4.5-5.5-Year-old Gifted Students: Findings from the 2004 Cohor

Volume 1 - Issue 4

Hanna David*

Received: September 25, 2018;   Published: October 04, 2018

DOI: 10.32474/SJPBS.2018.01.000117

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Abstract

We are all aware of many beliefs about the superiority of girls over boys among the very young: girls are expected to speak earlier than boys, to adjust to social requirements better and at an earlier age than boys, and to function better in activities demanding fine motor skills. The question whether this is also the case among the gifted has remained unsolved, in spite of the fact that the study of gifted kindergarten students has been a most intriguing one for researchers for many years. In this study we have challenged the general belief of superior female development among pre-school children, by showing that participation rate of girls among gifted pre-school children is lesser than among older children. Girls who were accepted to the gifted courses at The Erika Landau Institute for the Promotion of Creativity and Excellence had lower cognitive abilities than boys, in spite of the fact that they hardly reached a 30% participation rate. In addition, girls did not achieve significantly higher evaluations in either of these parameters: thinking quality, openness, social acceptability, self-confidence, persistence, attitude to problem-solving, and involvement level in conversations in the final evaluation of the performance in Institute’s activities. This study aims to examine if we can predict the success of pre-school children in the first course they take at the Erika Landau Institute for the Promotion of Creativity and Excellence, Founder Dr. Erika Landau, and what is the validity of such prediction. Success level at the end of the one-semester “creative thinking” course is defined by the instructor’s final evaluation of the students’ performance. The components we take into consideration as potential success predictors are The IQ scores of the children, the verbal evaluation of the examiner, the written information in the parents’ questionnaires, and the summary of the counselor who interviews the student accompanied by at least one parent. The study of connections between cognitive, social, psychological, and emotional abilities of gifted pre-school children and their performance at the end of the first intervening course at the Institute must take into account many of the variables relating to familial and environmental components, as well as to cognitive and personal traits. In the present study we used only some of these variables, in order to give appropriate answers to 6 research questions.

Abstract| Overview of the Current Research | The Research Questions | The Method| Results| Discussion | Conclusion| Limitations| References |