Noriah Mohd Ishak

Identification Process of Young Gifted Learners: The Malaysian Experience

The world has seen many gifted individuals who leave profound marks in many spheres of human life. These individuals are classified as prodigies and are assets to any civilizations. Some of these individuals are more fortunate than others when they are identified early. However, the less fortunate ones are never identified, and continue to live their lives in misery because they could not find a fit in the society. Inevitably, they become the underachievers and their potentials are never uncovered. The questions such as “can we identify the gifted students from young?” or “what are the strategies that can be effectively used to identify a gifted child?” remain as questions commonly researched by scholars in the area. This paper will answer these questions by looking at the present scenario on definition of giftedness, characteristics of young gifted students, the process of gifted students’ identification in general, and an example of identification process conducted by PERMATApintar™ – the Malaysian National Gifted Center.