Creating a Sense of Purpose Why are smart, capable kids giving up on school work? While there is no one universally true answer to this question, I have some ideas. One is the digital media and games that are intentionally created to be addictive by stimulating the reward systems in their brains, but that’s not […]
Archive | Gifted Child Struggles
If you think gifted kids have it easy, and they wouldn’t present parenting and teaching challenges, I implore you to reconsider. From emotional intensity to asynchronous development, the gifted child struggles. Unlike their age peers, they often feel different and outside of the groups they belong to.
In fact, more often than not, the truly gifted often present problems which can prevent them from being properly identified. In my posts and video course, you can learn
–Characteristics to aide in proper identification
–Gifted characteristics that interfere with proper identification
-The five domains of overexciteability
-Help an unmotivated gifted teen develop long-term goals
-Problems with perfectionism, Strategies to help
–Twice exceptional- when a condition such as dyslexia, ADHD, Autism, or an emotional condition masks their giftedness, and their giftedness masks a condition that needs to be considered and treated. This can leave parents and teachers very frustrated, because they see how smart the child is, and wrongly assumes all problems stem from bad choices, laziness, or defective character.
The gifted child struggles when they see no reason to demonstrate their learning. Many of them love to explore and learn, then quickly grow bored with a topic and fail to present and organize what they have learned in homework and classroom assignments. It is very frustrating when you know a kid is really smart and they are not appearing to perform up to their potential.
Unfortunately, the criteria for entering gifted and talented programs often include a teacher rating form for characteristics often called something like “leadership.” These characteristics often involve social and emotional skills, as well as classroom behaviors such as stays on task, completes assignments, follows directions, all often not the qualities consistently displayed by children who are truly gifted.
Add to that experience of rejection or “not being seen,” the gifted child also may present with social/emotional delays, a tendency to correct or lecture teachers and other students, difficulty regulating perfectionism and emotional responses, all of which can add up to leave the child frustrated, lonely, bullied, and even ostracized.
Google up the statistics of gifted children or kids who get perfect/nearly perfect SAT scores who don’t graduate from high school or matriculate from college. These kids often need alternative ways to engage them in education and rate their progress. Otherwise, we are wasting great people and resources who could be making our future as humanity better for all of us.
https://youtu.be/EZCUZpZfEZA
Gifted Child- Can they be hard to teach and parent?
The Gifted Child’s Struggle 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. “The truly creative mind in any field […]
Social Skills
Behavior Management in a Group- Chaos to Order Video preview of group in action; video link. Goals for early elementary social skills groups ages 4-8 •Keep your body and brain in the group •Visual referencing •Synchronizing your behavior w/others •Sharing control •Willing suspension of disbelief •Use words and follow directions to […]
Child Anxiety Definitions and Strategies
Anxiety Disorders effect 1 in 8 children. (www.adaa.org) That’s a lot of kids, right? Read on to get information, tips, resources, a mini-course, and helpful links. I also created a video for parents, teachers, and other therapists to view so they can see some of the ways to manage the problems created by Child Anxiety. […]