A Reflective Conversation With Joan Freeman *

Joan Freeman has been studying gifted children and their families for more than 25 years. She has written numerous books and papers, and has been highly active in advocating for gifted children and gifted education. She is Founding President of the European Council for High Ability and has presented at conferences and other venues in most parts of the world. She is visiting Professor at Middlesex University, London, Senior Vice-President of the College of Teachers and a Fellow of the British Psychological Society. In this ‘interview’, partly culled from her book ‘Gifted Children Grown Up’ (2001) she responds to some salient questions regarding gifted children and their families.

Starting in 1974, Joan's continuing in-depth comparative study of the development of the labelled gifted compared with unlabelled gifted and other children has provided a much richer seam of information than, for example, a phoned-in or ticked questionnaire. Not least, because every word was audio-recorded, it has demonstrated the unreliability of memory as time goes by.

Recognised gifted children, aged 5 to 14, were compared with non-recognised but equally gifted children as well as with a random sample of children (N=210) in Britain. Each trio, matched for age, gender and population was the same school class, so holding educational experience constant. The whole sample was given a battery of tests, and they and their parents and teachers were interviewed in-depth in their homes and schools across the country. Now, in 2004, the work is in action again, searching out and questioning not only the sample, but their children too.