Gifted children are, by definition, “Children who give evidence of high performance capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, leadership capacity, or specific academic fields, and who require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop such capabilities.”
There is a biological difference between the gifted child and the typical child. The gifted child seems to have an increased cell production that also increases synaptic activity. This all adds up to an increased thought process. The neurons in the brain of the gifted child seem to be bio-chemically more abundant and, as a result, the brain patterns that develop are able to process more complex thought.
There seems to be more prefrontal cortex activity in the brain, which leads to insightful and intuitive thinking. Gifted children have more alpha wave activity in the brain. They not only get more alpha wave activity faster than the typical child, but they also sustain it longer. This allows for more relaxed and focused learning with greater retention and integration. The brain rhythms of the gifted child occur more often, and this allows for concentration, attention, investigation, and inquiry.