Gifted children and the challenges that they face.

In the UK, there is a certain recognition and labelling system attached to special needs children, and although largely ignored, what the system doesn't seem to recognize is that it is not only the child with behavior problems, or the socially deprived, lacking in intelligence or mentally challenged children that need special care. Those are the children that get more bad press, and so schools want to be seen to be doing something about them, although the help they receive is minimal.

The children that escape the notice of schooling are often those over achievers or gifted children although the suffering of these children really is every bit as life changing and requires special adaptation of the class work to cater for their needs.

The strange thing is that there are so many differences between the school systems in Europe, and although the UK does not provide adequately for gifted children, across the water in France, they provide not only for the gifted but for those who are slow as well.

WHAT SINGLES OUT A CHILD AS GIFTED

A gifted child will become lethargic and quite frankly bored. They learn fast. They do not need the same amount of stimulation as others to learn the lessons within the curriculum. Half the time, the gifted child will become a social problem simply because they are not being provided with the educational stimulation they need in order to exceed.

Every child needs to be challenged. Take away the challenge factor, and there is little to work towards. The gifted child may not make friends easily, may be a loner and unpopular because of their abilities, may become disruptive, although the underlying problem that lies behind the attitude and behavior is indeed one that schools should recognize and try to address.

In schools in the UK the gifted child will go relatively unnoticed. They achieve, though there is little allowance or flexibility to stimulate them, and are at best left to fend for themselves. Many will turn to reading to find stimulation, others lose themselves in daydreaming. They succeed so the schools are not prepared to be flexible enough to see the full picture that not only should they succeed, but they should be encouraged to go further than their peers, with backing from the school.

In France, a child can skip a year if they are gifted, or be held back a year if they are slow. Teachers see the problem as their individual problem and will openly discuss

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