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Understanding Giftedness
Understanding Giftedness
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Nurturing the Potential of Gifted Students (Part 2): Non-academic Potential - Visual and Performing Arts, Leadership, Physical Fitness | Understanding Giftedness | HKAGE

Some parents and teachers may prioritise gifted students' academic performance and overlook their development in non-academic areas. However, it's important to recognise that some gifted students excel in sports, arts, creativity, or leadership. Nurturing these talents is crucial for their holistic growth. This article will explore the diverse qualities of gifted students and provide tips for fostering their potential in various domains. By tailoring instruction and nurturing gifted students effectively, parents and teachers can meet their unique needs.

Table of Contents:

  1. Gifted children with creative thinking (Creative thinking is the high ability to invent and elaborate on numerous novel ideas)
  2. Gifted children with remarkable talent in visual and performing arts
    1. Gifted children in visual art domain
    2. Gifted children in music domain
    3. Gifted children in drama or dance domain
  3. Gifted children with leadership competencies
  4. Gifted children with ingenuity in athletics, mechanical skills, or sensorimotor coordination


Further Reading: Academic Focus: Mathematics, Language, Science, and High-Level Intelligence


Nurturing the Potential of Gifted Students (Part 2) Non-Academic Focus: Visual and Performing Arts, Leadership Abilities, Physical Fitness

3) Gifted children with creative thinking (Creative thinking is the high ability to invent and elaborate on numerous novel ideas)

  • Open to experiences
  • Have a vivid imagination
  • Feel bored with memorisation and recitation
  • Think independently and/or flexibly
  • Confident in presenting and elaborating original ideas
  • Have a preference for complexity and open-endedness
  • Tolerate ambiguity, uncertainty, and disorder
  • Take risks willingly

Tips for Parents/Teachers

You may

  • allow them to think at their own pace
  • appreciate creative expressions of ideas
  • encourage problem-solving and exploration
  • provide opportunities for new experiences to stimulate their creativity
  • arrange multi-sensory activities for children, encouraging them to have diverse experiences and explore possibilities
  • choose toys such as puzzles, bricks, clay that encourage thinking or creativity
  • arrange space to show their products at home

Don’t be a killer of creativity!

  • Don’t insist on a definite answer!
  • Don’t confine their thinking to “a right way of doing things”!
  • Don’t laugh at their imaginative thinking!


Further Reading: Understanding Twice-exceptional Students 
Related information: Parent Education Programme／Workshop／Other Support


4) Gifted children with remarkable talent in visual and performing arts

  • Show passion
  • Engrossed in artistic projects
  • Dislike repetition
  • Willing to improve artistic skills
  • Strive for perfection in their artistic works

Tips for Parents/Teachers

You may

  • encourage originality and incorporation of ideas into products
  • introduce various artistic forms, such as drawing, dance, drama, etc.
  • provide “collage” experience across art, music, and literature, such as musical script writing
  • consider providing an artist mentor
  • provide unstructured activities with free choice over the medium of expression
  • introduce biographies of creative people


Nurturing the Potential of Gifted Students (Part 2) Non-Academic Focus: Visual and Performing Arts, Leadership Abilities, Physical Fitness

a) Gifted children in the visual art domain:

  • Sensitive to colours
  • Visually imaginative
  • Observant of their environment
  • Thoughtfully organise different elements in the artwork

Tips for Parents/Teachers

You may

  • incorporate different elements into the artwork
  • prepare an artwork portfolio
  • provide art appreciation opportunities
  • create a space at home/school for children to showcase their creations


Nurturing the Potential of Gifted Students (Part 2) Non-Academic Focus: Visual and Performing Arts, Leadership Abilities, Physical Fitness

b) Gifted children in the music domain:

  • Identify loudness and softness, and different kinds of sounds (instruments)
  • Sensitive to keys and change of tempo
  • Remember melodies and can produce them accurately
  • Easily master the skills of playing musical instruments

Tips for Parents/Teachers

You may

  • introduce various musical forms
  • take them to concerts, operas, and other musical performance
  • encourage them to create their own music
  • allow them to choose to learn an instrument after they have learnt a little about the available options
  • encourage them to create simple musical instruments with reused materials
  • encourage them to participate in school or external music bands and other performance programmes


Nurturing the Potential of Gifted Students (Part 2) Non-Academic Focus: Visual and Performing Arts, Leadership Abilities, Physical Fitness

c) Gifted children in the drama / dance domain:

  • Move with ease to rhythm and melodies
  • Use gestures and facial expressions to show feelings
  • Nonverbal communicators
  • Mood sensors

Tips for Parents/Teachers

You may

  • encourage them to try out for school plays and performances for shows that are being produced outside of school
  • encourage them to write their own scripts to perform at home/school
  • role-play with your children
  • allow the children to create new endings for stories
  • provide opportunities to learn different types of dance
  • provide space for dance and movement at home/school


5) Gifted children with leadership competencies

  • Skilled in observing others' emotions, thoughts, motivations, and behaviours
  • Have strong organisational powers
  • Listen to the others empathetically
  • People-oriented and have the ability to motivate others
  • Have the ability to solve problems tactfully
  • Emotionally stable
  • Willingly to take risks
  • Easily adapt to new situations
  • Able to see problems from different perspectives

Tips for Parents/Teachers

Encourage your children to

  • take part in planning family/school activities such as organising a birthday party, a barbecue, a picnic, etc., and give guidance and advice if necessary
  • share experiences or evaluate the activities
  • discuss and debate current events and other topics to foster independent thinking
  • join organising committees of school clubs or other community groups 
  • take part in community service
  • read selected biographies and autobiographies about high achievers
  • learn how to encourage others and solve conflicts
  • learn how to take others’ perspectives and use empathy

 Parents should

  • support your children so that they can cope with the inevitable frustrations and challenges in working with others to accomplish a goal
  • provide decision-making opportunities and evaluate the decisions the children made


Related information: Students gifted in leadership can join the HKAGE through Principal's Nomination


Nurturing the Potential of Gifted Students (Part 2) Non-Academic Focus: Visual and Performing Arts, Leadership Abilities, Physical Fitness

6) Gifted children with ingenuity in athletics, mechanical skills, or sensorimotor coordination

  • A preference for physical play
  • Good balance
  • Good coordination
  • Adapt the movements to better suit the demands of the task at hand
  • Confidence and persistence in physical activities

Tips for Parents/Teachers

You may

  • encourage them to join sports clubs or teams
  • if suitable, allow them to practice at home, or in an appropriate facility nearby
  • allow them to watch professionals perform in competitions or on videos, such as dance performances, football matches, athletics or gymnastics
  • arrange their participation in competitions to showcase their athletic talents according to their interests