Preface

Dear Readers

The requests from many kindergarten teachers and parents of young children for literature that specifically deals with giftedness in kindergarten encouraged me to launch the German handbook in 2007. In the meantime a lot of articles have been translated into English.

I am pleased that its many practical contributions have been very well received in Germany and far beyond.

We are constantly working on this manual so that you will always find new articles on new topics. Enjoy your reading!

First of all, I would like to welcome the pedagogical specialists in kindergartens as readers of the manual.

Dear colleagues,

this manual can help you

• • better understand what gifted kindergarten children need,
  • recognize giftedness,
  • support gifted children in kindergarten better than before.

How can you use this manual?

You can use it to familiarize yourself with the topic if it is new to you. No false shame! Of the more than 2500 kindergarten teachers I interviewed, only 8 had heard about giftedness during their training. According to their own assessment, however, they too had hardly learned anything useful on the topic during their training. I hope that you will be better off with this manual.

You can use this manual to check for yourself to what extent your kindergarten is already suitable for gifted children.

You can use this manual to learn how to improve your work for the gifted children.

Please don’t let yourself be pressured. The manual is the result of many people who have been dealing with the subject for a long time. Even if you can only implement a little of it in your kindergarten for a variety of reasons, this is progress for the gifted and particularly gifted children.

You can refer to this manual if you would like to get your colleagues interested in the topic.

The manual continuously tries to draw a comprehensive picture of the possibilities of gifted children’s advancement in kindergarten. It is a vision overall, but it is based on real experiences.

Next, I would like to welcome the lecturers at pedagogical technical schools,
universities and pedagogical training institutes as readers of the manual.

Ladies and gentlemen

I would be pleased if this manual provide you with additional motivation and useful material to include the topic of the advancement of gifted kindergarten children in your training courses or your advanced trainings and hence to enrich these curricula further. I am grateful for further suggestions from you and would be very interested in exchanging experiences.

And now I would like to address the parents of (probably or possibly) gifted children as readers of the manual.

Dear parents

Even though the manual is intended for use in kindergartens, I hope that you as parents will also find interesting and inspiring information for the advancement of your child in it.

If you would like to talk to your child’s teachers about what you have read, I would ask you to do the following:

Please keep in mind that the teachers and the kindergarten teachers (at least in Germany) probably did not learn anything about giftedness during their training. So do expect openness, interest and willingness to deal with the topic – but to be fair do do not expect extensive knowledge, experience or know-how in this area.

If you meet an experienced teacher in the field of gifted children, so much the better!

Greetings to the representatives of educational policy and the political administrations of the elementary sector

Ladies and gentlemen

I and the co-authors would be very pleased if reading the manual were to encourage you to consider the learning and developmental needs of gifted children in the educational landscape more effectively than before. On the one hand because of the children’s right to appropriate education and advancement, and on the other hand because of the high potential that gifted children would like to develop and on which the general public depends. Please help to create conditions in the kindergartens that make appropriate advancement possible! These include, among other things: smaller groups, more staff and, in many places, appropriate rooming conditions.

The (gifted) children and their (kindergarten) teachers need your support.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the development of the manual in one form or another and made its further development possible: especially of course my colleague and co-author Barbara Teeke, the translater Arno Zucknick, the authors and the foundations.
(Many articles in the manual aren’t yet translated by Arno Zucknick, but by DeepL. Sorry! It’s a question of time and money.)

Date of publication in German: 2007, May
Translation: Arno Zucknick