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The study of gifts and talents and how various innate abilities interact with one’s environment, personality, educational opportunities, family support, and life experiences has fascinated psychologists, educators, and parents for decades. Many are intrigued with the reasons that one child with remarkably high potential born into a particular family in a particular environment grows up to become a neurosurgeon while a child of similar intellectual potential who lives in the same community and attends the same schools decides to drop out of high school. What have researchers and scholars learned in the past few decades about the nature of talent development and intellectual giftedness? What general concepts are widely accepted about intellectual giftedness? How is it defined and how can it be developed? What combinations of genetic abilities and talents interact with one’s personality and environment to produce intellectual giftedness? In this chapter, these questions, none of which can be answered simply, are discussed and current research about intellectual giftedness is summarized. As the research reviewed in this chapter points out, core concepts about giftedness relate to the diversity of expression of gifts and talents, as there are no more varied groups of people than those labeled intellectually gifted. Those labeled gifted as children and/or adults are found in every ethnic and socioeconomic group and culture. They exhibit an unlimited range of personal and learning characteristics and differ in effort, temperament, educational and vocational attainment, productivity, creativity, risk taking, introversion, and extraversion. We begin our review of research related to intellectual giftedness with a discussion of these themes, summarizing highlights about research on intellectual giftedness in the United States, including some work that is considered seminal, and presenting an overview of what we believe to be some interesting and potentially important theories to date. We conclude the chapter with some interesting new research-based trends related to emerging ideas in defining and developing academic gifts and talents. It is important to understand, however, that scholars and researchers continue to debate definitions of giftedness, how intellectual giftedness develops, and the characteristics of diverse groups of high-potential youth that will help educators and psychologists to identify and nurture intellectual gifts and talents. To illustrate the challenges associated with both defining and identifying giftedness in students, four brief case studies are introduced. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Back in the late 1970s, immediately after I received my PhD, I recognized what I saw as a need for a handbook that would integrate theory, research, and practice in the field of human intelligence. The resulting product was the Handbook of Human Intelligence, which also was my first book with Cambridge University Press. By 2011, the first Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence was published, edited by myself and Scott Barry Kaufman. The book was up to forty-two chapters and more than 900 pages in a large printed format. And now I present what will be, for me, almost certainly the last edition of the handbook I edit: the Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence (2nd ed.), which contains fifty chapters and 1250 pages. The monotonic increase in the number of chapters over the successive versions of the handbook represents the huge expansion of the field since the publication of the original handbook. Concepts such as emotional intelligence, collective intelligence, mating intelligence, practical intelligence, and leadership intelligence had not yet been proposed. Although social intelligence had been studied, the research had been of psychometric tests not all so different from what was to be found on standard intelligence tests. The chapter on biological foundations in the original handbook had almost no overlap with the current chapter, so much has the field changed since then. The Flynn effect had only recently been discovered and the field had not yet realized how important the finding of secular increases in intelligence would be. Chapters on intelligence and wisdom or intelligence and expertise could barely have been written because the literatures at the time were so thin. In only the near-decade since the first Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence came out, the field has again been transformed. And that is the reason why I am editing this last, for me, edition of the handbook, hoping that someone else takes over the next edition. Because, although I may grow old, the field is still a relatively young one, at least in the multiple and diverse forms it takes today. It is hard even to speculate what a handbook of intelligence for 2030 will look like. And that is precisely what makes the field so exciting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: preface)

The concept of 'twice-exceptionality', defined as children who have both unique cognitive capacity (i.e., giftedness or talent) and mental or physical disability, was coined more than four decades ago when programs were being developed that aimed to address the needs of gifted children with specific learning disorders or other disabilities. In recent years, there has been growing attention to the complexity of "twice-exceptional" children, and while there is still debate regarding the conceptual definition and clinical assessment of the term 'twice exceptional', children who are academically gifted or talented (GT) and diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) pose a great challenge for researchers and mental health practitioners. This chapter emphasizes the clinical complexity exhibited by these children and suggests that framing this topic within a well-established motivational theory can enhance the understanding of this specific phenomenon and create a more unified approach to the study of the characteristics, implications, and interventions pertinent to this subgroup of twice-exceptional children. The main reason to focus on children who are both GT and have ADHD is that their symptomology is often manifested in a very complex pattern. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter offers both statistical data and potential reasons explaining the gender gap between parents of boys and girls seeking help for their gifted children. The issue of gender and giftedness has been a "hot" one both in the scientific literature of giftedness and in the media for many decades. It has been discussed in educational and psychological debates, as well as among policy-makers in all countries that deal with the subject of gifted education. One of the main questions has been: why are less girls than boys identified as gifted? This important issue has substantially contributed to the academic careers of many social scientists, mainly educators and psychologists. The chapter presents an in-depth analysis of all girls' parents who contacted the author in the years 2014; some comparisons will be made with those who contacted the author during the next year, 2015, and in a few cases also with those seeking help for their gifted daughters during the whole 2010-2019 decade. As the number of parents contacting the author each year was well over 100, it presents some general conclusions regarding the girls' age, gender, nature of the problem, etc. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

