This paper reviews the school histories of five extremely gifted children, of IQ 160 - 200, who have been radically accelerated. Prior to their acceleration, the children were retained in the regular classroom in a lockstep curriculum based on their chronological age and grade placement. They suffered severe intellectual frustration, boredom, lack of motivation, and social rejection by age-peers, and displayed significantly lowered levels of social self-esteem. A combination of grade-skipping and radical subject matter acceleration has given the children access to curricula commensurate with their academic achievement levels and the intellectual and social companionship of children who share their abilities and interests . The young accelerands are more stimulated intellectually, enjoy closer and more productive social relationships, and display healthier levels of social self-esteem than do equally gifted children who have been retained with age-peers of average ability.
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