sentences:  The kindergarten reading program was the first step in the Avery Coonley School's transition to a new focus on the education of the gifted, which coincided with a growing public awareness of the needs of gifted children in the late 1960s.The increasing focus on gifted education was symbolized by the 1972 Marland Report to the United States Congress, which was the first acknowledgment of the characteristics of gifted children and their specific educational needs.The report found that "gifted children are, in fact, deprived and can suffer psychological damage and permanent impairment of their abilities to function well which is equal to or greater than the similar deprivation suffered by any other population with special needs".