Gifted and talented children might behave in challenging ways because they question rules, feel frustrated or lack learning opportunities. You can tailor strategies to support children's behaviour, social and emotional needs.
Very bright children can be unusually strong willed, negotiate like lawyers, or use sarcasm to make a point. Sometimes, gifted children are disruptive in classrooms because they don't want to do what they consider busywork. (Of course, this can all be true of any kid – it's just more so for some gifted children.)
It is not uncommon for gifted kids to feel different from their peers—even at an early age. It is important for parents to recognize this fact and help them make social connections. Make sure your child has the opportunity to socialize with a diverse group of children, suggests Dr. Hollman.
At its core, giftedness is a brain-based difference that contributes to our vibrant and neurodiverse world. This neurological difference means that profoundly gifted students experience a different intellectual, academic, and social-emotional development trajectory than neurotypical individuals.
Common social and emotional experiences for gifted children can reflect: differences in their abilities compared to same-age peers. tendencies toward introversion and perceived issues with social acceptance. conflicts or anxieties associated with their inner experiences of giftedness.
Gifted trauma stems from childhood issues with feeling like you don't belong anywhere because of your gift. Bullying, starving for mental stimulation, school mismatch, and other issues specific to the life experience of the gifted child may also contribute both to the main mental health issue and gift-specific trauma.
Negative Characteristics of a Gifted Child
Pretentious, shows off, or evokes their classmates: They may humiliate the people around them and show off because they can grasp things very quickly.
Gifted children often set very high standards for themselves and get frustrated when they can't meet them. This can sometimes result in tantrums and other difficult behaviour.
Social and emotional issues can be as important as the development of motivation or achievement for gifted children. If gifted children are having problems with homework or they complain of boredom, they may be struggling with emotional issues related to anger or feeling like a misfit.
Gifted children are challenging to parent in many ways. The more gifted the child, the more often it seems the more the parent is frustrated with the discrepancy of someone able to do school several levels above age level but unable to remember to take their finished work to school.
Giftedness can create problems and conflicts; being a gifted child can also mean difficulty socializing with age peers, thinking styles that don't always mesh well with the demands from the environment, even children who see themselves as little adults, challenging teachers and parents.
Although you can test your kid as early as 2 years and 6 months of age, you can not achieve accurate results at this age. Between the ages of 5 and 8 is the best time to understand your child's giftedness. That's why it can be useful to analyze your kids with the best apps for 6 year olds and older.
Anxiety among gifted students is controversial. Some studies showed that gifted children had lower anxiety scores than their non-gifted peers (15,16). For example, Guignard et al., (9) reported that gifted children display higher anxiety only when they did not have more perfectionism than their peers.
Gifted kids almost always know they are different, but they don't necessarily know they are "gifted" or smarter. Many gifted kids who aren't told why they are different are convinced that they are weird or even stupid because they can't make themselves understood.
The problems gifted children sometimes face with socializing often stem from their asynchrony and educational setting. Asynchronous development, or uneven development, is often considered a core trait of giftedness. These students may be college age intellectually but still 12 in terms of their social skills.
Gifted children can be argumentative and/or manipulative. Even though a child might be able to present a logical or convincing argument, they still need boundaries and discipline around their behaviour else they learn that these undesirable behaviours get them what they want.
ADHD AND GIFTEDNESS are sometimes described as having the same or similar characteristics. However, one diagnosis is considered a disability and one, a gift. Neither assumption is ideal in supporting the child identified with either ADHD, giftedness, or both, often referred to as twice exceptional or 2e.
Empathy for others is a common hallmark of many gifted children. They may have an unusual sensitivity for the emotional distress of their friends and an unusual ability to help them resolve their emotional conflicts.
Gifted children face challenges that their peers at school do not, and these challenges can lead to them exhibiting undesirable behaviors in the classroom. Common gifted children behavior problems include aggression, refusal to take school work seriously, social withdrawal, anxiety, truancy and more.
Many profoundly gifted students are likely misdiagnosed with autism, whilst many autistic children are likely undiagnosed as gifted. Given the incredibly complex, and similar, nature of both giftedness and autism, the diagnosis itself is rather unimportant.
A gifted child can lose interest because she is not challenged or motivated. Gifted children can be difficult to match with an appropriate class because, although they are cognitively ahead, they may be socially younger than their age peers, which can result in behavior problems.
In addition to pressures from academic and family expectations, students who are gifted may struggle in school because of social issues. Some of the issues these students can face in school include: Embarrassment for being different or standing out. Bullying from peers due to their intelligence or differences.
Many gifted children are strong-willed and, as gifted children perceive the world very differently than their parents, it often leads to confrontations.