The development and validation of a multiple assessment instrument process for identifying intellectually gifted 6- and 7-year-old children in the classroom

Young gifted children need to be identified so that their cognitive and socio-emotional needs can be better met. In this research a multiple assessment instrument process for the identification of intellectually gifted 6- and 7-year-old children was developed, implemented and validated; aiming to establish a population screening process that could be directly implemented by teachers in their classrooms in a time and cost effective manner. A parent questionnaire, teacher questionnaire and an academic achievement test were developed and their psychometric properties established through Rasch modelling. The first two instruments were found to be reliable, while the latter requires further development.