Social and Emotional Characteristics of Gifted Students That May Pose Challenges

• Perceptiveness

• High Involvement and Preoccupation; Need to Understand

• Heightened Sensitivity

• Perfectionism and Need For Precision

• Uneven Intellectual Abilities, Even Above-Average Abilities Experienced as Deficits

• Asynchronous Development of Physical, Intellectual, Social, Emotional Aspects

• Emotional Intensity

• Feelings and Early Awareness of Being Different

• Anxiety Caused By Advanced Knowledge

• Need For Mental Stimulation

• Entelechy - A Desire to Become All One Is Capable of Becoming

• Nonconformity and Questioning of Authority

• Excitability and Over-excitability

• Tendency Toward Introversion and Internalized Locus of Control

• Multipotentiality - The ability to Succeed in Any of Several Domains,

          Requiring Difficult Choices

• Tendency Toward Self-Doubt

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What Must We Do?

• Provide Appropriate Educational Choices.

• Provide Training for Teachers, Parents, Counselors, and Others in Identifying High Ability and Understanding its Concomitants.

• Recognize the Great Diversity Among Those Labeled "Gifted and Talented" and Respond to the Individual Student, NOT the Stereotype.

•  Focus on Helping Gifted Individuals Develop Resilience.

• Develop a Continuum of Services, Including Educational, Counseling, Family and Community Programs to Enable Approaches That Meet the Needs of Specific Individuals.

• Continue To Advocate for Changes in the Culture, Promoting Acceptance and Respect for Gifted Students.

• Be Willing to Make Relatively Small Investments that the Gifted Student Needs For What is Potentially an Enormous Payoff.

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The Social and Emotional Development of Gifted Children. What Do We Know?

A Service Publication of the National Association for Gifted Children