Understanding Students With Talents And Gifts, Purpose Of The Handout (Research Paper Sample)

Special Education
Name
Institution
Special Education
Understanding students with Talents and Gifts
We often consider talented and gifted students as those with excellent and outstanding class performances (Gallagher, 2015). Furthermore, according to studies, we think that such an assertion measures their intelligence. Nonetheless, intelligence is not without its aspects (Gallagher, 2015). It involves more than just academic and class performances. In 1983, an educational proponent Howard Gardner described intelligence as the ability to solve life problems. He added that it is the ultimate competence of student to create something of immense value (Gallagher, 2015). Therefore, since the perception of talented/gifted student comes in many forms, it is problematic to understand their typical development regarding their behaviors, assessments and their educational strategies. Nevertheless, by merging the definition by the U.S educational department with that of Howard, comprehending talented students brings a broader sense. More accurately, they are students with the high capability to solve the situations at hand and creatively accomplish their tasks at a vastly remarkable performance.
Understanding students with ADHD
On the contrary, students with ADHD, that is attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, experience learning difficulties, a situation that inhibits their typical development (Gray & Climie, 2016). They pose a debatable challenge to their schoolteachers. According to studies, however, ADHD was considered a childhood problem in the late ‘70s. Indeed, records show that it affected children on their onset to puberty (Gray & Climie, 2016). It displayed symptoms such lower intellectual levels, poor school performance, ignorance, negative behavior developments and weak assessment results. Nevertheless, although there is relatively little information on its occurrence among the college students, its symptoms archive a 2 to 4 percent student population. Further, the American Psychiatric Association has compiled the demographics that project an overall of 3-7 percent proportion of students with ADHD.
Purpose of the Handout
Being a teacher involves meeting many curriculums, standards, and expectations. As a result, it may appear as if an educator is stretched in immeasurable directions. Nevertheless, even though teaching may be quite a task to handle, the most challenging share is managing a class with talented and less fortunate students. Without a doubt, their behaviors, intellectual challenges, and educational strategies demand a constant redirection (Mendaglio, 2012). A teacher requires skills in objective testing and observation across various settings. This handout compares typical developments of both groups of students regarding their behaviors, intellectual challenges, assessments and behavioral problems. Conversely, to achieve the ultimate objective of the paper, it includes an annotated bibliography and a summative presentation.
Typical Development
Some researchers have profiled the behaviors and intellectual challenges of Talented and students with ADHD. However, according to Mendaglio (2012), the social, emotional and cognitive developments of talented students are asynchronous to those of ADHD learners. Most frequently, the talented students portray their superior cognitive changes at an early age contrary to the ADHD students (Mendaglio, 2012). Their academic performances are in fact quite appealing, an aspect that many schools use to judge. Nevertheless, since ADHD may be evidenced during the early stages of life, students with the disorder may show improved behaviors after their puberty (Mendaglio, 2012). Besides, their skills may supersede those of the gifted learners over time. Additionally, the personality habits of the gifted learners are contrary to those of ADHD students. They have high degrees of sensitivity and perfectionism than the ADHD subjective individuals. Moreover, as a similarity, tendencies abound between both groups of students (Minahim & Rohde, 2015). Conversely, the extent to which talented students perceive their moral issues are measurably greater than the degree to which the ADHD students get concerned. As a result, the emotional and social behaviors of talented students tend to be more predisposed when sophisticated awareness of real world ideals combine with their feelings of impotence. Due to such an aspect, gifted children may show a negative social and emotional growth inversely to the ADHD ones (Minahim & Rohde, 2015).
