Psychological characteristics of gifted childrenconsultation (senior, preparatory group)

The essence of the concept of “giftedness”

Definition 1
Giftedness is the presence of potentially high abilities in a person.

In psychology, giftedness is understood as a special level of development of personal abilities. There is constant interest in the field of science and society in the issue of giftedness. Even those people who are considered geniuses are not always truly scientifically brilliant. For example, Alexander the Great, who is called a brilliant commander, was simply a successful student of the genius of Aristotle.

Psychologists believe that giftedness allows its owner to achieve great results in activities. A person can be gifted in several areas of life.

Psychogeneticists, analyzing the development of the abilities of monozygotic twins, come to the conclusion that talent is half dependent on genetics and half on the environment. The growth and development of the embryo in its pure form is influenced not so much by genes as by the interaction between the embryo and the environment, stress, disease, etc.

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If we talk about true genius, this may mean that the corresponding 200-300 genes have come together in a very successful combination. A child born to such a person will most likely be gifted, because his genes will be mixed with the genes of his spouse and there will no longer be a successful combination. A child of a simply gifted person has a chance to pass on giftedness by inheritance.

People with mental illness may be gifted in certain areas, but statistics say otherwise. People suffering from autism, schizophrenia, and epilepsy have a low level of intelligence that cannot match their talent. However, there are also exceptions here, when the disease greatly transforms the brain, and this transformation benefits giftedness.

Psychologists, in order to identify a child’s giftedness, focus on the parameters “I want” and “I can” - this is the presence of motivation and interest in a certain activity, getting pleasure from it.

The motivational side of “I want” is determined by the fact that the child reacts with great attention to individual stimuli - if these are the sounds of music, for example, then he can listen to them for a long time, stopping the game. Or he draws in various ways, deriving pleasure not from praise, but from the process of drawing.

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This same motivational side includes collecting construction toys, passion for dancing, interest in nature, and observing animals and plants. The child strives to bring his passion to the highest result, investing in this activity energy resources that are associated with another sign of giftedness - the aspect of the activity.

The activity side of giftedness “I can” is a continuation of the desire to engage in activity and leads to high results. This side of motivation is associated with the ability to successfully assimilate information, find innovative solutions and set challenging tasks.

Giftedness is visible in a person’s style of action and personal style, confirming his originality and the creative nature of his abilities.

Note 1

Psychologists define giftedness as the ability to create new meanings, and in this the concept of giftedness intersects with creativity and creative thinking.

Giftedness problems

Giftedness is a deviation with a plus sign. This is a deviation from the average statistical norm, but in a positive direction. Any deviation requires the attention of a psychologist and causes misunderstanding on the part of society.

What difficulties do gifted children face?

• bullying by classmates, incompetent adults and teachers;
• loss of motivation to learn (the program is too simple);
• internal anxiety due to the inability to fully realize potential.

Gifted children are antisocial if they understand that the environment is not suitable for them. They express their negative attitude towards studying (due to boredom) by violating discipline and absenteeism. Social (leadership) talent, developing chaotically, results in destructive behavior and hooliganism. In a regular school, gifted children inevitably have problems with adaptation.

The child does not understand his giftedness, and even if he senses it intuitively, he is lost without the support of an adult. In conditions of uncontrolled giftedness, the child is arrogant and selfish. For him, other children are not interesting, especially since he sees his superiority. To prevent such reactions, competent work of parents and psychologists is necessary:

• timely identification of giftedness;
• directing it in the right direction (appropriate training);
• explaining the normality of this phenomenon and preventing the birth of a god complex (education).

In psychology, there is the concept of “giftedness syndrome,” which implies a person’s painful pride, a constant desire to assert himself and demonstrate abilities. Later this causes neuroses, depression, and disorders. Some gifted children reach great heights in the future, some become “average”, and some make history (art, science), but often end their lives early and sadly.

The education system promotes holistic personal development and an individual approach to each child. But in practice this is not implemented everywhere. Yes, and it is physically difficult to simultaneously work with gifted, lagging, and normally developing children. And in the classrooms such a “vinaigrette” is obtained, especially in rural schools or small towns, where there is no differentiation in the educational system and there is one institution for everyone.