The focus of this book is summarized in the first word of its title: UNDERSTANDING. Unlike thousands of scientific papers and books, that for a whole century had been discussing definitions, ways of diagnosing, ways of academic nurturing, policy-related issues, such as the need to finance special education for gifted students, who is to benefit from gifted education, or the ongoing dialogue between those in favor of equity in education and others who demand that "each student receives their most suitable learning opportunity", the book is about the best ways of matching educational and psychological means and methods, in order to tailor the best-fitting garments to any gifted child. The first step of this complicated process needed in order to accomplish it is understanding gifted children. But the term "understanding gifted children" might be quite misleading. Rich Harris (2007) has written a whole volume about the issue considered one of the biggest mysteries of psychology: the causes for the differences in personality and behavior not just between each two strangers, but also between siblings, twins, and even identical twins. Thus, any trial to include individuals in the same group for the sake of providing ALL their needs must be unsuccessful. This fact has been the main reason for the failure of gifted education in Israel. However, when being somewhat more modest, trying to understand the different needs–whether educational, emotional or social–of various gifted children, those considered "highly-gifted" and the others who are perceived as "mildly-gifted"; children who are interested in science and others who tend to the humanities, or to arts; chess Olympic champions or child-musicians, or actors, one might be more successful. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: preface)

This book offers educators, counselors and parents of 3-16-year old gifted, talented, curious, and creative children and youths a new, original tool of assessing their interests and abilities. As this book has been published during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, it concentrates on ways of assessment that can all function on-line as well. All offered activities have been practiced both before "corona-time" started, when on-line therapy, let alone—on-line giftedness identification, was not common for children. The case studies presented in the book have all been written since March 2019, proved effective, enriching the knowledge of the counselor. All activities described were perceived as "easy", "nice", pleasant" and "interesting" by the children involved, and thus are recommended; unlike formal identification they put no pressure either on the child or on her or his parents. The first assessed child described is a 3-year old girl, who was identified as highly gifted in mathematics. The "game" played was "The geometric shapes game", during which she was asked "what do you want me [the counselor] to paint?" and then: "what color do you want me to use?". During the "game" the child showed a wide knowledge in both 2- and 3-dimensional shapes, she always insisted on using the exact mathematical terms, and each time she approved on the result she was very happy. The next "games" descried were all word games. In "the associations game" the counselor writes a word and the child adds another one without thinking, and this goes on alternately for as long as the counselor decides, depending on the child's age, her or his attention span, level of hunger or thirst, etc. This "game" is suitable for toddlers, kindergartners and first grader. The "ugly words game" is suitable especially for children with emotional and social problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: book)

The chapter emphasizes on charismatic children who are in the Autism Spectrum. Gifted children are often referred to as twice-exceptional, a specific term that highlights the co-occurrence of exceptional challenges and exceptional giftedness. Furthermore, the purpose of this chapter is to reassert the challenge to identify and support twice-exceptional children during their early educational years. Developing individualized educational and intervention approaches for these children and their families is a need in order to help them reach their full potentials. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This new book by scholars and practitioners Susan Paik, Stacy Kula, Jeremiah González, and Verónica González is important and valuable. It represents a ground-breaking approach that describes for those on the frontlines of school improvement, policymaking, and research what positive success in gaining access to higher education actually looks like for Latino students, the nation’s largest minority population. Latino students are everywhere in this nation. They are no longer confined to large urban districts or border states, but are an emerging majority in many rural and some suburban school districts throughout our country. Figuring out what contributes to their academic success and their access to higher education becomes an important part of the nation’s quest to improve its economic standing and productivity on the world stage. Turning a spotlight on what factors contribute to Latino student success is the heart and soul of this timely volume. How family, culture, home environment, resources and preparation all play vital roles in developing students who beat both the odds and the conventional stereotypes about Latinos is captured in rich detail, including the often-overlooked voices of the students themselves. In addition to being the right book at the right time, these editors should be congratulated for giving us a stellar example of how a research-practice collaboration comes together to produce such a valuable and lasting contribution to the field of school reform and improvement. Those who work in schools, universities, think tanks and policymaking centers have been waiting anxiously for this kind of book, and it’s now here. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: foreword)

