From Children's Giftedness to Real Talent: The Problem of 'Transition'

The main problem of gifted children is the "transition" of their increased intellectual capabilities into talent, as the basis of creative activity, or, in another formulation, the transformation of children's giftedness into an actual talent. Analysis of available materials shows that the cognitive need of a significant part of these children takes the character of passive accumulation of a large amount of knowledge and therefore becomes an obstacle to such a transition. The search need is considered to be a basic factor, which is the "engine" of the creative realization of a gifted person, which ensures the search for new solutions and ways of action in contradictory and uncertain situations for the subject, and, thus, becomes the basis of his talent, future creative achievements. It is shown that in a number of gifted children and, above all, in the so-called "prodigies" the need for search is early and very significantly deformed, which in most cases is directly related to social influences. The article deals with the causes and consequences of a significant deformation of the search need in gifted children.