MANAMA: A new study by the Arabian Gulf University (AGU) indicates that family interaction and independence positively affect social competence and leadership behaviour among gifted children in kindergartens.
The study also found that guidance in the school environment contributes to the development of leadership behaviour and social competence of children, indicating to a correlation between the child's social competence and leadership behaviour.
The study was conducted by researcher Iman Abduljaleel Shehab as part of the requirements to obtain a PhD degree in Gifted Education Philosophy from the College of Graduate Studies in AGU. It was titled “Structural Model of the Relationship Between Leadership Behaviour and Social Competence, and School and Family Environment of Gifted Children in Kindergartens”.
As part of her research, Ms Shehab prepared a first-of-its-kind measuring scale in the Kingdom of Bahrain to detect talented children in kindergartens, as well as another scale of leadership behaviour, in addition to a set of educational standards adopted to measure social competence and leadership behaviour at two levels; the school environment and the family environment. The researcher conducted her study on a sample of 218 gifted children of both genders in kindergartens in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
The study specified that the most influential factors affecting children's social competence were independent education, followed by mental openness in parents and family interaction. It also highlighted that family interaction was the most influential factor in building leadership behaviour, adding that the interest of the family in the academic level and teaching children on independency, were the second and third factors, respectively.
The study underlined the importance of early detection of giftedness in the kindergarten stage and the provision of special detection tools for the gifted to suit the Bahraini environment, and to contribute to the expansion of kindergarten gifted children’s detection.
Ms. Shehab recommended preparing courses and workshops to introduce gifted children, and to educate parents and teachers on the importance of caring for gifted children through the definition of school and family environment.
