A Case Study Investigating the Language Development Process, Early Literacy Experiences and Educational Problems of a Gifted Child

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to identify the language development process, early literacy experiences and educational problems of an early reader identified as gifted. The research method was determined as a case study in line with this objective. The research was structured on the experiences of a fourth-grade male student born in 2010 who attends the Science and Arts center and has been identified by RAM as gifted. The student was coded under name Ahmet. Ahmet’s early literacy characteristics, experiences and educational problems were examined through interviews held with Ahmet, his mother and his preschool teacher. Unstructured open-ended questions were used in the study. Categories were created on data obtained to perform a content analysis. Deductive method was employed. According to the results, Ahmet was 3.5 years old when his mother noticed that he was able to read. However, his language development was slower compared to his peers. He was around three when he moved to the two-word period.  Ahmet had learned all car models at age one. He was able to find and call his father, grandmother and aunt from his mother's phone book at age two. When he was six months old, he noticed that the illustrated children's book handed to him was upside down and set it right and focused on and examined the letters therein for a while. When he was one and a half years old, he saw his father's name's initial letter Z on the wall and began to bounce crying “here is dad, here is dad.” He had problems of adaptation with his friends when he started kindergarten. Ahmet enjoys buying books, spending time at bookstores, visiting libraries, but experiences problems since he grows impatient about finishing a book he has started. He is more attracted to the images than the letters in the books. Book covers help him predict the book, and he sometimes designs his own covers for books he reads.