Gifted children, like autistic children, tend to have very focused interest. They may spend hours, days, months, or even years, engrossed in a particular interest with what appears to be an obsession.
If your child is gifted and talented, you might notice that they have very strong emotions, interests and opinions compared with other children their age. Sometimes gifted and talented children have trouble managing these strong feelings.
Most gifted children enjoy learning new things. Not only do they enjoy intellectual activity but they also may display intellectual playfulness. They likely prefer books and magazines meant for older children and adopt a skeptical, critical and evaluative attitude.
I want to emphasize that giftedness is one form of neurodiversity, and it is not exclusive. Many people have giftedness as one part of their neurodiversity experience, and they may also have other kinds of diagnoses, for example ADHD.
Both giftedness and autism fall on a spectrum, so while there may be individuals who clearly fit into one box or another, some behaviors might be more ambiguous and require additional information, context, or professional opinions.
While gifted children may not be any more susceptible to mental health issues as other adolescents, there are certain aspects of giftedness that may influence or amplify a gifted child's experience of mental health issues.
One of the most common characteristics of gifted students is their ability to learn things early and rapidly. Many gifted students have excellent memorization skills, which aids in their ability to connect previous knowledge with new information, thus accelerating their acquisition of new concepts.
Common Characteristics of Gifted Children:
Enthusiastic about unique interests and topics. Quirky or mature sense of humor. Creative problem solving and imaginative expression.
Signs of Giftedness in Children Include:
an ability to learn and process complex information rapidly. a need to explore subjects in surprising depth. an insatiable curiosity, as demonstrated by endless questions and inquiries. ability to comprehend material several grade levels above their age peers.
Without understanding and support, gifted kids face an increased risk of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem, along with social and academic problems. Currently, experts estimate that up to 1 in 50 gifted kids drop out of school, while many more fail to live up to their full academic potential.
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.
Social shyness and awkwardness in new situations are very common with gifted children. Parents need to handle their child's difficulty in new situations by setting up interactions that will not be threatening and giving help when help is needed.
Because autism and giftedness exist separately, it's possible to have a gifted child with more pronounced autistic traits who may benefit from more support at home and at school. You can also have a fully verbal and self-sufficient autistic child with a typical IQ who isn't twice exceptional.
Giftedness is often defined as an intellectual ability linked to an IQ score of 130 or more. However, not all gifted children excel in an academic area. Signs of a gifted child also include a high creative, artistic, musical and/or leadership ability relative to same-age peers.
Gifted children often have an insatiable curiosity, especially about the existential aspects of life. They may be more concerned about issues like death, poverty, climate change and injustices than their peers.
Ideally, gifted students require three components to maximize their potential: a safe and flexible learning environment, proper academic rigor, and dual focus on social-emotional learning.
Being gifted runs in families. If your gifted child has brothers or sisters, there's a bigger chance that they might be gifted too. But they might not be gifted in the same way. For example, one gifted child might be advanced in music and their gifted sibling might be passionate about spiritual learning.
You may have also heard that smart children talk a lot — it's a common “gifted” trait. While early reading can point to a high probability that a child is smart, some very smart children don't talk early or talk much.
Giftedness falls into one or more of the following areas: intellectual, academic, creative, artistic and leadership. A student may be intellectually (cognitively) gifted if he or she uses advanced vocabulary, readily comprehends new ideas, thinks about information in complex ways, or likes to solve puzzles or problems.
Giftedness seems like a blessing but may be a burden. Gifted individuals have learning differences, including divergent thinking, quirky humor, and a penchant for complexity, that set them apart. Openness to experience is a key personality trait found in association with giftedness.
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.