Intellectual and personal characteristics of children with AACC

The personality and way of being of children with high capacities (AACC) are as variable as those of the normal population, although with nuances that have to do with their great intellectuality.

Content

• Intellectual characteristics
  • 1. Curiosity oriented to understanding.
  • 2. Interconnection of information.
  • 3. Versatility.
• Behavioral characteristics
  • 1. Intellectual capacity in general and specific academic aptitude:
  • 2. Creative and productive thinking:
  • 3. Leadership:
  • 4. Plastic arts:
  • 5. Psychomotor skill:
  • 6. Motivation and will:
  • Primary indicators:
  • Secondary indicators:
• Learning characteristics
  • 1. Metamemory
  • 2. Troubleshooting efficacy
  • 3. Active and conscious self -regulation
• Social characteristics
  • Links of interest
  • References

Intellectual characteristics

We can summarize the main characteristics as follows:

1. Curiosity oriented to understanding.

They try to find the meaning of things, why more than what. This causes them to maximize the significance of learning rejecting little coherent explanations. This feature defines your learning style quite well: it is not about looking for more information on a subject, but greater understanding. For these reasons they usually show attitudes with ups and for up to the school curriculum, depending on the topics in question and the teaching style of the teaching staff.

2. Interconnection of information.

Given its high cognitive efficacy, They tend to make relationships with information that belong to different contexts, which enables new innovative concepts and visions. Also your memory style is more reconstructive than recovery.

3. Versatility.

This students are effective in the face of very diverse tasks. It is not about the spectacularity of the talented -referred to a specific area -but of a good general performance, which may include sporadic bright actions. At a social level, they usually maintain relatively good relationships with classmates and teachers, and it is feasible to find leaders among the gifted ones, although not always.

Behavioral characteristics

Below we briefly explain the characteristics of children's behavior with AACC:

1. Intellectual capacity in general and specific academic aptitude:

• The child is voluntary in the search for new knowledge.
• It is not easily distracted.
• He easily understands the information he acquires and remembers it.
• Show exceptional achievements in some subject.

2. Creative and productive thinking:

• Apply the knowledge acquired in one subject to a different.
• Generates a lot of ideas and solutions to problems.
• Is risky and speculative.

3. Leadership:

• Leads others to work on the issues he proposes.
• Respond well to responsibility.

4. Plastic arts:

• Demonstrates originality by combining ideas, methods and forms of artistic expression.
• Start, compose or adopt games, music, speeches, etc., free of the influence of adults.

5. Psychomotor skill:

• Use common materials to generate creative solutions.
• Face mechanical problems with originality.
• Learn physical exercises quickly.

6. Motivation and will:

• Concentrates on a subject and persists in it until it ends it.
• It is easily bored with routine tasks.
• Prefer to work independently and need little help.

Whitmore (1985) also makes another differentiation between two types of gifted indicators: primary and secondary.

Primary indicators:

• They learn quickly when they are interested. Exceptional cognitive capacity to learn and use knowledge. Upper skill to solve problems. Advanced vocabulary, with complex linguistic structure. Great understanding of abstract ideas. High level of persistence in the search for information. Exceptional quality of thought. Notable ability to handle abstract ideas and ideas. Exceptional Learning Transfer Capacity. Generation of new solutions and intuitions.

Secondary indicators:

They refer to motivational and creative areas, as well as concern for social aspects. Whitmore stands out among others:

• Hugely creative behavior. Extensive range of interests. Great curiosity. Deep interest in some area. Intense desire to know and understand. High autonomy. Enjoy with the expression, through discussion or through plastic activities. Requirement in why. Sensitivity and consistency with respect to itself and others, although it can become intolerant of human weakness. You can become a perfectionist. A lot of self -criticism. Strong desire to excel.

Anyway, it is clear that it is the intellectual sphere that properly defines these children. Really High intellectual capacity is the only common element to all of them, But it must not be contemplated in isolation.

Keep in mind the "model of the three rings" by Joseph Renzulli, it is very important. As we have already seen, according to Renzulli, intelligence is not understood as a unit factor, but there are several types of intelligence.

For Renzulli both "creativity" and "implication or motivation in a task" are as important as "high cognitive capacity". The interaction of these three features is those that make up the "model of the three rings".

Learning characteristics

The characteristics that we can identify a child of high intellectual capacities are many and different, although we do not have to find all of them in the same subject. There are many that depend solely and exclusively on the personality features of each one, as well as the external variables that surround it.

It is worth highlighting the importance of the process of Metacognition, defining this as the knowledge we have about the cognitive processes, that is, the awareness of the individual of intellectual resources, their control and manipulation.

