Faculty of Education Competitive Grants

Project Title: Rules of conversation: How do gifted children play the game?

Chief Investigator:Ms Louise Paatsch, Dr Dianne Toe and Associate Professor John Munro

Funded by: 2008 Melbourne Graduate School of Education Competitive Grant

Project Summary: This project aims to compare the pragmatic skills of gifted children with those of their peers. Gifted children with advanced thinking skills may be at risk for dysynchrony with their peers. This may present itself as poor pragmatic skills which may in turn undermine social interaction and could lead to isolation of gifted children. Children in grades 3-6 will be videotaped in free conversation with their typically developing peers and compared to a dyad of typically developing children. Conversations will be coded and analyzed for a range of behaviors including initiation skills, topic maintenance, contingency, conversation balance and non-verbal aspects.  Expected outcomes of this study include improved understanding of the pragmatic skills of gifted children and direction for intervention.