Psychological characteristics of gifted children

Talent has interested people since ancient times, but the greatest interest in it appeared during the Renaissance, and not at all by chance. It was at this time that brilliant artists, poets, and scientists appeared.

The concept of giftedness began to be created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. F. Galton was the first to try experimentally to prove that outstanding abilities are the result of the action of hereditary factors.

The root of the term “giftedness” is the word “gift” - gifted, intelligent was a person who had the ability for outstanding achievements, could find a way out of a difficult situation, create something fundamentally new, i.e. did what others could not do. As a rule, a gifted child stands out for his outstanding achievements in some type of activity.

Today this concept is used very widely and a child can be called gifted if he shows unusual success in learning, creative activities and surpasses his peers.

Note 2

Gifted children are non-standard children, they learn easily, quickly and successfully, they have their own thoughts, their own position, different from the position of others. The main differences and characteristic features of such children are excellent memory, curiosity, attentiveness, and abstract thinking. They have a high speed of thinking, they can clearly trace cause-and-effect relationships and classify information.

Gifted children are able to widely use accumulated knowledge.

Giftedness in pedagogy is considered according to the time of its manifestation and, if it is not immediately noticeable to adults, then it is called potential giftedness.

Pedagogy identifies the following categories of gifted children:

• children with high general intellectual abilities;
• children with signs of giftedness in a certain field of science;
• children with high creative abilities;
• children with high leadership abilities;
• children with bright cognitive activity, originality of thinking and a special psychological make-up.

The vocabulary of gifted children is quite large, because they enjoy reading encyclopedias and dictionaries and often come up with new words and concepts themselves.

A gifted child can concentrate his attention on one thing for a long time and immerse himself in it. A characteristic feature of gifted children is a developed sense of justice towards others and towards themselves.

The age at which giftedness manifests itself and the area of ​​activity have a certain relationship with each other. First of all, talents are manifested in the field of art and, especially, in music.

Later, its manifestation occurs in the field of fine arts. As for science, significant results appear later because scientific discoveries require deep and extensive knowledge. As for mathematical talents, they can manifest themselves much earlier than others.

Picture 1.

The psychological characteristics of gifted children, scientists note, can be considered as signs that accompany giftedness, but do not necessarily give rise to it.

Signs may be the basis for the assumption of giftedness, and not its presence. For the same reason, the absence of signs does not at all mean that the child is mediocrity.

What is giftedness

Psychology does not know the words “gift” and “curse”. In the language of science, giftedness is pronounced abilities in one or more areas, for example, a keen ear for music.

A gifted child is a child who demonstrates abilities and successes that exceed the achievements of his peers, and sometimes even adults.

The basis of giftedness is innate inclinations, but without social influence, appropriate upbringing and education, they will not turn into abilities, talent and genius.

What is giftedness?

• sports;
• musical;
• artistic;
• acting;
• social;
• humanitarian;
• technical;
• academic (increased ability to learn, master and understand material from any field);
• intellectual (analytical skills, success in a specific subject);
• creative (expressive emotions and non-standard thinking).

As you can see, not all types are directly related to the average secondary school. For example, musical or artistic talent will show little of itself there. But such a child needs not just additional education (being carried away by music, he will forget or will not find the strength to study), but a basic special education. We are talking about centers for the development of children's giftedness, schools with a special focus, etc.

In a broad sense, talent is divided into intellectual and creative.

Bibliography:

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3. Dorovsky A.I. One hundred tips for developing children's giftedness. Parents, educators, teachers / A.I. Dorovsky. – M.: Ros. ped. agency, 1997. – 309 p.
4. Druzhinin V.N. Psychology of general abilities / V.N. Druzhinin. – St. Petersburg: PiterKOM, 1999. – 368 p.
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8. Malakhova I.A. Personal development. Ability for creativity, giftedness, talent / I.A. Malakhova. – Minsk: Belarusian Science, 2002. – 158 p.
9. Markelov E.V. Organization of a school for especially gifted children and adolescents / E.V. Markelov, V.S. Yurkevich // Psychological science and education. – 2004. – No. 2. – pp. 92-96.
10. Matyushkin A.M. The concept of creative talent / A.M. Matyushkin // Questions of psychology. – 1989. – No. 6. – pp. 29-33.
11. Nichishina T.V. Fundamentals of social and pedagogical work with gifted children / T.V. Nichishina. – Brest: BrGU Publishing House, 2006. – 109 p.
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Diagnosis of giftedness

In order to avoid the transformation of positive deviation into negative, it is necessary to identify giftedness in time and help the child to realize himself as an individual. To do this, you need to know the types, characteristics and signs of giftedness.

Do you know, for example, that giftedness can be leadership? The mother considers the child stubborn and obnoxious, the teachers cannot cope with the power of the “clan” that he organized, and the child simply needs appropriate development conditions, since he is socially gifted.

Identification of giftedness is a systematic process. Abilities are not revealed by one method. Giftedness is calculated through the process of assessing a child's development. It does not arise at a specific period of development, but manifests itself both at an early age and in preschool and school. It is important to regularly analyze your child’s progress. This is possible with the help of developmental training, for example, according to the Elkonin-Davydov system.

It is also necessary to use tests, but you cannot make a conclusion based on the results of one diagnosis. For example, high performance in itself does not mean giftedness. And low scores on a creative or emotional intelligence test are not a sign of a lack of creativity or social aptitude.

Comprehensive personal development, analysis of abilities and successes in various areas will help to identify giftedness. To do this you need:

• involve the child in different types of activities (educational, gaming, subject-oriented, aesthetic, etc.);
• alternately offer different types of activities and celebrate the child’s successes in sports, science, competitions, contests, Olympiads, conferences, festivals, intellectual games;
• parents, teachers and psychologists work together (to jointly evaluate the child’s progress);
• conduct expert diagnostics of personality traits, separately study areas in which experts note great success.

Observation of a child lasts a lifetime, since giftedness is dynamic. After placing a child in special conditions, observation is doubly necessary. This will confirm or refute the decision made. Sometimes children are mistakenly placed in special centers, mistaking a high level of development and socialization for giftedness.

How this manifests itself in practice: many children can read before entering first grade; at the beginning of the year they are ahead of everyone else in reading speed, but by the end of the year the rest of the students catch up with them and even surpass them. “Imaginary giftedness” works the same way.

Children from families where parents dream of a gifted child often find themselves falsely referred to special institutions. They are superior to their peers, but it is difficult for them, since they do not have innate inclinations. Gifted children are happy to move in the direction where their abilities are higher. It is psychologically difficult for an ordinary child to meet the expectations of his parents.

Afterword

Giftedness is neither a gift nor a curse. This is a personality trait that, in skillful or unskillful hands, turns out to be one or the other, respectively. Giftedness does not develop on its own. This is not the child’s status, but a direction vector, a hint for parents on how to interact with their son (daughter). Giftedness manifests itself and develops only in activity. And fades away without her.

Raising gifted children is no more difficult than raising ordinary children. The problem is different - the education system is not yet adapted for these children. Not all parents are able to send their child to a specialized institution or send them to developmental sections (almost all additional education is paid). Over the past 10 years, the problem of giftedness and genius has been actively discussed, and the education system has advocated the need to identify and support talented children. This is stipulated in the laws on education, but in practice it does not yet look so complete.

Abilities and aptitudes

In order to analyze the development of a gifted child, it is worth taking a closer look at the concepts of “ability” and “inclination”. Inclinations are dispositions and attractions to certain types of activities. They are, as it were, the rudiments of abilities and are manifested in the desire for activity, while the child is little concerned about the final result. If a child shows a very strong tendency, then this indicates that he has certain abilities. Tendencies influence the development of a gifted child. But you cannot develop only those inclinations to which the child is inclined; this can lead to one-sided development and disappointments in the future.

Another concept when studying children's giftedness is “ability.”

Ability is a mental property that manifests itself in the success of mastering and implementing an activity. B.M. Teplov noted that the concept of “ability” is fundamental in the doctrine of giftedness. If abilities are traditionally called individual mental properties of a person, then giftedness is a unique combination of abilities. The concept of “ability” has three important characteristics:

• abilities mean individual psychological characteristics of a person that distinguish him from others;
• abilities are not any personality traits, but those that determine the success of performing any activity;
• ability is not a person’s skills and abilities, but such features that explain the speed and ease of acquiring knowledge, skills and abilities.