In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor made history as the first Latina and the third female Supreme Court Justice since 1789. Sotomayor’s journey took her from a single-parent home in a Bronx housing project to the Supreme Court. Although many women of color have succeeded, very little is known about their stories and what helped them to become accomplished (Kitano, 1998). Based on the Productive Giftedness Model (Paik, 2013, 2015), this chapter discusses key factors that led to Sotomayor’s success. As a biographical case study, content analyses helped determine key themes throughout her school and life experiences. Sotomayor exhibited “productive giftedness” early on through her achievements, determination, and skills, which led to productive outcomes such as academic excellence, awards, prestigious schools, and leadership opportunities (Paik, 2013). Key findings and implications include individual, instructional, and environmental factors such as motivation, family and school support, teachers, mentors, peers, and contextual factors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter provides an overview on recent thinking about gifted and talented children and youth. The chapter briefly discusses a history of gifted education and then tackles some big picture issues and future possibilities. The chapter addresses a number of questions, including the following: Who are the gifted? How are gifted identified? Is giftedness domain-specific or domain-general? How malleable is giftedness? Does giftedness represent a qualitative or quantitative difference? How does the concept of expertise fit into gifted education? The chapter concludes with future directions and challenges facing the gifted field. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

The purpose of this Handbook is to provide a comprehensive representation of the development of this field of study. As such, we offer traditional and contemporary perspectives, and importantly, a multidiscipline-multimethod view of the state-of-the-science and -engineering research on expertise. Our aim is to present different perspectives, theories, and methods of conducting expertise research that have been influential in improving our current understanding of expert phenomena across a range of domains. Our second aim is to provide a particular focus on conveying how that understanding has been applied to address practical problems and societal challenges. In particular, the Handbook focuses on how this understanding has been translated into reliable predictions useful to society, and into effective interventions that can improve all facets of proficiency, performance, security, safety, health, and well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: introduction)

The Law of the Republic of Indonesia No. 20 of 2003 on the National Education System requires the government to provide special educational services for citizens with extraordinary intelligence and talents. These citizens are known as gifted people who are capable of high-quality performance because of their above-average intelligence and creativity, and their high level of task commitment (Renzulli, 1978). Unfortunately, Indonesia still has no specific measurement tool to assess the third trait of giftedness in junior high school students; namely, task commitment. A task commitment measurement tool is needed to filter gifted students out of whole population so that they can successfully participate in the available special education services. Therefore, the goal of this study is to create a new Task Commitment Scale specifically for junior high school students. From our data analysis, we found that the 35-item Task Commitment Scale we constructed has a desirable reliability of α = 0.884, cr it = 0.200 to 0.627, and factor loading of 0.22-0.88. All the findings of the test properties, applicability, and limitations are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Academic procrastination is an important issue because it has been found to be associated with poor psychological outcomes in childhood including educational underachievement as well as school maladjustment (e.g., Howell et al., Pers Individ Dif 40:1519–1530, 2006; Kim and Seo, Pers Individ Dif 82:26–33, 2015). The external and internal worlds of young people contribute to the growing numbers of students who procrastinate at doing assigned schoolwork and as a result achieve far lower results than they are capable of. In some countries, educational underachievement as distinct from achievement continues to be of great concern and to some extent researched. Demographic factors researched as being associated with underachievement include gender, ethnicity, intellectual giftedness, and socioeconomic disadvantage (Banerjee, J Cogent Educ 3:1–17, 2016; Ozer et al., J Soc Psychol 149:241–257, 2009). This chapter defines educational underachievement and reviews different types of underachievers, with significant attention placed on a rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) analysis of academic procrastination and underachievement. A number of case studies that illustrate how REBT can be used to overcome the different types educational underachievement and to combat procrastination are presented. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: book)

Gifted education in the United States is not a high priority. Federal funding is allocated primarily through the Javits Act, a federal initiative that funds intervention research aimed at traditionally underserved populations of gifted learners. Poverty has many deleterious effects on children, and these can begin at birth. The achievement gap is present at the start of school and persists through all levels of schooling. This chapter provides several strategies for schools to use in operationalizing giftedness using a talent development framework. Very often, schools or districts rely on teachers to recommend students for gifted services as either a first step in their identification protocol or as a major component in the identification process. The field of gifted education has tended to approach programming with a one-size-fits-all strategy. Schools can help students envision a future trajectory and identity within their talent area by exposing them to professionals that share their educational and career paths. The image associated with school psychology and gifted education is typically an IQ test. School psychology training includes the limitations of individual test scores, the understanding of potential, and the important role that culture and identity can play in performance outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: create)

