By Aya El Chami | Contributing Writer

Giftedness is not just an academic title given to a child who shows above average intelligence and excels in school; it is a psychological label that serves as an umbrella for all the different traits that characterize this person on much deeper levels. The gifted and talented often display signs of asynchronous development, a phenomenon in which their intellectual capabilities far exceed their abilities in other areas. This asynchrony usually goes unnoticed as a result of high achievement, but avoiding the problem does not erase its existence. Gifted children struggle with this in multiple aspects, and it is our jobs as parents, general and special educators, and school administrators to take this into account and be aware of the challenges they face to better understand and support them.

Apart from their advanced intellectual abilities, gifted and talented learners are also characterized by their heightened socioemotional sensitivity. Emotionally, they tend to experience any feeling very intensely and display high levels of empathy, but it also causes them to overreact in some cases, like excessive crying and frequent anger outbursts. This intensity can make them incapable of accepting criticism due to their cognitive abilities. They might perceive

constructive criticism or advice to reflect the flaws in their personalities, and not simply their actions. Society also sets standards for gifted children, especially those who succeed in areas like academics or performing arts; they are expected to keep achieving regardless of what happens. Over time, their identity starts revolving around their successes, and their self-worth becomes based on what they achieve.

Societal expectations are internalized until they merge with their own expectations and ultimately result in forming a harsh inner critic. This critic might pave the way for perfectionism, which is not bad on a small scale but becomes disabling when it takes over one’s life. Gifted children often deal with perfectionism by procrastinating, not out of laziness, but out of inability to do the task because it is so anxiety-inducing to them to worry about all the details that might go wrong that they become incapable of starting said task.

When it comes to the social aspect, they are more prone to feelings of isolation due to the differences in interests and intellectual functioning. They might experience alienation from same-age peers because they cannot find someone to share their depth of conversation and advanced topics with. Gifted children choose one of two options upon the occurrence of alienation: they either hide their real personality and develop one that “clicks” with other peers, or they opt to isolate themselves and prefer this solitude over conversations that might seem shallow or under-stimulating to them.

Another set of problems uniquely found in gifted and talented learners is the problem of multipotentiality and identity confusion. Multipotentiality is when a gifted learner excels in more than one domain, with one of the most common combinations being high academic intelligence and superior creative abilities. They possess innate potential to perform well above average in areas they are interested in. From a broad point of view, this is a positive trait that the gifted possess. They can imagine themselves succeeding in multiple and endless domains. On a deeper

level, this can cause some instability for the child in the long run. When they reach the verge of university and must choose a specialization to continue in for the rest of their lives, they might not know which one of their interests they want to pursue because they feel they are equally as good and as interested in more than one area. It can be overwhelming and paralyzing for them to follow one single track and commit to it while ignoring all the other specialties that are also appealing to them. Not only is this phenomenon anxiety-provoking, but it can also lead to identity confusion, where they struggle to build an identity because of the fear of not conforming with what society expects them to be. For example, if a gifted person wanted to pursue a career in performing arts but is equally as good in scientific subjects, they might face backlash for not choosing other careers like medicine or pharmacology. And because they have so many different forms of potential identities based on their interests and abilities, they risk undergoing an extended identity crisis due to the anxiety that they might choose the wrong self to pursue and eventually be stuck in a “wrong” identity.

Despite all the challenges faced by the gifted, there are multiple ways to support them in overcoming such difficulties. First and foremost, those helping gifted children should always adopt a holistic approach when doing so; they cannot separate the emotional aspect from the academic and social aspect. Any approach that should be applied must take into consideration all the traits of the gifted and account for any asynchrony that might occur. One way to do that is by providing person-centered therapy. Person-centered therapy is based on providing the gifted with unconditional positive regard and understanding their struggles empathetically. The emotions they feel should be validated regardless of their intensity or apparent absurdity because gifted children do not need “fixing” but need to be heard and understood. And when that occurs, they feel less isolated due to their differences, and it helps build up their self-esteem. As for the identity crisis and multipotentiality, gifted children can benefit from career counseling where a

counselor can guide them through the career options that combine their areas of interest so they don’t have to pick one only. The counselors could also help them choose a specialty based on what the children want, not what is expected of them to become, which would make the gifted self-satisfied in the long run with their career.

In conclusion, the gifted are also vulnerable due to the mismatch between their multiple capabilities. The real support we can offer gifted children is not to conform them to societal pressure, but to help them discover who they truly are and guide them through this process of self-exploration.

References

Education of the Gifted and Talented by Gary A. Davis, Sylvia B. Rimm, and Del Siegle

Counseling the Gifted and Talented by Linda Kreger Silverman

Models of Counseling Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults edited by Roberta M. Milgram and Rena F. Subotnik