The "David's Jump": on the first positive change in the treatment of gifted children

Abstract

In spite of the difficulty in predicting the time any treatment is to take, working with gifted children and their parents includes -in many cases- a substantial improvement in a comparatively short time in at least one aspect of the child's life. As this phenomenon has not been named in the psychological literature, it will be called: "David's Jump". This article presents 5 cases of such "jumps", all in children 5-8 years old, all happened within 8-10 weeks from the beginning of the treatment as reported by the parents or by the children themselves. The potential causes of the success reached are to be discussed; some of them might also be relevant to non-gifted children.