Relocating? What if your child is gifted?
For any family relocating with children, the prospect of identifying a first-rate education can be daunting. Relocating with a gifted child multiplies these difficulties. All too often, in public as well as most mainstream private schools in the United States, gifted children face a disadvantage. Children who are profoundly gifted have special learning and social needs. If they are bored in school they can underachieve, develop behavior problems, or opt out of education altogether. Social problems often accompany giftedness, as these children may have little in common with classmates and often miss social cues. Nevertheless, gifted children are hampered by the overriding assumption that a child doing well in school does not need a different educational experience. This assumption can trigger a chain of events where the most capable children lose interest in school, and society loses the contributions of potentially high achievers.
Educational Issues
In a typical classroom, where teachers focus on those who need the most help, few gifted children will be challenged. A teacher may be far more likely to ignore a relocating gifted child’s individual learning needs, or even neglect to notice him/her altogether. If the family is not on a permanent assignment, a school or teacher may not want to spend extra resources on only one child for a short amount of time. Even when gifted children have a relatively positive experience at school, they can exit from high school poorly equipped for college. They rarely have to study to perform well on tests and can sail through high school without study skills, only to enter university ill-equipped to handle a major workload.
International schools often may be better equipped than local schools to meet the needs of the gifted because of the naturally rich multi-cultural environment and an internationally focused curriculum, as well as selective admissions. While these make for a more hospitable environment for gifted children, few international schools utilize teaching methods expressly tailored to gifted children and teachers are not trained to work specifically with this population.
Social Issues
Socially, gifted children face many of the same stigmas as learning-disabled children. Lacking peers with common interests they may have few, if any, friends – or may even be mocked, scorned or bullied. A gifted, foreign child is doubly stigmatized; he may have the additional burdens of a different accent or difficulties adjusting culturally.
Often, schools will simply advance a gifted child by a grade or two, which can be helpful. But this approach may create social and emotional problems by exposing younger children to more mature issues, like dating, drinking, and driving at sensitive ages.
International Advances
In some countries local schools can, in fact, be a better option for educating a gifted child. In the Netherlands, a private foundation devised a special curriculum for gifted students; the foundation has created Leonardoschools, where gifted children are educated according to this challenging curriculum. South Korea’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology created the National Research Center for Gifted and Talented Education, a center that works to develop and implement education for gifted children. However, gifted education is still largely ignored by public schools in many countries.
Psychological Risks
Research conducted in the Unites States shows that gifted children are more at-risk for psychological disability and emotional damage than non-gifted children (the 1972 Marland Report, the first national report on gifted education). The social difficulties experienced by gifted children may decrease as they become adults, but a negative educational experience during a child’s formative years can have a severe impact for years to come. According to these studies, many of these emotional difficulties can be prevented if children are placed in proper educational environments. In 2002, additional research done by the National Association for Gifted Children corroborated the findings of the Marland Report.
Tips for Success
If you are considering relocating with a gifted child, it is critical to be aware of the myriad challenges involved. International or private schools may be able to sufficiently challenge your child, but it is necessary to assess the individual institutions to determine whether they offer both academic and social support. If you are considering local schools, be prepared to advocate on your child’s behalf and to monitor your child’s daily experiences to make sure s/he is thriving after a brief transition period. Here are some tips to ensure that your gifted child’s new school is the right environment for him or her:
- DO NOT walk into a school saying, “My child is gifted, s/he needs special challenge.” Instead, go in prepared with documentation and test scores and say, “These are his previous experiences, how can we work together to make school a success for him?”
- Ask whether the school has worked with children in the past who are both in transition and gifted, and what programs/practices they have put in place to ensure a successful experience.
- Are there other gifted children? Are there other international children?
- Ask whether there are peers at your child’s grade level with whom s/he can socialize even if s/he is doing accelerated or atypical coursework.
- Understand the school’s views on acceleration vs. maintaining peer continuity and make sure their views echo your own.
- Find out whether the school offers any social skills training in the event that the child has difficulty fitting in.
- Ask about how unstructured times like lunch, play and transportation. How are social interactions monitored?
Conclusion
For children, being “different” can be overwhelming and stressful, no matter what the cause. Giftedness and relocation can both factor into making a child feel this way. The complexity of navigating these issues simultaneously is daunting, but nurturing and supportive parents who ask the right questions can make all the difference to a gifted child in transition.
Source: School Choice International
