ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the Integrative Model of Talent Development (IMTD) was born from the merging of two other models: the Developmental Model for Natural Abilities (DMNA) and the long-standing and well-known Differentiating Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT). Keeping in mind the large overlap in meaning between the DMGT's definition of talent and the concept of expertise as it is generally understood, let us proceed with our overview of the DMGT. The DMGT constitutes a strictly behavioral representation of the numerous influences facilitating or blocking the growth of competencies in general, including their outstanding manifestations as talents. The IMTD argues that talent development has its distal origins in the progressive growth of natural abilities, as early as through the chance meeting of a sperm cell and an ovum. The expression "bottom-up" makes clear that such biological underpinnings would occupy a basement level under the strictly behavioral DMGT framework.
