Avoidance of activities they fear they will fail at.Achievement at the expense of socializing.Problematic behavior associated with perfectionism Gifted children should be reminded frequently that their value is not based on their grades or performance alone. While there is debate about whether perfectionism comes in both good and bad varieties, the issue for many gifted students is that this pressure to be perfect comes from their inability to see themselves beyond their role as the “smart student” in class. Perfectionism is often related to self-esteem when the gifted child, or those around the child, expect them to be gifted all the time, in every subject. PerfectionismĪs we wrote about in our article Parenting Gifted Children: Challenges and Tips, perfectionism can look like regular high-achieving behavior until it starts to damage the child’s wellbeing. When it comes to gifted friendships, there is a notable discrepancy between classmates, or same-age peers, and someone that they consider as a true friend. Even popular gifted children may feel like they don’t have a “true friend” who understands them. Their difficulty making friends with same-age peers may have nothing to do with their ability or desire to socialize, but instead might be a result of not having like-minded peers whom they can form a connection with. Depending on the educational environment, these children may be labeled with problematic behaviors like being bossy, snobbish, anti-social, etc. As a result, it can be difficult to make friends who share their interests or hard to know how to appropriately express themselves in group settings. ![]() These students may be college age intellectually but still 12 in terms of their social skills. Asynchronous development, or uneven development, is often considered a core trait of giftedness. The problems gifted children sometimes face with socializing often stem from their asynchrony and educational setting. To borrow from Nancy Robinson, many make the mistake of believing gifted children are inherently awkward and bad at socializing. Understanding how overexcitabilities or sensitivities manifest in your child may help parents find suitable solutions for problem behaviors. Sensory or emotional sensitivity may contribute to a range of feelings and a variety of gifted behavior problems. Children who are overexcitable in the intellectual and psychomotor areas may not be able to sit still at their desk and interrupt their teachers with questions. A perceptive child may see something on the news that frightens them and refuse to sleep alone at night. With these unique characteristics, gifted children may have adverse reactions to intense stimuli, which can look like problematic behavior on the surface.įor example, a child might withdraw from socializing at lunch if the smell of the cafeteria overwhelms them, which may lead some to think they are unsociable. Read more about Dabrowski’s Five Unexpected Intensities of Gifted Students ![]() Dabrowski’s Five Unexpected Intensities of Gifted Students These abilities are often put within the framework of Dabrowski’s concept of overexcitabilities, which describes the heightened sensitivity and intensity for gifted children in 5 key areas. Research has shown that gifted students experience heightened sensitivities and advanced emotional processing. To help parents and educators navigate common gifted behavior and emotional problems, we’ve created a list of some of the most common causes of gifted issues and also provide advice so you can help your child through these challenges. While all children must navigate the bumpy road of identity formation and social belonging, gifted children may experience these problems differently as they develop and mature. While most individuals think of giftedness in terms of academics alone, giftedness also applies to a child’s social and emotional development. Gifted children have differently-wired brains that make their experience of adolescence unique compared to their neurotypical age-mates.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |