Exceptional creators to the world of children: Investigating children's authors

Abstract

Exceptional creators develop existing domains or create new domains through their contribution of products that are highly valued by society in a particular domain. Typically, adults make these value judgments. This study explored whether Gardner’s (1997) model of an Exceptional Creator [EC], which was developed from a cross-domain analysis and adult judgments of quality, would also hold true in a domain in which children made value judgments. The analyses confirmed that outstanding children’s authors also demonstrated the key traits of an EC, namely, their use of childhood experiences and their tendencies to question assumptions and strike out on their own, and to explore their domains exhaustively. Additionally, four unique traits of outstanding children’s authors were identified. These were extended links to childhood; the creation of "new worlds" for children that differed from their everyday world; a reliance on pictures and conversation; and demonstrations of strong visual-spatial intelligence through illustrations and descriptions