earticle

영어

Studies agree on the importance and positive effects of early identification and intervention of gifted young children. However, this is not an easy step because the field has lacked technically sound screening instruments to complement the intelligence test in providing a more comprehensive picture of a young student's potential or actual performance. Recent studies have tried to use an alternative assessment by observing children’s performance in a real setting, but the Korean public education has neither shown any effort in identification and education for gifted young children nor researched further on this issue. Based on this, the purpose of this article is to examine the possibilities of identifying gifted young children. To do this, we examine the definitions of giftedness, identify gifted children, review examples of gifted programs as well as the rationale of identifying gifted children. We provide several concerns, such as lack of accurate instrument, parental pressure, and the stability of a child’s intelligence over development towards the end of the research. Practical suggestions are also provided for educators.