According to many authors, high -capacity people have greater knowledge in this regard, They use more complex strategies, they know their resources better and use control strategies more frequently In carrying out tasks or activities.

These students differ from others for the following (Jiménez, 2000):

1. Metamemory

We can say that They are faster in the storage and recovery of information From long -term memory, they also stand out in perceptual efficacy, which partially reflects their greatest general knowledge, have a greater number of strategies to recover information and are aware of them.

2. Troubleshooting efficacy

As we have already seen, they are individuals who tend to the internal control of behavior, but also to Fast learning of new strategies that transfers to other situations, better and more quickly organize information, They attend sustained and enjoy with prolonged and intense practice in situations of adequate intellectual challenge. They like to solve their own problems, choose the most appropriate strategies and dismiss the least effective, they quickly recognize if data is missing in a problem and what is needed to solve it.

3. Active and conscious self -regulation

The active self -regulation implies the existence of direct control over the results of behavior, the verification of the degree of success and learning in the processes by essay and error. Conscious self -regulation involves providing error and trying to eliminate it before it occurs because concepts are mentally worked. It is superior to active self -regulation, and in both the gifted children stand out.

These particularities, together with having a very good memory, great level of understanding and generalization, great capacity for attention, a good capacity to manipulate symbols, etc. Get high capacities students to meet a series of key factors that facilitate learning. In fact, one of the qualities by which this type of students is best defined, is because of their rapid learning ability.

Social characteristics

It is important to mention the characteristics that define these children in their social area, since it is even one of the most important parameters to consider before making any decision or adopting an educational response.

Among the main characteristics we can mention the following:

• They have a very developed ethical sense.
• They are highly self -critical.
• They are very sensitive (hypersensitivity) And they need emotional support to effectively manage their overflowing sensations and emotions.
• They usually have very high ambitions and ideals.
• They usually behave energetically and actively.
• They have a great sense of humor.
• They prefer older companions or relationships with adults (not in playful relationships).
• They show deep interests and concerns about the world around them.
• There is talk of isolated subjects, but not rejected. It is usually intermittent isolation (they like to be alone in some games and elaborations).
• Drag others towards the work they propose.
• They usually present a low frustration tolerance

Within this area, we cannot ignore personality traits. As we have said before, the variation is very wide in this regard, because Personality characteristics do not depend on the intellect, so you can find the same variations as in the normal population. However, intellectual functioning inevitably interacts, favoring or not aspects as relevant as selfconcept, Self -esteem, impulsivity or reflection.

However, we can affirm (generally) that they usually have a fairly balanced personality, with high levels of self -esteem, they are usually flexible and have a fairly normal socialization. Sometimes they can present difficulties at social or school level. Dabrowski even uses the term "positive disintegration" to refer to the school and social uproot of children with AACC.

Links of interest

OUTDOED CHILD DETECTION QUESTIONNAIRE. (34 years)
OUTDOED CHILD DETECTION QUESTIONNAIRE. (5 - 8 years)
OUTDOED CHILD DETECTION QUESTIONNAIRE. (9 - 14 years)

References

• ARIDEDA, a. (2000): gifted children. Pyramid. Madrid.
• Alonso, j.TO. (1995): School and social adaptation of the gifted 6 to 16 years. Doctoral thesis. University of Salamanca.
• Alonso, j.TO., Benito, and., Renzulli, j. (2003): International gifted manual. EOS. Madrid.
• Benito, and. (Coord.) (1990): Problem of the gifted child. Salamanca, Amaru.
• Benito, and. (1996): Intelligence and some personality factors in gifted. Salamanca, Amaru.
• Davis, g.TO. and Rimm, S.B. (1985): Education of the Gifted and Talented. Englewood Cliffs- nj, Prentice-Hall.
• Dehaan, r.G. And Havightst, R.J. (1957): Educating the gifted. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
• Delgado, e. (2000): Life according to a gifted. Barcelona, ​​Tecum.
• Ellis, j. Willinsky, J. (1999): girls, women and giftedness. Madrid, Narcea.
• Fernández, r. (1997): Creativity and giftedness. Communication presented to the I International Congress on the gifted child and talent, Madrid.
• Fernández, r. and Peralta, F. (1997): Study of three creativity models: Criteria for the identification of creative production. Faísca. High Capabilities Magazine, 6, 67-85.Santiago. Gesram.
• Freeman J. (1988): Out -overdent children: Psychological and pedagogical aspects. Madrid, XXI-SANTILLANA CLASSROOM.
• Jackson, b. (1981): Each child an exception. Madrid, Morata.