Children, Middle School

The middle school years, approximately ages 10–15, can be a turbulent period for all early adolescents. The process of growth and change during the transition from childhood to young adulthood, however, provides unique challenges to gifted children who experience this developmental stage (alternatively called tweens, preteens, early adolescence, or transescence) differently from their chronological age peers. These differences involve all aspects of their lives: physical, social, emotional, intellectual, academic, and familial. At the crux of these differences is the uneven or asynchronous development among these separate areas in a single gifted individual.

Middle schools typically include some combination of Grades 4 through 9, though the predominant model is Grades 6 through 8. A 2004 Joint Position Statement issued by the National Middle School Association (NMSA) and the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) affirmed the commitment of both organizations to increase understanding of gifted early adolescents and collaboration in developing middle schools that meet their needs.