Psychologists note that a gifted child can either perform a certain activity extremely successfully or perform it mediocrely. This leads to certain problems for them. That is why such children need support from teachers, psychologists and parents more than others. Knowing about this feature of gifted children, Russian psychologists (D.B. Bogoyavlenskaya, N.S. Leites, V.D. Shadrikov, etc.) propose dividing giftedness into:

• giftedness with a harmonious type of development;
• giftedness with a disharmonious type of development.

Obviously, in real life there is no such clear line. However, let's look at these types in more detail.

Giftedness with a harmonious type of development

This is the so-called happy development option for a gifted child. These children have physical and mental maturity appropriate for their age. The high intelligence of these children is organically combined with objectively high achievements in a certain subject area. Such children, having matured, achieve simply amazing results in their professional activities. They are characterized by a desire for creative activity. They openly express their ideas and defend them.

At the same time, a harmoniously developing child easily abandons traditional methods of solving problems and looks for new ways. Such a student may be more independent in the learning process than his peers and require less help from the teacher. But the student’s independence in completing tasks should not be confused with giftedness. A gifted child does not just independently select material, analyze it and write an essay. Such a child independently regulates his learning strategy in principle. Easily transfers existing knowledge to new tasks. Psychologists agree that a child’s self-education can provide convincing evidence of his outstanding abilities. After all, he is able to manage his own cognitive processes and plan his activities, systematize new information. At the same time, interference from teachers and parents can even have a negative impact on the progress of a gifted child’s education, slow down the process of self-regulation and reduce cognitive motivation.

As a rule, a high level of cognitive motivation of gifted children with a harmonious type of development is observed in those subject areas with which their leading abilities are associated. A gifted child may not only show no interest in other subject areas, but also completely ignore educational subjects that are unnecessary from his point of view. Because of this, he has conflicts with teachers.

Gifted children with a harmonious type of development ask adults a huge number of questions, the depth and complexity of which can simply amaze. They are perfectionists: they strive to achieve perfection in the activities they perform. Such children can spend hours redoing an already completed task and bringing it into line with standards known only to them. On the one hand, such a characteristic feature in the future will allow one to achieve a high level of professional achievements, on the other hand, such demands on oneself can turn into “self-criticism” and the inability to bring work to its logical conclusion.

Gifted children with a harmonious type of development have a fairly high level of self-esteem, but its level may fluctuate depending on the characteristics of the situation in which they find themselves. Such guys, as a rule, are not inclined to act and think like most of their peers. Whatever field of activity a child’s giftedness manifests itself, he will be guided by his own knowledge, and not by the opinion of the majority. This personality trait helps in activities, but makes the child uncomfortable in a group. It is so difficult to predict the behavior of a gifted child. It is important for adults to take this feature into account and understand its nature.

Giftedness with a disharmonious type of development

Such children can demonstrate a whole range of psychological, psychosomatic and psychopathological problems, and therefore often fall into the category of “difficult”. Experts note that some gifted children develop unevenly mentally, which in itself is the source of many of their personal problems. They are significantly ahead of other children in mental or moral development, but the emotional, social and physical spheres of the psyche do not keep up with such rapid growth. In addition, excessive specialization of interests only further emphasizes the uneven mental development of such a child. A child with a disharmonious type of gifted development always has his own special system of values ​​and personal priorities, the main place in which is given to activities corresponding to giftedness. His self-esteem is very unstable and varies from very high to low. It is obvious that such a child needs psychological support.

Perfectionism is also a characteristic feature of children with a disharmonious type of development; increased demands on themselves can turn into painful dissatisfaction with themselves, which negatively affects the lives of such children. They have problems in emotional development: they are overly impressionable and emotionally sensitive. Thus, events that are not very significant for other children can cause strong feelings in gifted children. They may decide that they themselves are the cause of failure, which leads to feelings of guilt, and sometimes even to the development of depression. Increased emotionality can manifest itself in a tendency to violent emotions, uncontrollable outbursts of strong emotions. Sometimes gifted children can give the impression of being hysterical, in difficult situations they demonstrate an infantile reaction, they can cry at any critical remark, and they despair in case of failure. Such children may be overly shy, suffer from all sorts of psychological problems, and have difficulty falling asleep.

A significant problem is the process of developing volitional skills and self-regulation. These children are happy to engage only in activities that interest them. Anyone else is specifically avoided. Many of them have insufficient physical development, because they are burdened by physical education lessons and do not want to play sports. It turns out that gifted children, being “workaholics”, do not know how to work in a specific subject area when significant volitional efforts are required of them.

Another problem for gifted children with a disharmonious type of development is the dominant focus on simple acquisition of knowledge. This is especially true for children with accelerated intellectual development. From childhood, such children receive praise and approval from adults for their efforts in their studies. Therefore, very soon, receiving praise becomes the leading motivation for learning activities, and the activity is not of a creative nature. But real talent remains unformed. However, with a well-organized system of upbringing and development of the child’s motivation, such difficulties can be overcome. The main thing is that such a system is built competently and implemented in the most favorable age period.

Experts agree that both heredity and the environment in which a gifted child grows up influence the development of his abilities. But they still cannot determine to what extent each of these factors influences the manifestations of giftedness. Innate abilities are undoubtedly important, but in order to realize them, it is necessary to form the appropriate motivation. Researchers note that outstanding talents not only work hard and practice throughout their lives, but also have constant support from their families. Therefore, for the realization of giftedness, not only heredity is important, but also the environment. Therefore, special developmental programs should be developed for gifted children. Most scientific psychologists and educators agree that the nature of the development of giftedness is the result of a complex interaction of heredity and sociocultural environment, which is mediated by the child’s own activities.

Giftedness complex

Undoubtedly, when establishing contact with any child and choosing the specifics of his education, it is important to know his personal characteristics. Psychologists who developed the theoretical concept of giftedness argue that gifted children have a set of personality characteristics that make up the “giftedness complex.” It is likely that the motivation of a gifted child is qualitatively different from that of an ordinary child. Gifted children are much more curious and enthusiastic about activities, they can work for a long time without adult coercion. However, there are also children who have good abilities, but do not strive to develop them. Distinctive characteristics of gifted children are often called:

• intuitiveness;
• focus on your own inner world;
• perfectionism;
• self-sufficiency;
• independence of opinions and judgments.

Gifted children are characterized by increased emotional reactivity. They show more vivid emotional reactions to everything that surrounds them. Such children are very responsive and quickly grasp the feelings of other people. A set of qualities consisting of empathy and compassion, a desire for justice, and deep knowledge in the field of morality is called moral sensitivity. Many researchers note that gifted children have much more pronounced moral sensitivity than ordinary children. Thus, L. Silverman notes that the higher a child’s level of intelligence, the earlier he begins to think about moral problems. In this regard, adults should carefully approach the education of the moral qualities of a gifted child. After all, he will quickly and easily notice the discrepancy between words and deeds.

In general, there are five social-emotional characteristics of giftedness:

• ability for divergent thinking;
• high emotional excitability and reactivity;
• moral sensitivity;
• the ability to see several aspects of a problem at once;
• need for self-determination.

The personal characteristics of a gifted child are quite multifaceted. Teachers and parents should not only know them, but also take them into account. After all, it is precisely the rejection of the personal characteristics of a gifted child that can prevent a teacher from successfully implementing the educational process.

The difference between a gifted child and a high achieving student

Often a child's giftedness is judged primarily by his academic success. However, teachers must be able to distinguish a gifted child from a very capable and well-trained one. It is important to remember that a truly gifted child always strives for new cognitive situations; they do not frighten him at all. Even if difficulties arise, a gifted child does not lose interest. A capable student with high motivation will perceive any new situation rather as a threat to his self-esteem. A gifted child enjoys the process of learning itself, while a capable child is more interested in the result. Gifted children can easily admit that they don’t understand something. For a child with external motivation, not knowing the material is a stressful situation. Therefore, gifted children are focused on the content of educational activities, while capable children are more concerned about grades.

Crises of giftedness development

Today, the attention of researchers and practitioners is directed to the process of realizing a child’s potential giftedness. Experts note that there is a real discrepancy in statistics about the success of gifted children in school and subsequent achievements in adulthood.

