The Development of Giftedness and Talent Across the Life Span

In this volume, renowned developmental psychologists and experts in gifted education come together to explore giftedness from early childhood through the elder years. Focusing on the practical implications of emerging theoretical perspectives and empirical findings, contributors examine prediction and measurement, diversity issues, and psychosocial factors as they relate to developing talent in different domains.

Is the expression of gifted behavior predictable? Is it a stable individual characteristic? How do race, ethnicity, gender, and culture influence or contribute to the development of gifted and talented behaviors? What sustains the development of giftedness and talent? And how can insights gleaned from the field of gifted education inform the research, policy, and practice of psychologists? These questions are considered at each stage across the life span by an interdisciplinary team of experts.

This highly informative volume is a must-read for developmental and educational psychologists, as well as for researchers, educators, and anyone interested in the development of high-level abilities, individual differences, educational policy and practice, and the realization of human potential.

Contributors

Foreword
—Carol S. Dweck

Preface

1. Introduction: A Developmental Understanding of Giftedness and Talent
   —Frances Degen Horowitz
   
   I. Infancy and Early Childhood

2. High Cognitive Ability in Infancy and Early Childhood
   —John Colombo, D. Jill Shaddy, Otilia M. Blaga, Christa J. Anderson, and Kathleen N. Kannass

3. Issues in Early Prediction and Identification of Intellectual Giftedness
   —Allen W. Gottfried, Adele Eskeles Gottfried, and Diana Wright Guerin
   
   II. Childhood

4. Giftedness During Childhood: The Spatial–Graphic Domain
   —Lynn S. Liben

5. Toward Broadening Our Understanding of Giftedness: The Spatial Domain
   —Ellen Winner
   
   III. Adolescence

6. Developmental Transitions in Giftedness and Talent: Childhood Into Adolescence
   —Dona J. Matthews

7. Giftedness in Adolescence: African American Gifted Youth and Their Challenges From a Motivational Perspective
   —Sandra Graham

8. What Does Gifted Mean? Personal and Social Identity Perspectives on Giftedness in Adolescence
   —Frank C. Worrell
   
   IV. Adulthood and the Later Years

9. Developmental Transitions in Giftedness and Talent: Adolescence Into Adulthood
   —Rena F. Subotnik

10. Gifts and Talents of Elderly People: The Persimmon's Promise
    —James E. Birren
    
    V. Life-Span Perspectives: Understandings and Implications

11. Developmental Science and Giftedness: An Integrated Life-Span Framework
    —Daniel P. Keating

12. A Developmental Perspective on Giftedness and Talent: Implications for Research, Policy, and Practice
    —Dona J. Matthews, Rena F. Subotnik, and Frances Degen Horowitz

Author Index

Subject Index

About the Editors

Frances Degen Horowitz, PhD, is a professor and president emerita at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A developmental psychologist, she is the author of more than 130 articles, monographs, and books in the field of child development, with an emphasis on infant behavior and development and developmental theory. Among numerous leadership positions in the field of psychology and child development, she has served as president of the Society for Research and Child Development and president of APA's Division 7 (Developmental Psychology). She coedited, with Marion O'Brien, the book The Gifted and Talented: Developmental Perspectives (1985), and she was an editor of the Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

Rena F. Subotnik, PhD, is the director of the Center for Gifted Education Policy at the American Psychological Association. The center's mission is to generate public awareness, advocacy, clinical applications, and cutting-edge research ideas that will enhance the achievement and performance of children and adolescents with special gifts and talents in all domains (including academic disciplines, performing arts, sports, and professions).

She is a coeditor of an upcoming series titled Levers of Change and has a volume in preparation with APA Books titled Methodologies for Conducting Research on Giftedness. She has also coedited Optimizing Student Success in School With the Other Three R's: Reasoning, Resilience, and Responsibility (2006); The Scientific Basis of Educational Productivity (2006); International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent (2nd ed., 2002); Remarkable Women: Perspectives on Female Talent Development (1995); and Beyond Terman: Contemporary Longitudinal Studies of Giftedness and Talent (1994). She is also the primary author of Genius Revisited: High IQ Children Grown Up (1993).

Dona J. Matthews, PhD, has been teaching, writing, counseling, consulting, and conducting research on gifted development and education since 1985. From 2003 to 2007, she was the director of the Center for Gifted Studies and Education at Hunter College, The City University of New York, where she worked with New York City (NYC) teachers and the NYC Department of Education on policies and practices relating to giftedness. She is currently a visiting professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, engaged in several writing projects and working with families and schools on issues relating to gifted education. In addition to dozens of journal articles, she is a coauthor of Being Smart About Gifted Children: A Guidebook for Parents and Educators (2005) and coeditor of the Routledge International Companion to Gifted Education (2009).

I fully recommend this book as a refreshing and incisive overview of the emerging trends in the wide field of identifying and nurturing gifts and talents. The major themes are well researched and debated, making compelling reading for anyone interested in taking a new look at the field of giftedness in order to create equitable opportunities within a more inclusive system of education in the future.
—Gifted Education International

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