The purpose of this dissertation was to discover the unique characteristics and emotional needs of gifted children (and by inference gifted teens and adults) to better understand their personality and emotional vulnerabilities that might possibly predispose them to trauma. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to discover the intersection between the common characteristics of giftedness, frequency of trauma, and effective and efficient models of trauma recovery. This writer discovered an alarming research gap indicating the need for further serious study regarding the effects of trauma on gifted children. We hope this dissertation facilitates greater understanding for parents, friends, professionals in the areas of education, medicine, and mental health, and the public in general regarding the unique personality characteristics and emotional needs of gifted children who are not better-than, but simply different, and how to judiciously identify and resolve trauma so painful setbacks to living their fullest potential may be healed and roadblocks removed, allowing them to live fuller, more satisfying lives and possibly bring urgently needed options and benefits to society and our planet. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The underrepresentation of Latin students in gifted programs is a serious problem that plagues public schools nationwide. Traditionally, teachers' nomination is the most frequent method used for identifying students for gifted programs. Seeking to understand how teachers' perceptions of giftedness influenced the nomination of potentially gifted Latin students, this qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with eight participants and a follow-up focus group in a Midwestern urban district. The researcher used a hermeneutic phenomenological approach as part of the analytical framework. This research identified several major findings: 1) most participants had narrow and subjective definitions of giftedness that varied based on their levels of training and teaching experience, but none of the participants' definitions were culturally inclusive. However, their conceptual definitions of giftedness did not necessarily mirror their description of robust referral and teaching practices; 2) teachers' perceptions of potentially gifted Latin students influenced the nomination process that varied due to their different biases and cultural models; 3) Latin parents were not involved in the nomination process and most teachers did not appear to value their participation. Some teachers expressed a deficit perspective of these families and students; 4) all participants increased the nomination of potentially gifted Latin students using traditional and nontraditional assessment tools; 5) three out of the four schools lacked adequate programming to meet the needs of potentially gifted Latin students.Key terms: underrepresentation, giftedness, teachers' perceptions, identification. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Background: English Learners (ELs) are vastly underrepresented in gifted and talented (GT) programs compared to their peers in other mainstream populations. ELs are a growing population in the nation's public-school system. Although this population is seeing growth at a fast pace, the enrollment of ELs in gifted programming continues to lag. Existing methods of identifying students with gifts and talents rely on the use of standardized testing to measure general intelligence (Beyer & Johnson, 2014). Further, classroom teachers often serve as gatekeepers to gifted identification, with teacher nominations commonly used as a referral tool in the process. Given this, both the methods for evaluating students for GT programs and implicit bias on behalf of teachers can serve as a barrier to identifying gifted English learners. Purpose: The study examined existing gifted identification practices in Region 4 (R4) districts and their impact on the number of ELs identified for GT programs. RQs: 1.) What are current practices in identifying students for gifted programming among a sample of districts in R4? 2.) What are the differences in the percentage of ELs identified for GT programs using the various identification practices? Methods: Descriptive data from school districts in R4 and their GT procedures was utilized. R4 represents the Houston area and serves a diverse population of more than 1.2 million students. Fourteen school districts in R4 were identified as the sample for this study based on specific criteria. Data collected from districts about their use of various methods and processes to identify giftedness was described. Descriptive data provided a general overview of GT identification practices within R4. Linear regression was used to analyze data. Results: Descriptive statistics showed that disparities existed in R4 in the percentages of both GT enrollment and ELs in GT. One-half of the sample has EL enrollment that ranges from 20%-40%. The sample relies heavily on the use of ability testing along with parent and teacher ratings. Variance was found in the utilization of achievement testing. A linear regression found that the percentage of ELs enrolled in a school district was significant in determining the number of ELs subsequently identified as GT. A second linear regression showed that the use of achievement testing did not have a significant impact on the number of ELs identified for GT. Conclusion: R4 has a disproportionate representation of ELs in GT programs. R4 struggles with meeting the needs of its largest sub-population, as GT enrollment is not indicative of enrollment trends of the region. Existing identification practices serve as a barrier for equitable representation in GT programs. School districts with high enrollment rates of ELs also saw higher rates of ELs in GT. Literature supports that the use of achievement testing measures the concepts its intended to, but fails to comprehensively identify giftedness in the various ways it may manifest. Expanding universal screening procedures is an implication for practice while further research should focus on the rate of language acquisition as a factor to determine giftedness in