Tips for Parents: Exploring Talent Development with Gagne's DMGT

The seminar aimed at exploring the various components of Gagné's Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent. Here are a few ideas that I would like to restate from my discussion with the participants.

1. Gifts manifest themselves in many varieties within four broad domains: cognitive, creative, social, and physical. Natural abilities from these four domains are not closely related, allowing young people to show giftedness in one domain only. This lack of strong correlations between domains automatically increases the total population of gifted individuals whatever the threshold chosen.
2. Talents manifest themselves in countless fields of human activity. They do not limit themselves to professional fields (law, science, medicine, etc.), but can be observed in almost every occupational field: technology, trades, services, business, sports, etc.
3. The Davidson young scholars do not constitute a representative sample of the 'gifted' and/or talented population. Most of them have shown performances that place them at least within the exceptional level (1:10 000) of the DMGT's MB (metric-based) system of levels. Consequently, a large part of the scientific literature on the characteristics and needs of gifted/talented students would not necessarily apply to that very selective sub-population.
4. I hope that the participants in the seminar will continue to practice using the DMGT terminology in describing both types and levels of gifts and talents. I found that effort by the participants during the seminar to be one of the most interesting elements of the discussions. It helped clarify rapidly the exact abilities and other characteristics of the young people described by their parents.
5. Always keep in mind the major difference between motivation and volition, as they are defined in the DMGT. Motivation represents the identification of appropriate short-term or long-term goals; volition (will power, effort) represents all activities focused on reaching the goals previously identified. These two dimensions are not necessarily correlated. For instance, high initial interest might rapidly decrease when the person discovers the unexpected difficulties in developing a particular talent (e.g., playing a musical instrument, or mastering the technique of a sport). It appeared in the discussions that parents tended to face volition problems more often than motivational ones. I would tend not to worry because of the young age of most children who were described to me.
6. Exceptional or extreme giftedness does not automatically come with corresponding levels of motivation or volition. I have often met young children with only a mild level of cognitive giftedness, but with a level of volition at least 'high' (1:1 000) and even 'exceptional' (1:10 000). And the reverse is of course also possible. The psychological literature has never shown very high correlations between measures of intellectual giftedness and measures of either motivation (interests) or volition (effort).
7. We shouldn't expect young students to have already identified their eventual occupational goals. It is a well-known fact that many of them will hesitate for a long time because of the diversity of occupational 'doors' open to them.
8. Intrapersonal catalysts are not completely malleable to outside influences (parental or others). Not just temperament, but also needs, interests, and willpower have been shown to harbor genetic roots. These roots create resistance to change. Yet, as shown by recent work on brain flexibility, patient repetitive suggestions might have impacts in the long term.
9. Parents and teachers are not the only major environmental influences in the world of these children. Peers also play a significant role, especially when youth approach and reach adolescence. The problem with many young people who possess extreme intellectually giftedness is their difficulty in finding in their daily environment other young people with comparable natural abilities.
10. One last post-seminar comment. You might sometimes find it difficult to 'deal' with the exceptional giftedness of your child (or children); and I would agree with you that the lack of appropriate educational services is a major hurdle. But, keep in mind that your problems are so much smaller than those of parents faced with a child who has major learning problems.