Children Above 180 IQ Stanford-Binet: Origin and DevelopmentHollingworth, Leta Stetter
Science
Children Above 180 IQ Stanford-Binet: Origin and Development
Hollingworth, Leta Stetter
Gifted children; Stanford-Binet Test
Also, the deep interest in reading which typifies the gifted
child may further his isolation. Irwin believes that reading should
be deferred in the education of the highly intelligent. "I believe
it is especially important that intellectual children get a grasp
on reality through real experiences in making and doing things
before they are ever introduced to the wonders that lie within
books." From this point of view, the development of the physical,
social, and emotional aspects of personality would have first
attention in the education of a gifted child, the intellectual
being fostered last of all because it comes of itself and is too
likely to run away with the other three and lead to isolation.
This tendency to become isolated is one of the most important
factors to be considered in guiding the development of personality
in highly intelligent children, but it does not become a serious
problem except at the very extreme degrees of intelligence.
The majority of children between 130 and 150 IQ find fairly easy
adjustment, because neighborhoods and schools are selective,
so that like-minded children tend to be located in the same
schools and districts. Furthermore, the gifted child, being
large and strong for his age, is acceptable to playmates a year
or two older. Great difficulty arises only when a young child
is above 160 IQ. At the extremely high levels of 180 and 190 IQ,
the problem of friendships is difficult indeed, and the younger
the person, the more difficult it is. The trouble decreases with
age because as persons become adult, they naturally seek and find
on their own initiative groups who are like-minded, such as
learned societies.
THE CONCEPT OF "OPTIMUM INTELLIGENCE"
All things considered, the psychologist who has observed the
development of gifted children over a long period of time from
early childhood to maturity, evolves the idea that there is a
certain restricted portion of the total range of intelligence
which is most favorable to the development of successful and
well-rounded personality in the world as it now exists. This
limited range appears to be somewhere between 125 and 155 IQ.
Children and adolescents in this area are enough more intelligent
than the average to win the confidence of large numbers of their
fellows, which brings about leadership, and to manage their own
lives with superior efficiency. Moreover, there are enough of them
to afford mutual esteem and understanding. But those of 170 IQ
and beyond are too intelligent to be understood by the general
run of persons with whom they make contact. They are too infrequent
to find many congenial companions. They have to contend with
loneliness and with personal isolation from their contemporaries
throughout the period of immaturity. To what extent these patterns
become permanently fixed, we cannot yet tell.
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