Transforming Outstanding Potential in Outstanding Skills by Using Storytelling to Develop Intellectual Abilities of Gifted Students at Risk

摘要

Gifted children living in vulnerable environments could be at social and educative risk when they do not receive an appropriate instruction with respect to their outstanding potential, particularly in the early years of schooling. The current work considers this rationale to generate an early identification process and implementation of a program that could meet the specific requirements of children who can be targeted with outstanding potential. The purpose of this study was to transform outstanding potential to outstanding intellectual skills of targeted children using an emotional, cognitive and creative enrichment program designed for them based o n storytelling activities. In this descriptive non-experimental mixed method design, 7 first and second graders students participate, 4 girls and 3 boys (M - age = 6.28). The study was organized in three steps: 1) characterization or the risk/resilience profile of children, using an exploratory and diagnostic assessment; 2) the design and implementation of a cognitive and creative enrichment program based on storytelling activities; and 3) the assessment of changes in intellectual abilities. Results were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The intellectual area showed statistically significant differences in scores for Total IQ, Verbal Comprehension Index and Working Memory Index of children from the initial assessment to the final one, indicating that their capacity to comprehend the active process of the interrelations within and beyond a text as well as to construct a mental representation of its context increased significantly after the program and this constituted an evidence of their intellectual abilities.