Ellen Winner The Origins and Ends of Giftedness Abstract: -origins of giftedness are explored -view that giftedness

is entirely a product of training is critiqued -intense motivation of gifted children is discussed -argues that gifted children have social and emotional difficulties that set them apart -evidence for the uneven cognitive profiles of such children is presented -relationship between childhood giftedness and domain creativity in adulthood is discussed -few gifted children go on to become adult creators because the skills and personality factors required to be a creator are very different from those typical of gifted children Intro: -gifted children and prodigies display near-adult level skills and interests -we know more about retardation because of the wider phenomenon of psychologys focus on the pathological rather than the healthy -focuses on origins and causes of giftedness critiques view that figtedness is entirely a product of training and practice and argues there is indirect evidence for atypical brain organization and innate talen in gifted children gifted children and savants enhanced right-hemisphere development, concomitant language-related difficulties, and autoimmune disorders -discusses motivational characteristics of gifted children far more intrinsically motivated -discusses social and emotional difficulties that set them apart from others -uneven cognitive profiles -proposes 3 ways to think about the ends of giftedness: (1) positive sense to the adult endpoint (2) negative sense to refer to the potential disappearance of giftedness after childhood (3) refer to goals we should expect gifted children to fulfill if we are to give them extra societal resources ORIGINS AND CAUSES OF GIFTEDNESS The Disputed Role of Training -traditional view of giftedness is nativist; some psychologists argue it is entirely a product of goal-directed hard work (deliberate practice) -savants work obsessively in their area of ability, and it is the countless hours they spend drawing/doing mental calculation etc. that have led to the suggestion that the savants skills are the product of deliberate practice -case studies of creative people show that all great achievement is associated with years of deep and prolonged work -Roe found that outstanding achievement in science was predicted by the participants capacity for endurance, concentration, and commitment rather than

their level of intellectual ability (but all participants were high in intellectual ability to begin with) high ability is necessary but not sufficient -Bloom showed that adults in a variety of domains did not achieve high levels of performance without a long and intensive period of training however, prior to any given training or deliberate practice, her subjects showed signs of unusual ability -hard work and innate ability have not been unconfounded even in Ericssons work -if exceptional abilities emerge prior to intensive instruction and training, the abilities are likely to reflect atypical, innate potential -the argument for savants outstanding amount of practice leaves unexplained the fact that, like gifted children, savants show extremely high abilities right from the start -also cannot explain why savants are only found in domains that are highly rule governed and structured rather than in looser domains such as higher mathematics, abstract painting, philosophy etc. motivation to practice may be the result rather than the cause of high ability -gifted children and savants have atypical brain organization -giftedness in math, visual arts, and music is associated with superior visual-spatial abilities, and children with math gifts show enhanced brain activity in their right hemisphere when asked to recognize faces, a task known to involve the right hemisphere -these individuals are also disproportionately nonright-handed suggests anomalous brain dominance -math and musically gifted children have a more bilateral, symmetrical brain organization than usual, with the right hemisphere participating in tasks ordinarily reserved for the left hemisphere -giftedness in spatial areas is accompanied by a disproportionate incidence of language-related learning disorders such as dyslexia -youths with very high IQs have increased incidence of autoimmune problems -these signs and symptoms are accounted for by Geschwind and Galaburdas theory of pathology of superiority, in which an association between spatial (righthemisphere) gifts, linguistic (left-hemisphere) deficits, nonright-handedness, and immune disorders is argued to be a consequence of testosterone-induced alterations of the fetal brain -testosterone is argued to inhibit some areas of the brain while stimulating others Role of Families -the deliberate-practice hypothesis reflects an overly optimistic view of the power of nature; a negative view is reflected in the claim that gifted children are created by driving, overambitious parents -however, it is impossible to drive an ordinary child to the kinds of high achievements seen in gifted children and they typically report that families play a positive role in their development -the nature of families cannot lead us to conclude that certain family characteristics cause giftedness because there is a lack of relevant control groups and you cannot determine the direction of causation, however

-gifted children typically grow up in enriched family environments with a high level of intellectual or artistic stimulation gifted children could demand enriched environments or elicit such environments due to their inborn ability -parents of gifted children typically have high expectations and also model hard work and high achievement -parents of children in performance domains like music and athletics are the most directive; parents of children in visual arts are the least directive; and parents with children gifted in academics are somewhere in between -since giftedness requires rigorous/early training, even the most gifted children might not stick to such a rigorous schedule without a directive parent -these parents also grant their children more independence (causation unclear) -gifted children who grow up in complex families those that combine stimulation and nurturance are happier, more alert, more engaged, and more goal directed report more states of flow and high energy, and are rated by teachers as original, independence, and working up to their potential -gifted children who drop out of domains of talent report parents who are too directive or too uninvolved Implications for Education and Child Rearing -hard work, perseverance, and practice are necessary, though insufficient, to explain giftedness -thus parents and schools should hold and model high(er) expectations in order for gifted children to reach their potential -standards and expectations are too low for all students in North America -children ought to be able to take advanced classes in their domain of gift at all grades -too often parents fear pushing their children too hard maybe they are hindering potential giftedness -Csikszentmihalyi has shown correlational findings that given a high-potential child, certain kinds of family constellations are most likely to succeed in maintaining and nurturing the gift -cannot prove causation but until there is evidence of no causal role, we should encourage parents to foster nurturance and stimulation MOTIVATIONAL ASPECTS OF GIFTEDNESS -gifted children have a deep intrinsic motivation to master the domain in which they have high ability and are almost manic in their energy level -they combine an obsessive interest with an ability to learn easily in a given domain -unless social and emotional factors interfere, this leads to high achievement -this rage to master characterizes children we have traditionally labeled gifted (high IQ, excel in school) and those we traditionally label as talented (music, arts, athletics) -this is a distinction with no basis: the intense drive is the same for both and should be recognized, celebrated, and cultivated -when not stimulated enough in school, may lose motivation

-when parents/teachers try to make students more well-rounded, they may stifle their drive in their domain of interest -therefore, teachers should seek to find out what motivates and excites individual students and harness this drive toward learning SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LIVES OF GIFTED CHILDREN -in a recent report (1985) it was estimated that the rate of social and emotional difficulties experienced by profoundly academically gifted children is about twice the rate found among the nongifted (about vs. 1/8) extreme levels of giftedness lead to isolation so in middle childhood these children may try to hid their abilities in hopes of becoming more popular gifted girls are more apt to do this, and such girls report more depression, lower self-esteem, and more psychosomatic symptoms than academically gifted boys -teenagers with gifts in visual arts, music, and athletics have as many difficulties with their peers; have shown to be atypical in that they are highly driven, nonconforming, and independent thinkers -gifted children of all domains tend to be introverted; gain stimulation form themselves more than from others solitude is a requisite for the development of their talent -despite liking solitude more than others, may report a preference to be with others difficult to find like-minded peers strongest argument for placing gifted children in advanced classes is so that they can mix with equally gifted, like-minded peers but often schools disband such offerings in the name of egalitarianism COGNITIVE PROFILES OF GIFTED AND PRODIGIOUS CHILDREN -psychologists typicaly assess academic giftedness with an IQ test the assumption underlying this use is that academically gifted children are generally gifted in all academic subjects -these children are notationally gifted able to master the two kinds of notational symbol systems valued in school (language and numbers) -however the majority of gifted children present a much less balanced picture -this is not surprising, considering the abilities that underlie mathematical giftedness differ sharply from those that underlie verbal giftedness -jagged profiles also characterize children gifted in music and art (can exist alongside average or subnormal IQ); also savants exemplify this -yet musically gifted children typically do very well academically relation between music, IQ and academic skills may come from studies of children with educated parents who provide enriched family environments also, learning to read music and practice regularly might transfer to school performance -children gifted in visual arts and athletics typically show a lack of interest in academic achievement (arts even less committed) -gifts in the visual-spatial area may bring with it a language-based learning disability e.g. dyslexia is often accompanied by gifts in visual-spatial arena

 late-talking children have been found to have high spatial abilities and have relatives in spatial professions such as engineering -systematic studies have revealed mixed findings however -educational programs for the gifted that just rely on IQ are likely to miss unevenly gifted children and treat children with verbal and mathematical gifts the same should be more tailored -children with gifts in art are expected to get extracurricular training especially in music THE ENDS OF GIFTEDNESS When Giftedness Ends in Big-C Creativity -the highest possible endpoint of childhood giftedness is certainly creativity in the sense of domain-altering innovation (big-C creativity) -societies need experts, and we can neither expect nor hope that all prodigies will become creators, though al to do -only a fraction of gifted children eventually become revolutionary adult creators -those who do must make a painful transition form a child prodigy (learning easily) to an adult creator (person who disrupts and ultimately remakes a domain) -individuals who are creative in the big-C sense have a personality structure different form that of the typical gifted (and nongifted) child: they are rebellious, they have a desire to alter the status quo, and they have often suffered childhoods of stress and trauma -their families are often a far cry from the complex families of engaged gifted adolescents; also disproportionate incidence of manic depression perhaps link between creativity and psychopathology -in sports, there is no transition to be made from technical perfection to creative interpretation -in contrast, in music, mathematics, writing, or the visual arts, the situation is much more difficult for the prodigy have to come up with a new way to solve some unsolved mathematical problem or discover new problems or areas to investigate although may not drop out of the field, will not get big-C creativity -technical perfection wins the prodigy adoration, but if the prodigy does not eventually go beyond technical perfection into originality, he or she sinks into oblivion -one inevitable reason is the funnel is small not enough room at the top for all prodigies to become creators -also, the skill of being a prodigy is not the same prodigy must master an alreadyestablished domain; creator must change a domain personality and will are crucial factors, must be able to manage multiple related projects at the same time (what Gruber calls a network of enterprise) When Giftedness Ends -for child prodigies, expertise have won them fame and adoration but it is then difficult to break away from the expertise and take the kinds of risks it takes to be creative

-some with the potential to make the transition do not do so because they have been pushed so hard by their parents, teachers, and managers that they lose their intrinsic motivation -parents, teachers, and psychologists have an obligation to nurture prodigies through the potential transition from expertise to creative innovation and help them avoid four dangers; (1) pushing so hard that intrinsic motivation and rage to master become a craving for extrinsic rewards (2) pushing so hard that children later feel they have missed out on childhood (3) freezing a prodigy into a safe, technically perfect but noninnovative way of performing because this is what he or she has been rewarded for doing so well (4) psychological wound caused by the fall from being a famous prodigy who can perform perfectly to a forgotten adult The Ends, or Goals, That Gifted Children Should Be Held To -we should provide extra resourced for the education of our most able students -traditional argument has been utilitarian beneficial to society -another argument: we need to intervene for the happiness and mental health of our gifted students need appropriate level of challenge so they are not only bored but also socially isolated -if schools are able to provide specialized education for the most bale, then the most able must also learn to give back to a society that grants them extra resources -the moral value of service, giving back to a society, ought to be considered as important as the value of self-actualization of the gifted