What is the difference between gifted and talented

The talents and abilities of these students will be far superior to the others of the same age. Talented students can be identified by both quantitative and qualitative methods. Gifted means having exceptional talent or natural ability. Talented means having a natural aptitude or skill for something.

Gifted learners have outstanding abilities in one or more academic subjects. Talented learners have exceptional abilities in one or more practical subjects. By definition, students with gifts or talents are capable of creative, committed work at levels that often approach talented adults. Other students—including students with disabilities—may reach these levels, but not as soon and not as frequently.

Many educators therefore think of the gifted and talented not as examples of students with disabilities, but as examples of diversity. As such they are not so much the responsibility of special education specialists, as the responsibility of all teachers to differentiate their instruction.

Either strategy works, but only up to a point: children who have skipped a grade usually function well in the higher grade, both academically and socially. Unfortunately skipping grades cannot happen repeatedly unless teacher, parents, and the students themselves are prepared to live with large age and maturity differences within single classrooms.

In itself, too, there is no guarantee that instruction in the new, higher-grade classroom will be any more stimulating than it was in the former, lower-grade classroom. Redesigning the curriculum is also beneficial to the student, but impractical to do on a widespread basis; even if teachers had the time to redesign their programs, many non-gifted students would be left behind as a result.

Enrichment involves providing additional or different instruction added on to the usual curriculum goals and activities. Instead of moving ahead to more difficult kinds of math programs, the student might work on unusual logic problems not assigned to the rest of the class.

Like acceleration, enrichment works well up to a point. Enrichment curricula exist to help classroom teachers working with gifted students and save teachers the time and work of creating enrichment materials themselves. Since enrichment is not part of the normal, officially sanctioned curriculum, however, there is a risk that it will be perceived as busywork rather than as intellectual stimulation, particularly if the teacher herself is not familiar with the enrichment material or is otherwise unable to involve herself in the material fully.

To support our educators and provide necessary professional development in gifted education, we need to collaborate as a nation, explicitly incorporating gifted in our curriculum, teaching standards, under-graduate studies and on-going post-graduate professional development.

Gifted NSW is welcoming to all who feel they may benefit from our events, without entry criteria. Some events will by necessity require age restrictions, and events will open for registration to members before becoming available to non-members. Gifted NSW representatives do not provide recommendations regarding schools, programs or professionals unless these are comments from personal experience and not considered representative of the association.

Families are encouraged to seek advice and information from a range of sources, and especially to consider the evidence base of any program or approach they may be considering, but to also understand that ultimately the decisions are very individual ones and what is right for one child may not suit another.

See our upcoming events. FAQs What is Giftedness? What is the difference between Gifted and Talented? Is Gifted NSW just a parent group? While some people do draw a distinction between the labels "gifted" and "talented," professional educators most often put them together and discuss how to teach the "gifted and talented" child. The U. Department of Education officially defines gifted children as those "with outstanding talent who perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience or environment.