An investigation into the identification of gifted kindergarten children

• Main Author: Perks, Barbara Ann
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2010
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/25703

Gifted children once identified may develop to their potential if appropriate and stimulating educational programs are provided. There has been a progressive search for valid and economical instruments that can be used for identification of the intellectually gifted. The purpose of this investigation was to determine what combination of three economical predictor instruments was able to identify an intellectually gifted group of kindergarten children. Kindergarten children (n=8l6) from a random sample of 32 schools in two urban school districts of the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia were administered the Vane Kindergarten Test (VKT). A further sample (n=l94) was drawn from the above sample. The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) was administered to the 194 children. The teachers and parents of these children (n=l94) completed the questionnaires: Perks Teacher Nomination Questionnaire (PTNQ) and Perks Parent Nomination Questionnaire (PPNQ), on children's intellectual abilities. On the basis of their WPPSI scores, the children were classified into gifted (n=42) (WPPSI IQ2.130) and non-gifted (n=l52) (WPPSI IQ<130) groups. A discriminant function analysis was performed to assess the validity of the VKT, PTNQ, and PPNQ as predictors of group membership. Of the 194 children, 88.7% were identified correctly as gifted or non-gifted by the VKT, 79.9% by the PTNQ, and 78.4% by the PPNQ. For the 152 non-gifted children, 95.4% were identified correctly by the VKT, 96.1% by the PTNQ, and 94.7% by the PPNQ. Of the 42 gifted children, 64.3% were identified correctly by the VKT, 21.4% by the PTNQ, and 19.0% by the PPNQ. The VKT was the most accurate predictor (64.3%) of intellectually gifted kindergarten-children and was of particular value (97.6%) if children with VKT IQ scores of 127, 128, and 129 as well as those with scores 130 and higher were included within the gifted group. === Education, Faculty of === Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of === Graduate