Research Paper
Vulnerabilities and the Gifted Child
Kelli Gilchrist
What is Giftedness?
In today’s classrooms, there are a diverse group of students being served across the United States and throughout the world. In terms of academics, there usually exist three commonly identified groups of individuals. These include lower level students, average students and above average students. These categories can also be varied across subject areas, as some students fall into one of the categories only in a particular curriculum strand. Educators and parents need to be familiar with the areas of strengths and weaknesses of the children in their care and must make every effort to create a positive and nurturing environment where each child can be successful.
Students who are identified as academically gifted are children who are considered to excel in one or more area of the curriculum taught. According to Barbara Clark (2013), in her book, Growing Up Gifted, the most recent definition of gifted and talented students was given through the Jacob K. Jarvits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act of 2002 {PL-100-297}. This definition states that gifted students are those “who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities {Title IX, Part A, Section 9101[22]} (Clark, 2013, p. 31).” These students fall into the same predicament of needing special instruction just as much as the lower level, struggling learners. Classrooms and schools must be prepared to meet the needs of these children academically, physically, and emotionally.
According to Deborah Jensen, in her article, “Child Testing - IQ and Intelligence Testing,” gifted children account for approximately 2.25% of all children tested (Jensen, 2009). The article, posted on the School Psychology website gives an IQ distribution chart as shown above that correlates to the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children. According to this chart, "the orange section is where most children will score on each subtest (this is the average range). Gifted children fall within the yellow right hand section and those with disabilities will fall within the yellow left hand section of the graph" (Jensen, 2009). Using this information, gifted children are those whose intelligence quotient scores lie above 130.
Emotional Vulnerabilities
Children who fall into the category of being gifted or talented can face many issues as they move through their educational journey. These students can have many positive experiences. However, these students also may face some areas of vulnerability as they progress. According to research, “while the label of gifted has many positive aspects, there are psychological, emotional and social prices to pay for the label of gifted and talented” (O’Connor,2012, p. 293).These students can experience feelings of isolation, fear, anxiety, stress, perfectionism, boredom, and frustration. They can experience problems in their interpersonal relationships and can also have feelings of self-criticism. There are also indications that insomnia can be associated with giftedness (Lamont, 2012). Academically or artistically gifted students can experience problems with physical limitations or a lack of desire to perform in physical activities. These vulnerabilities are areas that need to be addressed in the educational and home settings for these children so as to help them create a more positive attitude concerning their abilities. In the areas of social and emotional development, gifted students can have several areas where they may experience vulnerabilities. These can occur through isolation, poor interpersonal relationships, self-criticism, and struggles with fear and anxiety. Gifted students usually exhibit weaknesses in the areas of “stress management, tolerance, and ability to control impulses compared to the normative sample” (Seon-Young, 2006, p. 57). Highly gifted students can often times feel unchallenged in the traditional school environment. These students tend to be either overachievers or can become underachievers as they feel they are not being challenged in their academic studies (Gibbons, 2012) According to Gibbons, Pelchar and Cochran, highly gifted students will often experience the beginnings of underachievement as early as elementary school. They interviewed gifted students interviewed who said they felt “disrepected by peers and teachers and unaccepted at school in general.” (p. 115)
Highly gifted students often feel frustrated with performing menial tasks they may have already mastered. This results in boredom and frustration. They can also tend to be very critical of their own performance. This type of self-criticism along with feelings of having to be perfect, can often “cripple the imagination, kill the spirit, and so handicap performance that an individual may never fulfill the promise of early talent” (Schuler, 2000, p. 184). These feelings of failure can be devastating to the students and can cause them to become so discouraged they drop out of school (Gibbons, 2012).
Research has also shown that this type of frustration causes some gifted children to become underachievers. Gifted students can have difficulties in their academic journeys. In their quest to be the best, they often times will become so frustrated they eventually give up completely. These students become known as underachievers (Gibbons, 2012). Some even go so far as to drop out of school. According to the article, “Gifted Students from Low-education Backgrounds,” these gifted dropouts often feel their problems and frustrations began at an early age and they often felt “disrespected by peers and teachers and unaccepted at school in general” (Gibbons, 2012). Other factors mentioned by these gifted underachievers include substance abuse and other significant losses.