ELs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Leaders influence their surroundings in many ways. In companies, leaders impact work satisfaction, commitment, and engagement (Kouzes & Posner, 2015). In schools, leaders affect student behavior and learning outcomes (Wallace, 2006). Utilizing the Productive Giftedness Model (Paik, 2013, 2015), the present research examines the individual aptitude, instructional, and environmental factors that influence the development of young leaders in Indonesia. Participants in the study were recruited by Indonesia Mengajar, a highly selective intervention program in Indonesia which aims to improve educational conditions around the nation through the mobilization and equipping of local stakeholders. In order to examine leader development from the early to later years, the study uses a mixed-method approach that includes an online survey and a structured interview. Findings from the study demonstrate that leaders are made through a combination of opportunity, support, and resources. Most importantly, findings point to the integral role parents and schools play in the development of leaders and leader-related skills. Parents, educators and policymakers should ensure that every child has access to favorable conditions that will help cultivate leader-related skills from an early age. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Given the historic underrepresentation of minority and low-income students in gifted programs, this study sought to address the unique characteristics of the gifted student while also considering the uniqueness of the student’s school community. The initial design compared the use of dynamic intellectual assessment to traditional (or static) assessment for identifying eligibility in such programs.COVID-19 restrictions determined a redesign, since this national emergency precluded access to school buildings by students, staff, and families, which meant the comparison of assessment instruments would not be possible. As a result, a qualitative case study was employed, examining related research questions important to the problem of underrepresentation among minority and low-income students.The research question is as follows: In a school serving a predominantly African American community, how do stakeholders describe what they see in children who reveal a “gifted spark”? What do stakeholders identify as resources that nurture children with potential gifts and talents and what do they see as obstacles? Interviews were conducted with teachers, parents, and administrators via the Zoom online platform.Findings suggest that stakeholder perceptions understand giftedness as evident in a variety of realms including intellectual ability, academic achievement, creativity, and leadership. Participants also proposed the possibility of a “leadership community” to nurture the gifted student within the school community, where there is no designated “gifted” program. The study contributes to the literature in conceptualizing giftedness from the perspective of teachers, administrators, and parents in an educational setting serving a high population of Black/African-American students. It points to strategies and resources for addressing the problem of underrepresentation, including the use of alternative assessment instruments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Gifted college students often arrive at universities with high GPAs and/or ACT/SAT scores. Their achievements in extracurricular activities such as in the arts, athletics, service, and leadership are well beyond the average student. To admissions representatives and faculty, these students look well-adjusted and successful on paper. However, many of these gifted college students come with unique challenges that go misunderstood, ignored, and underserved during their years in higher education—specifically involving their mental health. There are copious amounts of literature on gifted K-12 students and their mental health behaviors but very limited research done on the gifted college student population. Although gifted research declines after the twelfth grade, giftedness does not end as those students age. Along with being gifted, some of these individuals also experience mental health issues throughout their lifetimes. When giftedness and mental health overlap, the individual is considered twice-exceptional. Twice-exceptionality includes physical and learning disabilities, but the term can also describe a person who has a mental health diagnosis that coincides with their giftedness. Because twice-exceptional individuals tend to mask their mental health issues very well, it is difficult to identify that they need support—especially when they are in college. With my professional experience in honors education, I came to realize some of these twice-exceptional college experiences and stories have never been heard. The purpose of my dissertation is to bring these narratives into the light with the hopes of more widespread understanding of their specific needs. In order to understand the trends and challenges of twice-exceptional college students, I present a literature review as well as identify research gaps. Using a qualitative research design, I shape interview questions for my participants that illustrate their past experiences with growing up as twice-exceptional along with their present journeys as twice-exceptional college students. I use narrative and discourse analysis to bring their experiences and voices together in conversation with one another to give readers a clearer picture of what it is like to be a twice-exceptional college student. As a result of this analysis, my study culminates in better understanding the twice-exceptional student experience in terms of their behaviors, academic performance, social lives, and the intersectionality of their gender. My participants also gave insight into how universities can better support this student population through honors education programs, holistic academic advising, counseling and support groups, as well as more flexibility and understanding from university administration, faculty, and staff. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)