Special Populations

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Characteristics of Gifted Girl
Kerr (1985): Smart Girls, Gifted Women

Younger Gifted Girls

1. Many gifted girls were superior physically, had more social knowledge, and were better adjusted than were average girls.
2. In their interests, gifted girls were more like gifted boys than they were like average girls.
3. Highly gifted girls were often second-born females.
4. Highly gifted girls were often loners without much need for recognition.
5. Gifted girls were interested in fulfilling needs for self-esteem through school and club achievements.

Adolescent Girls

1. Gifted girls IQ scores dropped in adolescence perhaps as they began to perceive their own giftedness as undesirable.
2. Gifted girls were likely to continue to have higher academic achievement than gifted boys exhibited until college, when a reversal took place.
3. Gifted girls maintained a high involvement in extracurricular and social activities.
4. Highly gifted girls often did not receive recognition for their achievements.
5. Highly gifted girls attended less prestigious colleges than did highly gifted boys, and this fact seemed to lead to lower status careers.

Strategies
Callahan (1980): The gifted girl: An anomaly?

1. Provide activities that require females to practice visual-spatial problem- solving from a young age.
2. Provide role models of gifted women engaging in successful problem-solving activities.
3. Provide activities that teach gifted girls the impact they can have on their own destines.
4. Provide opportunities for gifted females to interact with successful, attractive feminine role models in a variety of professions.
5. Provide activities that encourage women to establish their own personal goals.
6. Set equivalent standards and criteria for reinforcement for males and females.