Self-esteem is the feeling that one possesses about their own selves. Barbara Clark refers to this as "complex and dynamic system of beliefs that individuals hold to be true about themselves" (Clark, 2013, p. 107). These beliefs can shape how a person acts and can influence their relationships with others. According to the article, Is It Good to Be Gifted? The Social Construction of the Gifted Child, O’Connor believes “there is growing evidence that children labeled as academically gifted are subjected to negative attitudes from others and that this impacts on their self-esteem and motivation to succeed” (O’Connor, 2012, p. 293). Gifted children can sometimes have high self-concept. This can be attributed to their stellar accomplishments (Shechtman & Silektor, 2012). However, some children suffer with low self-esteem as the result of extreme expectations that are placed on them by themselves or others. This can lead to feelings of failure (Shechtman & Silektor, 2012).
Low self-esteem in highly gifted students can result in feelings of anxiety and pressure for the student. They can often feel as if there are extreme expectations placed on them that they must meet (Clark, 2013). Parents and teachers must be careful how they acknowledge the successes of gifted students. Students must feel that any praise given them is genuine. Heaping large amounts of praise on students can add to the pressure they already feel and may increase their fear of failing. According to Clark (2013), "extreme praise by parents may cause gifted children to believe that they expect much more of them than the parents really do" (p. 109) Educators must be careful not to bring excessive attention to gifted students in class as it may put unnecessary pressure on the child to always be successful (Clark, 2013). t is important that these students understand and set realistic goals for themselves so as to offset the pressure and anxiety. Students must be challenged at a healthy level in order to avoid the pitfalls of overachievement or underachievement.
Perfectionism is a characteristic that is largely associated with gifted children. In the understanding of their giftedness, these students often feel they must achieve perfection status on every task they undertake. This perfectionism can be seen at two different levels. Normal perfectionism can be a healthy attitude. This affords students the opportunity to do their very best on any assignment given to them. However, when taken to the extreme, neurotic perfectionism can occur. Neurotic perfectionism occurs when students feel they are never fully able to meet the expectations of others and therefore feel they have let others down (Schuler, 2000). This type of unhealthy perfectionism is also called self-oriented perfectionism (Clark, 2013). When gifted students set extremely high standards for themselves, they will often feel depression and anxiety when these standards are unmet (Clark, 2013). Clark believes unhealthy perfectionism can fall into three different categories (Clark, 2013). In addition to self-oriented, students can also have socially prescribed perfectionism or others-oriented perfectionism. According to Clark (2013), students can also set high standards for others, which results in other-oriented perfectionism. This occurs when the gifted students believes others should perform at the level they have set. In socially prescribed perfectionism, students feel that other hold extremely high standards for them and that they must perform t those levels in order to receive the approval of others (Clark, 2013). All unhealthy types of perfectionism must be addressed in order to help students feel they are successful in the accomplishments they make.
According to a survey taken of rural, gifted students, “87.5% were perfectionistic. Most (58%) were in the healthy range of perfectionism, while (29.5%) were in the neurotic range” (Schuler, 2000, p. 186). This type of attitude often is accompanied by fixations and fears of less than perfect status and creates unhealthy levels of anxiety for the students (Schuler, 2000). Perfectionism at this level can lead to feelings of low self-esteem and a feeling of never measuring up to the standards of others (Schuler, 2000). It is important that gifted students feel successful even when their work is sub-perfect.
Relationships with Others
Students who are labeled as gifted in a certain area may feel isolation as they are pulled from their regular classrooms and given instruction in separate settings. These students sometimes “they feel lonely even when they are popular and that they try to hide their giftedness to save their friendships” (Shechtman & Silektor, 2012, p. 63). They may feel as if they are different from others and experiences feelings of loneliness, especially in the school setting. Children who are gifted often may feel as if they are not part of the normal group. According to Barbara Clark, “the gifted label itelf may create problems between these children and others in the classroom” (Clark, 2013, p. 113). These feelings can lead to poor interpersonal relationships among highly gifted students and their average intelligence counterparts. According to Lovecky (1992), highly gifted students can have trouble finding peers who truly understand and appreciate their unusual and advanced perceptions (p. 18).” It is important for parents and teachers to help these students find peers who have either common interests or are intellectually challenging.
