What does giftedness mean?

Giftedness and addressing gifted students remains hard to define across the United States. There are no federal criteria for assessing or identifying children as gifted; the onus for defining giftedness in students and knowing how to both support and challenge them falls to the states and from there can vary widely depending further on individual school district.

The five major categories that gifted and talented children fall into are:

1. General Intellectual Ability
2. Specific Academic Aptitude
3. Creative or Productive Thinking
4. Leadership Ability

5. Visual/Performing Arts

   This typically also corresponds with an IQ of approximately 125-130. However, IQ tests are by no means the only ways to assess and measure giftedness.

To dive deeper into giftedness, how it is addressed in school, and how it intersects with disability, see our full article about twice-exceptional students.