Early Identification of Potentially Gifted and Talented Children: the Use of Parent Nomination During Pre-Kindergarten Screening.

Abstract

This study evaluated the accuracy of parent nomination of potentially gifted and talented children as part of a pre-Kindergarten screening process. All parents of entering Kindergarten students responded to the statement "My child is very advanced in his/her development and may be intellectually gifted or academically talented". Children of parents who responded affirmatively ("yes" group) or with comments reflecting uncertainty ("maybe" group) were asked to participate in the study. Children not nominated, but who obtained a high score on the Early Screening Inventory, a developmental screening test, were also asked to participate for comparison purposes. The mean age of students participating in the study was 4.97 years. The one hundred students who participated were administered the Slosson Intelligence Test and the reading and arithmetic subtests of the Wide Range Achievement Test. Parents completed a questionnaire pertaining to feelings of hesitancy over nomination and other background information. Nomination was considered to be accurate when a child obtained a Slosson IQ of 133 or greater. Almost one-half of the students in the "maybe" group met this criterion, compared to one-fourth of the students in the other two groups. Of the 33 children receiving a Slosson IQ score of 133 or greater, 55% were identified with a "maybe" nomination, 18% with a "yes" nomination, and 27% came from the comparison group. Three-fourths of the parents reported hesitancy when they were initially presented with the nomination statement. Hesitation was reported not only by parents in the "maybe" group, but also by over half of the parents who had indicated either "yes" or "no". The tendency to hesitate was particularly pronounced among parents of children who scored in the 133-148 IQ range. The findings suggest that a nomination procedure such as the one employed can effectively assist in the screening of potential c and idates for gifted and talented programming. Future studies should take into account the caution in responding exhibited by many of the parents of the brightest children in this sample. This characteristic may affect nomination if only a yes-no response dichotomy is used.