FAQS: Frequently asked questions about giftedness

How are children with high
abilities recognized in the Kita?
Preschool children are at an age where they develop
their first specific interests—often through exploration
and playful encounters with an object or an activity. Ideally,
they can find out what suits them best by taking advantage
of the wide range of activities and stimuli provided by the
Kita. However, to identify whether a child is particularly
gifted in a specific area, it is necessary to provide activities
that allow children to test themselves at different levels of
difficulty, regardless of their age. Suitable activities are
those that place varying demands on the children and give
them the freedom to decide how they want to participate.
Consequently, how the support programs in Kitas are designed
already represents an important prerequisite for the
recognition of specific abilities and talents.
Furthermore, identifying giftedness should be understood
as a process. Young children develop very differently.
A child’s accelerated development in one or more areas
can also be an expression of a temporary developmental
advantage over peers. It is therefore important to observe
and assess a child’s development continuously and over
a longer period of time. Methods that focus on children’s
activities and learning and which are utilized routinely are
particularly appropriate. Together with colleagues and
parents, these observations of a child can then be reviewed
on an ongoing basis.
First indications of potential giftedness can be a strong
sense of curiosity and a high learning ability at the same
time. Young gifted children are often identified by their
intense and persistent interest in knowledge, remarkable
ability to grasp things very quickly, extraordinary capacity
to retain information, and rapid development of competencies.
They also often demonstrate a high level of determination
and perseverance in their efforts to acquire
knowledge or new skills. Developmentally, targeted interests
are still rare at preschool age, but an early, intense
interest may indicate a high domain-specific ability for
this very reason.
The question “How can gifted children be identified
in the Kita?” is explored in more detail in the Karg Foundation’s
special edition, “Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQs) about giftedness in early childhood”.
https://www.fachportal-hochbegabung.de/
faqs-early-childhood/
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