Seabury's Students
All children are unique individuals. However, there are characteristics that many intellectually advanced children share. The list below can help you decide if Seabury is the right learning environment for your child. A highly capable child may exhibit some or all of the following characteristics:
Characteristics of Highly Capable Children
- Early progression through developmental milestones. For example, walking and talking early or showing advanced reasoning ability compared to others of the same age
- Verbal precociousness. Highly capable children often have vocabularies that are larger and more complex at an earlier age than their age peers.
- Note: Verbal precociousness can be an important indicator of giftedness in girls. Highly capable girls may begin to hide their full academic ability at an early age in order to fit in with their age peers. Frequently, an intellectually advanced girl will seem to be happy and doing well in school, but her extensive vocabulary, often coupled with advanced reasoning ability, may hint at greater potential than she is exhibiting in the classroom.
- Sense of humor. Highly capable children often have a great sense of humor and appreciate more sophisticated jokes and verbal wordplay than other children their age.
- Intense power of concentration, long attention span, high energy, and eagerness for their projects and interests. Children with advanced ability often become fascinated with a particular subject and have an insatiable desire to learn all they can about the topic. They may also work with more intensity and be able to concentrate for longer periods of time than would be typical for children their age on complex projects such as building models or creating intricate drawings or designs.
- Higher level of sensitivity. Highly capable children are extremely sensitive to the world around them. They often show empathy that is beyond what would be expected from others their age, and wrestle with questions and issues that are surprising in their depth. They can experience emotional turmoil when they are able to intellectually grasp information that they are not emotionally ready to handle.
- Critical thinking ability, skepticism, questioning, and self-criticism. Highly capable children are frequently extremely sensitive to issues of justice and fairness, and typically want to know “why” more often than other kids their age. Perfectionism is a trait shared by many intellectually advanced children.
Seabury's trained staff is happy to work with parents who have questions about whether their child might benefit from Seabury's academic program. In addition, there are a number of excellent resources available on the web to help parents determine whether their child might benefit from a program designed to meet the intellectual and social-emotional needs of highly capable children.. Two resources Seabury recommends are: