Options for identification and assessment of gifted and talented young children

Early intervention is essential in the development of intellectual, emotional, social, oral, and spiritual development of gifted and talented children (Bloom,1985). In order to provide these children with beneficent early intervention so as to help these children realize their potential, it is critical that their giftedness and talents be identified as early as possible. Such an early identification is a pivotal issue amongst other pertinent issues in educating the gifted and talented. Early and timely intervention is likely to offer young gifted children more opportunities towards fulfilling their perceived potential. This paper begins by reflecting on the current literature to identification of gifted and talented children. The paper continues by examining and comparing two most used means for assessing and identifying gifted children, screening procedures and nominations. Students’ general abilities tests and academic and non-academic performances are discussed in the screening section, whilst teacher; parent, peer and self nominations are addressed in the nomination section. The paper concludes by highlighting the implications of employing various tools appropriately for identifying gifted and talented children at an early age in Hong Kong.
對於資優兒童來說，依其特長而及早給予相應的教育和培養對他們在學術、情感、社交以及心智等各方面的發展都極為重要 (Bloom, 1985) 。為了能令資優兒童得到相應的培養，提早的鑒定與發現是不容忽視的。鑒定於檢測不僅是資優教育專業最重要的課題之一，如使用得當，更使得幼兒能夠從小便有機會得到妥善的培養，從而為他們將來的成長作出良好的鋪墊。
本文首先就資優兒童的早期鑒定進行文獻探討。然後，文章對測試篩選和提名推薦這兩種最常用的資優兒童的鑒別方法給予介紹和對比。前者討論了學生的能力測試、學術和非學術測試，而後者包括教師、家長及同學提名。文章最後強調了妥善運用不同的資優兒童的鑒別工具對香港資優教育及其幼兒成長的啟示。 Copyright © 2009 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.