Bringing Out Head Start Talents: Findings From the Field

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to address the need for identifying and providing programming for potentially gifted Head Start children. Four hundred forty-six Head Start children, 32 teachers, and 32 teacher aides participated in the field-testing and were divided into intervention and comparison groups. The comparison group was made up of 212 children, 20 teachers, and 20 teacher aides, and the intervention group included 234 children, 12 teachers, and 12 teacher aides. All children in both groups received programming to enhance divergent, convergent, and evaluative thinking skills. Children with special gifts and talents in both groups were identified and those in the intervention group received programming in their talent area. Results indicated that both indentified and non-identified potentially gifted children in the intervention group made significant gains over the comparison group in cognitive and creative functioning. In addition, attitudes of teachers in the intervention group toward their classes became significantly more positive than attitudes of teachers in the comparison group.