We have already noted above that giftedness presupposes creative abilities and a high level of intellectual development. It has both positive and negative traits. In the first case, it easily fits into the child’s life, in the second it leads to the development of intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts. Often, from the very first days of school, such children are classified as problematic. One of the big problems of a gifted child in school may be that the traditional education system is aimed at imparting a certain amount of educational material to children. Their knowledge, skills and abilities are assessed strictly in accordance with certain criteria. This formal approach leads to a slowdown in the rate of cognitive development of a gifted child. Teachers themselves do not have a completely unambiguous attitude towards gifted children. Some of them simply do not know what to do with such students, others do not have the patience to answer all the questions of a gifted child, and still others consider schooling to be equal for all students. In addition, teachers and parents do not know enough about the so-called crises of children's giftedness. Meanwhile, knowledge about the pattern of giftedness crises helps to optimize interaction with the child.

Researchers note that crises of giftedness manifest themselves in the form of the phenomenon of “disappearance” of abilities. The main cause of such crises is considered to be overwork of the child. In general, researchers identify several types of giftedness crises.

Creativity crisis

As a rule, it is characterized by the fact that the child loses his creative potential. He stops creating special creative products. This often happens due to the inability to gain approval from other people. Signs of the approach of such a crisis may be a refusal to perform a favorite and previously interesting activity, or the inability to perform it at the same level. Adults, not understanding what is really happening to the child, begin to increase the number of trainings and rehearsals. In fact, such measures only lead to exhaustion and only bring the crisis of creativity closer.

Crisis of Intellectuality

It manifests itself in a decrease in the child’s intellectual activity. This crisis occurs when a child is heavily overloaded with tasks aimed at intellectual development without taking into account his individual needs. In fact, the intelligence of a gifted child is not in a constant process of growth; there are also regular periods of decline. You should not develop your intellect at the expense of physical, emotional and personal development.

Crisis of the achievement motive

Most often it manifests itself in the child’s loss of interest in his own activities and its results: he seems to be able to do something, but does not want to, because it will turn out wrong anyway. Such a crisis develops if personal reflection begins to prevail over intellectual reflection. Intellectual reflection manifests itself at the level of rational control and presupposes the ability to consciously manage one’s cognitive resources. As the child’s personality develops, personal reflection also develops. It’s as if he learns to look at himself from the outside, compares himself with the people around him. Often the child finds the results of these comparisons to be unfavorable. Then he begins to develop an inferiority complex. The situation is further complicated by the fact that a gifted child is truly different from other children and understands the limitations of his physical abilities, which cannot keep up with his high intelligence and creativity. As a result, the child lives, constantly feeling a discrepancy between himself and those around him. Such a load is an unbearable burden for the child’s psyche, which can ultimately destroy talent.

Crisis of self-awareness or “star fever”

This is a certain psychological deformation of the individual, which leads to maladaptation and stopping the development of abilities. Symptoms of “star fever” are:

• overvalued attitude towards oneself;
• a feeling of greatness and superiority over other people.
• unreasonably high level of claims.

The child is not able to correctly determine the goals of his activities and evaluate the results.

I would like to note that crisis periods of giftedness can be avoided. However, the child himself can hardly cope with them. During a crisis period, all the necessary support should be provided by the adults who are nearby. It is necessary to create a positive emotional background and identify the difficulties of a gifted child. Adults should focus their filming on creating conditions for self-expression and self-realization of such children, try to increase their self-esteem by recognizing successes and contributions to solving common problems.

Gender differences in the development of gifted children

Quite often it happens that children with outstanding abilities do not live up to the expectations of adults and do not demonstrate them fully. Psychologists are extremely interested in the reasons for this phenomenon, so they have been conducting research on the fate of gifted children.

One of the longest studies was carried out by American psychologists under the leadership of L. Theremin in the 20s of the 20th century. Scientists selected as test subjects one and a half thousand children (boys and girls) aged 6 to 12 years, who demonstrated significant superiority in mental development of their peers. Researchers measured their intelligence levels every 6-8 years and assessed their progress. Psychologists traced the life path of these guys until old age. The most striking thing that experts discovered was that most children sooner or later caught up with their peers, although they demonstrated above-average abilities.

The results of this and similar studies suggest that it is impossible to predict how an adult's talent will manifest itself solely on the basis of his intellectual potential in childhood. The process of developing giftedness is quite complex, determined by social and cultural factors. For example, under the influence of gender stereotypes, the phenomenon of “vanishing talent” of girls appears. Experts have convincingly proven that boys and girls do not differ in intelligence until around adolescence. However, an adult woman with realized talent is a rarity in the modern world.

