Yet, you shouldn't be entirely dependent on the schools when it comes to identification. Keep in mind that many teacher training programs require little (if any) course work in giftedness, so some teachers and school administrators may not have all the information they need to recognize gifted children. For this reason, your insights are important, and the more knowledge you have, the better position you're in to partnership with others when selecting the best programs for your child.

In fact, parents should become familiar with the signs of giftedness even before their child starts school. Most school districts do not even start identifying children for gifted programs until second or third grade, and parents of exceptionally bright or gifted children may want to consider private testing or alternative placement options (such as a private preschool school program or early grade acceleration) before that time.

Early testing and identification can be a controversial subject, but many advocates of gifted children believe that they should be identified as soon as possible so that their unique needs and talents can be acknowledged and nurtured right from the start.

Early identification is also important when a young child is showing behavioral or social differences - not fitting in, being highly focused on unusual interests, appearing more distractible or inattentive than others of the same age - and parents want to understand the cause. These characteristics may be features of giftedness or may be signs of an emotional problem or such conditions as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) such as Asperger's Syndrome. Knowing a child's IQ can allow insight into a child's atypical development and help to avoid potentially harmful misdiagnoses.

Under-Identified Children

Some gifted children may not be particularly high achievers in the classroom. These students may have problems with attention (which may or may not be related to ADHD), have poor organizational skills, or simply not "mesh" with the teaching style in the classroom, and therefore may be overlooked when it comes to selection of gifted program candidates.

I recall one boy I tested privately at the request of his mother. The boy, Mike, was in the fourth grade at the time. His mother was concerned because Mike was getting poor grades, having conflicts with the teacher, and becoming more and more disinterested in school. He was having social conflicts too, being teased and picked on by other students who liked to see his "overreactions" when they provoked him. It had gotten to the point where home schooling was being considered since it was getting harder to even get Mike out the door to go to school, which he considered "torture."

The school had never tested Mike for giftedness. Whatever screening process was in place had missed him. Possibly because he didn't fit the high-achieving, cooperative, wunderkind image that some teachers look for when making recommendations for gifted screening. Yet it turned out that his IQ measured in the in the Exceptionally Gifted range (fewer than 1 of 1000 kids score this high on an IQ test). His problems at school were not atypical for such children. Had he been identified earlier and placed in an alternative program, many of his academic and social problems might have been avoided. At the very least, Mike's parents and teachers would have had a better understanding of his problems and been able to collaborate from a more informed perspective to come up with solutions.

These types of scenarios are not unusual. In fact, some estimate that the majority of gifted children in the schools are never identified. That may not be a tragedy for some, but it very well could be for others like Mike who truly need special programming and support to get through school successfully.

Parents who are aware of the signs of giftedness can better collaborate with the schools to help assure that their own child's potential and learning needs are not overlooked.

How Can You Tell if Your Child is Gifted?

As you've probably guessed, without proper assessment, there is no easy answer. There are no universally accepted traits that you can look for and no definitive signs that will tell you for sure whether your child is gifted. However, many gifted children share some common characteristics, and knowing these is a good place to start.

The reason for these common traits may have a lot to do with the physical characteristics of the brain. Giftedness is the result of both environmental and genetic factors, and both of these influences can lead to differences in the way the brain works and develops. Some researchers believe that gifted children's advanced cognitive skills actually result - at least in part - from the ability of their brains to process information faster and more effectively than others their age.

The brain is made up of billions of nerve cells, or neurons, which communicate with each other by releasing and receiving chemicals called neurotransmitters. These chemicals travel through dendrites, root-like structures which branch out and seek connections with nearby neurons at junctures called synapses. The more of these dendrites and synapses we have, the greater our "brain power" - our ability to process information, to perceive, interpret, reason, problem-solve, remember, and do all kinds of tasks associated with learning. It appears that every time we do or experience something - read a book, have an emotion, look at a picture - a specific group of neurons associated with that activity "lights up," stimulating the growth of more dendrites and "exercising" those already in place, making them better processors of information. All else being equal, the denser and more efficient these neural connections, the easier it is to do the thing that is associated with that area of the brain.

Gifted children's abilities may be related in part to these enhanced neural connections, either because:

• They were born with a denser than normal thicket of neural connections associated with the traits in which they are gifted, and had the right kind of experiences to allow them to use and retain, or further develop, these connections; or

• They were born with a sufficient amount of neural connections and had ample opportunity to form more and more efficient connections through an enriched environment.