Look, a hundred dollar bill! Haha, PSYCH! No seriously, this is psych stuff.

Summary of Textbook (Kossyln & Rosenberg, 2007)

According to Kossyln and Rosenberg (2007), there is no easy way to determine if an individual is gifted or not besides referring to the IQ score, which doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything. The term of ‘gifted’ is applied to those who have IQ’s of at least 135, but is more commonly focused on those in the 150-180 range (Kossyln & Rosenberg, 2007, p.277). The way in which people become gifted is not clear, but it is suggested that the trait can come from heredity as well as the environment. Interestingly enough, girls with higher levels of testosterone and boys with lower amounts are seen as more highly gifted than girls and boys with lower and higher amounts respectively, which preludes to the idea that biological factors could incline some people to become gifted (Kossyln & Rosenberg, 2007, p.277).
On a higher extreme of giftedness stand the prodigies. These are children that are exceptionally talented in one area (like music, math, or art), but either average or sometimes not gifted at all in other areas. As some researchers agree, average children do the same processing that gifted children do, however, gifted children are able to do it more effectively because of their cognitive processes (Kossyln & Rosenberg, 2007, p.278). Despite gifted children having many talents and well-sought out qualities (like the drive to complete tasks), there can be a downside to such abilities. Gifted children can be ‘socially awkward’ and thus have high rates of emotional and social problems…double that of non-gifted children. Unbefitting labels, such as ‘geek’ or ‘nerd’ can be placed upon them and many tend to become introverted (Kossyln & Rosenberg, 2007, p.278).
On the bright side, Kossyln and Rosenberg (2007) share that if an individual wasn’t considered gifted as a child, he can still grow up to be one, just as gifted children can grow to be normal adults. After all, Charles Darwin wasn’t gifted as a child, but with the help of mentors later in life he was able to grow into the world of the gifted and join the masses of teeming intelligence (Kossyln & Rosenberg, 2007, p.278).