Large-scale studies conducted in the 70s of the 20th century showed that girls and boys grow up in a world where all social institutions (family, school, media, etc.) literally impose gender-role stereotypes of behavior on them. Girls are literally taught from birth that they cannot cope with the problem on their own. But we already know that self-confidence is the most important factor contributing to the realization of giftedness. For girls, adults choose calmer games. If we analyze the subject environment of the room of boys and girls, then for the former it is much more diverse. Psychologists have calculated that boys have about three times as many toys in the nursery. From the very first days, society prepares girls to be passive and dependent. The same attitude towards children of different sexes is observed at school. Teachers expect girls to be obedient and pay less attention to them. Often teachers have certain prejudices about the intellectual abilities of girls. Until now, society is dominated by a gender stereotype about the intellectual superiority of men over women. Thus, it is believed that girls are less successful in the exact sciences than boys. However, this happens more under the influence of social pressure, and not due to objective reasons.

Criticism from adults, based on gender stereotypes, is internalized by the child and then reproduced by him. That is, the child begins to think about himself the way adults think about him. If we consider that girls are more often praised not for their mental abilities, but for their neatness, and are more often scolded for their intellectual qualities, then it is not surprising that girls think about themselves in exactly the same way. Girls tend to explain their failures in educational activities by their abilities, boys - by other factors not related to abilities.

Unfortunately, when a teacher deals with a gifted child, the differences in attitude towards boys and girls become even more pronounced. They sincerely believe that gifted boys are superior to girls because they have a high level of logical thinking. Gifted girls are much less likely to be focused on achieving high results. If girls show independence of judgment and originality of thinking, they may even cause a negative reaction from teachers. This cannot but lead to emotional problems in such a child. As a result, many gifted girls simply deny their own abilities.

There is no denying that some differences in cognitive abilities between boys and girls do exist. For example, boys have more developed spatial intelligence, girls have more verbal intelligence. They are more focused on interpersonal relationships. However, as they grow up, girls adapt to their female role under pressure from society. Often an adult woman can change her professional orientations to simpler ones.

Russian psychologist L.V. Popova studied the phenomenon of “vanishing talent” in girls and came to the conclusion that focus on serving the family in the process of socialization predetermines their future low social status. Gender stereotypes have dominated the minds of scientists throughout world history. Thus, the Austrian philosopher O. Weininger quite sincerely believed that genius is completely unattainable for a woman, since it is closely connected with masculinity.

Not a single researcher in the field of giftedness denies the fact that a woman of genius is a rare case in practice. It turns out that initially the same number of gifted boys and girls are born in the world, but with age, girlish talent turns into an exception to the rule. L.V. Popova, analyzing school textbooks, notices that in the illustrations boys are depicted as the main characters, brave and independent. The girls look like secondary characters. Overall, 66% of the pictures depicted exclusively boys or men. In the plots of stories and texts of problems, 81.1% belong to the male gender. As a result, girls simply do not have active female characters in their minds with whom they could relate. Boys, in turn, are forbidden by society to show weakness and sensitivity.

Since not only intelligence determines the high achievements of a gifted child in the future, but also activity, self-confidence and independence, boys have a greater chance of realizing their abilities. This does not mean that a teacher should try to turn a gifted girl into a boy, it is simply worth paying more attention to their abilities and instilling in them confidence in their own capabilities.

Thus, experts tend to view a child’s giftedness as a kind of development potential. It is important to remember that children's talent may fade under the influence of changes in age, education, and family upbringing. Often adults cannot distinguish between children's talent and good training. Therefore, assessing a child as gifted is largely conditional. Truly gifted children may exhibit uneven development of mental functions. The child’s outstanding abilities may never be fully realized due to external circumstances. It is important to remember that the strongest signs of giftedness may fade as a child gets older. Giftedness itself is not an exclusively natural gift; it develops under the influence of the environment. That is why teachers play an important role in accompanying gifted children. The professional competence of the teacher, his ability to recognize a gifted child and support him during crises, ultimately allows him to develop the potential of the student that is inherent in him.