EARLY LITERACY SKILLS OF GIFTED CHILDREN IN PRESCHOOL

Abstract

In the preschool period gifted children are defined as children with the potential to perform at high levels due to their advanced or rapid development. The aim of this study is to examine the level of early literacy skills of gifted children in the preschool period and how this level differs from their peers with typical development. The comparison screening method from quantitative research was used in the study. The study group consists of 67 children, 34 are identified as gifted and 33 are with typical development. The data collection tools consisted of two groups: scales for determining gifted and typically developing children, and a scale for measuring early literacy skills. While Candidate Notification Scale for Preschool Gifted Children and Raven's Color Progressive Matrices Test were used to determine children who are gifted and typical development, the Early Literacy Scale was used to evaluate this skill. According to the results, it was observed that gifted children performed higher than their peers with typical development in the vocabulary, phonetic awareness, letter knowledge, listening comprehension skills and total score of early literacy.