‘Let’s start at the very beginning’

Balanced research and practice

Let’s start at the very beginning… a very good place to start!Practice shows that gifted potential in young children is poorly recognized by professionals. Wellisch (2017) writes about it too. Learning starts in the early years… or not. Especially, children in the age of 2-4 can be misunderstood and their behaviour misinterpreted and therefore explained in a way that does not match the possibilities of the toddler. This can enhance the risk of a frustrated school career (Mooij et al., 2012; Papierno et al., 2005; Leavers et al., 2016).In this workshop we travel from identifying young, gifted children to suggesting what they need to thrive. On our journey we will meet Nottingham and Nottingham (‘Challenging, using their Early Learning’, 2019), the pedagogy of the Reggio Emilia approach (Gardini, 1993; Malagucci, 1993) and we will look closely at learning of young, gifted learners. Please join us on our travels.