEVA A., et al.
Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 13, Suppl. 1, 2015
479
CONCLUSION
In conclusion as result of our work of training
of parents of gifted and talented children we
can note our conviction about necessity of
organizing this kind of training.
This training how we see help parents to learn
about:
What is giftedness?. And the special role of the
parents, which is to detect one or another kind
of intelligence in the child and to put targeted
efforts in order to create maximum beneficiary
conditions and opportunities for its further
development.
Features of the personality of gifted children. It
is very important that parents do not fail to
recognize the specific personality and psycho-
emotional characteristics of their gifted
children and to be able to apply the most
appropriate educational methods and
approaches according to these characteristics.
Difficulties and problems with gifted children.
To help parents to understand that giftedness
is not only a gift but also a challenge for the
individual is asserting itself among scientists.
Proactive parenting for awakening and
developing the creative potential of the child.
In the training course parents realized that
divergent thinking is characteristic for those
children whose parents have encouraged their
intellectual curiosity, stimulated their
intellectual activity and provided them with
considerable freedom to choose their interests
without preventing the expression of their true
individual characteristics.
On the other side is important a feedback that
we have to learn about problems and
difficulties that parents of gifted and talented
children have with them. To discuss of the
surrounding situation of GAT children in
Bulgaria. To speak about the problems which
GAT students encounter at school and at home.
The main problems with working with gifted
children at home were identified.
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Supplementary resource (1)

... En años recientes se ha podido observar un creciente interés de las familias con hijos con altas capacidades por formarse y buscar ayuda en un terreno que con el paso del tiempo se ha visto rodeado de mitos y falsas creencias (Dare y Nowicki, 2015;Renati et al., 2017;Zlateva y Lavrentsova, 2015). Lamentablemente en esta búsqueda se topan con una gran desinformación promovida y reforzada muchas veces por los medios de comunicación, las redes sociales o instituciones de poco prestigio, dando lugar a una cultura que poco aprecia el valor de la inclusión y la diversidad, lo que puede llegar a influir sobre la correcta toma de decisiones, así como la comprensión y apoyo hacia los hijos más capaces (Gülşah y Nilgün, 2014). ...
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Psychology of creation, creativity and giftedness
  • E P Ilyin
Ilyin, E.P., Psychology of creation, creativity and giftedness, Peter Press, St. Petersburg., 2009, P. 216.
Giftedness as a problem of modern education: Psychology of consciousness: the current state and problems. Proceeding of the I All-Russian Conference
  • V I Panov
Panov, V. I., Giftedness as a problem of modern education: Psychology of consciousness: the current state and problems. Proceeding of the I All-Russian Conference. Samara, 2007. P. 472-484.
Guiding creative talent. Englewood Cloffs. NY
  • E P Torrance
Torrance, E. P., Guiding creative talent. Englewood Cloffs. NY. Prentice-Hall. 1962.
Personality characteristics of intellectually gifted junior school: Proceedings of the IV All-Russian Congress of the Russian Psychological Society
  • N Myakisheva
Myakisheva, N. M, Personality characteristics of intellectually gifted junior school: Proceedings of the IV All-Russian Congress of the Russian Psychological Society. М., 2007. V. 2. P. 351.
Creativity in the personality structure: PhD thesis abstract
  • E A Soldatova
Soldatova, E. A., Creativity in the personality structure: PhD thesis abstract. СПб.,1996.