The passionate love of reading is a common trait among many gifted children, although this trait may not be obvious to those directly responsible for these children. Along with advanced levels of reading, their reading interests also differ considerably from their average ability chronological peers.

Several years ago, during an interview with the parents of a Year Five girl who had been placed in a mixed ability classroom, the conversation turned to her parents' concerns regarding her reading habits. They were worried that their daughter was an 'obsessive reader', and had been so from a very early age, explaining that quite often she would be found walking around the house, nose in a book, totally unaware of anything around her (including the staircase and objects that might happen in her way).

Further questioning revealed that in fact she had probably been reading independently since the age of three and a half years, and that her favourite book at four years of age was Kenneth Graham's The Wind in the Willows. When it was explained to her anxious parents that this was a common trait found in gifted children, they were quick to respond that their daughter could not be gifted as no-one had ever mentioned that she was anything more than average, and added to that she was only performing among the average students of her year. Not to be deterred however, continued discussion convinced them that it might be worthwhile to allow their daughter to participate in some ability testing to determine whether in fact she was gifted. It was extremely interesting to note that this testing revealed their daughter's IQ was in excess of 150, three to four standard deviations above the norm, and that she was subsequently moved to a full-time self-contained class for gifted students.

The passionate love of reading is a common trait among many gifted children, although as shown by the above example, this trait may not be obvious to those directly responsible for these children. In another case, a student in a Year Six class was given a low grade for her performance in Library on a report card because of her lack of borrowing from the Library and her poor reading interest. This particular child explained her poor borrowing record in the following way: 'When I was in Year Three, I began borrowing books from the School Library, but by the end of Year Four, there was nothing left that was interesting to read. Besides, we have so many books at home that are more challenging for me. I like to read authors such as Tolkien, Eddings, Donaldson, Bronte and Dickens, and the School Library doesn't have many of these. The books we have to read in class are boring and I usually finish them overnight. At home I read five or more books per week, sometimes two or three at a time. It's less boring that way...............why didn't she (the Librarian) just ask me what I was reading instead of assuming I was a poor reader?'

Not only do gifted children generally have advanced reading abilities, but their reading interests also differ considerably from their average ability chronological peers.

The cognitive and affective characteristics of gifted children differ from their average intelligence age peers in many areas and on many levels and subsequently these children also require different educational interventions and strategies than needed by their age peers.

The definition of reading set out by Gross (1993, p.134) in her study of exceptionally gifted children states that: '...reading is defined as the ability to decode and comprehend more than five words from a printed source without the use of pictures as textual clues.' When specifically examining the area of reading, some of the related cognitive and affective characteristics of gifted children include:

• learning to read at an early age;
• reading materials beyond the norm for their age;
• reading more and at a faster rate than average;
• a large and varied vocabulary;
• comprehension of new concepts at a fast rate;
• unusual and wide range of interests; and
• high levels of creativity and imagination.
  

Early reading ability is often cited by researchers in the field of gifted education as a common characteristic of gifted children and many exceptionally and profoundly gifted children have been found to be reading well before they actually begin formal schooling (Hollingworth, 1926; Van Tassel-Baska, 1993; Gross, 1993). Gross (1989a) further adds that another characteristic of children who are profoundly gifted is the phenomena of 'spontaneous reading': when these children appear to learn how to read in an almost instant fashion, without progressing through any of the normal reading stages found with children of average intellectual ability.

There appears to be substantial qualitative evidence to link early reading with at least, exceptional giftedness (Gross, 1993). Additionally, gifted children may be more socially mature and more self aware than their chronological peers (Tannenbaum, 1983; Gross, 1994). Marland (1972) synthesised the findings of many researchers when he stated: 'The gifted explore ideas and issues earlier than their peers. While they enjoy social associations as others do, they tend early to relate to older companions and to games which involve individual skills or some intellectual pursuits.......Gifted pupils, even when very young, depart from self-centered concerns and values far earlier than their chronological peers. Problems of morality, religion, and world peace may be troublesome at a very early age.' Because of this, gifted children tend to read materials that are not only the domain of much older children but that involve comprehension abilities of a much higher level of maturity. Generally, they read a greater variety of literature, fiction and non-fiction, moving through the developmental levels of reading materials at an accelerated pace. It is not unusual to find exceptionally gifted children reading literature normally read by children in three or four years ahead of them even before starting school (Halstead, 1988; Gross, 1993).

Ref List:
Gross, M.U.M. (1994). The highly gifted: Their nature and needs. In J.B. Hansen and S.M. hoover (Eds.). Talent development: Theories and practice (pp. 45 - 68). Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.
Gross, M.U.M. (1993). Exceptionally gifted children. London: Routledge.
Gross, M.U.M., MacLeod, B., Drummond, D. and Merrick, C. (2001). Gifted students in primary schools: Differentiating the curriculum. Sydney: UNSW, GERRIC.
Halstead, J.W. (1988). Guiding gifted readers from pre-school through high school. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio Psychology Publishing Company.
Harrison, C. (1999). Giftedness in early childhood. Sydney: UNSW, GERRIC.
Hollingworth, L.S. (1926). Gifted children: their nature and nurture. New York: Macmillan.
Marland, S.P. (1972). Education of the gifted and talented, Volume 1: A report to the Congress of the United States by the U.S. Commissioner of Education. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Rogers, K. B. (2002). Re-forming gifted education. Scottsdale, AZ: Great Potential Press, Inc.
Terman, L. M. (1926). Genetic studies of genius (Vol. 1). Mental and physical traits of a thousand gifted children. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
VanTassel-Baska, J. (1993). Comprehensive curriculum planning for gifted

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