Curriculum & Instruction

High ability children benefit from differentiated instruction (i.e., adaptations or modifications to the general curriculum), instructional environments, methods, materials, or a specialized curriculum tailored to best suit their educational needs. Parents can discuss high ability students’ needs for specially designed instruction with high ability and regular education teachers, their school’s administration, and support staff. This specially designed instruction should be based on an assessment of each student’s needs and should not be a one-size-fits-all program.

When educators design such a program of individual instruction, they should keep in mind three fundamental differences that distinguish high ability learners from other learners: The capacity to learn at faster rates, more in-depth and with greater complexity; The capacity to find, solve, and act on problems more readily; *The capacity to manipulate abstract ideas and make connections.