Highly gifted students can have their interpersonal relationships affected by their perfectionism. They may often feel they have more unstable relationships due to the fact they feel they do not measure up to the standards of others (Schuler, 2000). Perfectionism can also cause gifted students to set unrealistic expectations and standards for those around them (Clark, 2013). These unhealthy expectations can put a strain on their social interactions. These children tend to take on too take on too much responsibility for their relationships. They then compensate by trying to please those around them resulting in them feeling personal responsibility for the feelings of others (Lovecky, 1992). Diedre Lovecky (1992), author of Exploring Social and Emotional Aspects of Giftedness in Children, believes these children,
“negative affect in another is seen as their own personal failing. Some try to avoid any negative situations by being exceptionally good at all times. Those children who withdraw from feeling too much pain from others may actively avoid people and situations that tend to produce negative feelings. This results in isolation and disconnection from common bonds with others (p. 21).”
The resulting relationships can be negative because the child is not fully involved in the relationship as an individual and, instead, behave in ways they believe will please their peers. Their relationships can also tend to be somewhat one-sided. For example, often their peers tend to take advantage of them using them to do the work and forcing them to be the responsible party (Lovecky, 1992). Children who are gifted often have trouble interacting with children their own age. They often feel isolated and lonely (Schechtman & Silektor, 2012). As a result of these feelings, the students will often have trouble with certain social skills such as friendship, conflict resolution and tolerance (Schechtman & Silektor, 2012).
Another area of vulnerability for academically gifted students is that they are often viewed as less appealing than their artistically or physically gifted counterparts. Children who are advanced in certain sports are often idolized or thought more highly of than those who are smart in reading or math. “Smart” children are often labeled as nerds or geeks and can be the brunt of cruel bullying by their peers (O’Connor, 2012). Often students who are “sporting prodigies are characterized by admiration, and stories about musical prodigies are characterized by awe, then stories about academic prodigies could best be described as being characterized by pity” (O’Connor, 2012, p. 301). Academic students need to be encouraged to foster their talents just as athletic or artistic students are taught to foster their skills. These stereotypical attitudes must also be addressed in order to help gifted students feel accepted and understood.
Limited Physical Development
As gifted students develop, they are often less likely to foster or develop skills in other areas. Academically gifted students can often have underdeveloped social or physical skills. This can affect their ability or desire to perform well in other areas and may also become a source of frustration and discouragement. Gifted children “were found to have a higher academic self-concept but a lower physical self-concept than non-gifted children” (Shechtman & Silektor, 2012, p. 64). According to Barbara Clark (2013), gifted children can often suffer from a Cartesian split. This occurs when there is a “mental separation between the mind and the body” (Clark, 2013, p. 18). Such an asynchronous development can result in neglect in their physical bodies and a shying away of any type of physical activity (Clark, 2013). It is important to foster mind and body activities and encourage a wide range of physical activities for gifted students so as to counteract their avoidance or lack of desire in their own physical development.
Tips for Educators and Parents
There are several things that parents and educators can do to help reduce the amount of vulnerabilities within the gifted child. These include:
• Recognize that a gifted child's emotional and social development will not always match his or her intellectual development. Before responding to your child's emotional outburst or concluding that your child is socially or emotionally immature, stop a moment to remind yourself of your child's chronological age.
• Understand that asynchronous development creates special needs. For example, gifted children need emotional support as do all children, but they also need advanced intellectual stimulation. A gifted four-year-old who can discuss black holes still needs comforting hugs.
• Recognize that gifted children may not get their emotional, social, and intellectual needs met by the same peers. This means that they may be able to socialize to a degree with children their own age, but may also need opportunities to interact with other gifted children, older children, or even adults. Parents should make every effort to provide these opportunities. (Bainbridge, 2014)
Parents are also encouraged to find resources and materials about giftedness and to help their students to have challenging academic experiences without the pressure of requiring or expecting too much from them. One good resource for parents is the National Association of Gifted Children (2008) website ( http://www.nagc.org/). This resource has a plethora of information and resources in order to help parents, as well as educators, see that gifted children are able to reach their fullest potential without experiencing severe negative consequences. Listed in the table below, parents and educators will find other helpful resources that will be a valuable source of information as they are working with their gifted students.
References
Bainbridge, C. (2014). Dealing with a gifted child's asynchronous development. About.com Gifted Children. Retrieved from http://giftedkids.about.com/od/familylife/qt/asynch_help.htm
Clark, B. (2013). Growing up gifted: developing the potential of children at home and at school (2nd ed.). Columbus: Merrill.
Cross, Tracy L. Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 72, No. 3/4, Charting a New Course in Gifted Education: Parts 1 and 2 (1997), 180-200. Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1493044
Gibbons, M. M., Pelchar, T. K., & Cochran, J. L. (2012). Gifted students from low-education backgrounds. