Who is Gifted?

Deborah L. Ruf, PhD

What is giftedness and what does it mean to be gifted?  Until recently, I thought what I think is gifted is simply correct and people who saw it differently were wrong.

 

I knew the answer.  I personally thought that it was an inner quality, a form of intelligence that is different, more intense, and noticeable in how some people are.  It’s about their essence.

 

And when I heard people talk about giftedness as being about getting good grades and being a person of high accomplishment, I simply thought they were wrong and that they didn’t understand.  For years I held this view.  But then, in 2020, I read Maggie Brown’s doctoral dissertation (summarized here^[i]) and learned her Delta study of experts in the field of gifted education and high intelligence indicated that experts fall into at least two camps about what giftedness is.  A Delta study, by the way, is an anonymous series of questionnaires that the lead author narrows down over at least three iterations to focus on what the respondents think about the topic being reviewed. 

 

I am on the side of giftedness being about how someone is, “how they be.”  As an example, someone who is very smart and not a good student is usually referred to as “street smart” and not “book smart.”  In my mind, it means they are still smart but either didn’t have the opportunity for a good education or didn’t like and cooperate with the way the education was presented.  This means that my approach to supporting gifted children and adults is focused on their social, emotional, and mental health, not their career status. 

Others just as fervently see giftedness as measured by good grades, good scores, and adult career success measured by earnings and status.  Their focus of support is on improving school performance and dealing with underachievement issues.  When parents come to me for help with their under-achieving child, I focus on the environment the gifted child is in and whether it is the right one for that child. 

 

So, I think giftedness is complex, hard to describe, and confusing to measure.  At the same time, you sort of know it when you encounter it, especially at the very highest levels.  But, because of these different viewpoints about what people think giftedness is, many people who are gifted, doubt it.  My goals around giftedness and the lifespans of gifted people is to give you all kinds of input and ideas that you can use to figure out this part of yourself as well as for those you may be trying to guide and support with their own giftedness.

 

Yes, it is high intelligence.  People generally see it as about the top 10% of a population and then the top 2% to be really gifted, and “off the charts” on intelligence measures to be phenomenally gifted.  But measurement instruments vary.  What’s tested by them (the IQ tests, for example) or how they are normed all matter for telling you what you want to know.  How you felt when you took the test or if you had access to how to take tests and learned how to do well on them, etc., etc.  I’m not going to give you quick answers as much as give you access to many ideas and answers you have about this topic.

 

And, if you have found this website and read this far, you are probably gifted or you wouldn’t even be interested in this stuff. 

 

Here’s how to get the most out of the Five Levels of Gifted Through the Lifespan: WHO IS GIFTED?