Identifying and Providing for the Hispanic Gifted Child

Abstract

Hispanic children in bilingual as well as in mainstream classes are often considered ineligible for participation in programs for the gifted and talented due to: (a) identification procedures that rely heavily on tests which are often inappropriate for use with Spanish-speaking children, and (b) the widespread acceptance of an essentially inaccurate definition of giftedness which has resulted in the exclusion of many qualified minority as well as majority language students from such programs. Joseph Renzulli’s conceptualization of giftedness is described and offered as a fair and effective model for identifying gifted and talented children. Three methods of selecting potentially gifted Hispanic children are discussed. The question of language, as well as the perceived differences between programs for Hispanic gifted children and “traditional” gifted programs for English-dominant children are examined.

The following four questions are specifically addressed:

	1. To what degree has society been successful in identifying gifted and talented Hispanic children? Why might this be?
	2. What are some fair and effective methods that might be utilized in the identification of gifted and talented Hispanic children?
	3. What language(s) should be used in programs for Hispanic gifted and talented children?
	4. In what ways, if at all, do talented and gifted (TAG) programs for Hispanic children differ from TAG programs for English-dominant children?