What is more, talented students have a perceived inability to remain active in class. It associates with boredom alongside other environmental factors. For instance, occasionally, talented individuals may spend their class hours waiting for the other group of students to catch up. It means that the ADHD learners have a poorly sustained attention (Minahim & Rohde, 2015). They also like to respond mostly to simple situations both in life and in class. On the contrary, the other group regularly deals with challenging circumstances (Mendaglio, 2012). Furthermore, while the ADHD incapacitated portray a brief concentration span, talented ones concentrate comfortably for long durations in almost every subjected condition (Vaivre-Douret, 2011). Their attention appears more episodic and focused on a particular objective. Conversely, the ADHD people show a random pattern of attentiveness (Vaivre-Douret, 2011).
Consequently, talented students maintain consistent efforts in classwork. Research suggests that they like reading more than the ADHD people since they experience lesser intellectual challenges (Budding & Chidekel, 2012). Indeed, unlike the ADHD incapacitated, talented students are intensely focused and determined. They resist repetition of tasks, changes they perceive as “dull behaviors.” In fact, contrary to the ADHS, they are aimed at producing better results, which meets their self-proclaimed standards (Budding & Chidekel, 2012). As such, it is evident that ADHD students experience more intellectual challenges than the talented ones. However, it does not mean that the gifted students do not encounter intellectual challenges. Indeed they do. Some of them take pride in their academic achievements. Likewise, their chances of being misunderstood are high (Pfeiffer, 2015). Gifted students also like to challenge the authority, an attribute that leads them into inevitable quarrels with the teachers. They are restless and impatient with sporadic cases of daydreaming due to the “world in their minds” (Pfeiffer, 2015). The ADHD learners, conversely, do not bear the concept of authority. They are less likely argued with their trainers. Furthermore, they adhere less to the curriculum rules. Gifted ones, alternatively, question the rules and the school traditions. As an intellectual challenge as well, the ADHD experience delayed gratification whereas the talented students’ judgment lags behind their intellectual skills.
Functional screening and assessment of behaviors, on the other hand, is not a new phenomenon. It is based on the enduring principles of problem-solving to determine the normal development of the two groups of students (Sayal, Letch & Abd, 2008). Succinctly, they are strategies towards measuring the student's’ behavioral growth. They give a better understanding of both the talented and ADHD within educational settings. Assessments and Screening also determine the elements that cause not only intellectual challenges but also those that bring behavioral problems (Sayal, Letch & Abd, 2008). As such, they discover the typical developments of both groups but are primarily effective on ADHD students who require special attention and educational intervention (Sayal, Letch & Abd, 2008). Screening and assessment, therefore, play a vital role in role in identifying, strategizing and redirecting the student’s academic and social behaviors to promote students’ development and performance. Some strategies include but not limited to
* Ensuring an orderly environment to avoid destructions
* Identifying the best time when students are attentive
* Incorporating open discussion in the class
* Gather the all students’ attentiveness before giving any academic or co-curricular work
* The teacher must ensure a direct eye contact with the talented students while addressing the ADHD problems
* Use active and generalized description alongside an assertive communication
* Encourage mentorship to develop the social and academic skills of students with ADHD
* Use internal control protocol to address the typical behaviors of the students.
References
Budding, D., & Chidekel, D. (2012). ADHD and Giftedness: A Neurocognitive Consideration of Twice Exceptionality. Applied Neuropsychology: Child, 1(2), 145-151. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21622965.2012.699423
Gallagher, J. (2015). Education of Gifted Students. Journal For The Education Of The Gifted, 38(1), 64-69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0162353214565547
Gray, C., & Climie, E. (2016). Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Reading Disability: A Review of the Efficacy of Medication Treatments. Frontiers In Psychology, 07. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00988
Mendaglio, S. (2012). Overexcitabilities and Giftedness Research: A Call for a Paradigm Shift. Journal For The Education Of The Gifted, 35(3), 207-219. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0162353212451704
Minahim, D., & Rohde, L. (2015). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and intellectual giftedness: a study of symptom frequency and minor physical anomalies. Revista Brasileira De Psiquiatria, 37(4), 289-295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2014-1489
PFEIFFER, S. (2015). Gifted students with a coexisting disability: The twice exceptional. Estu...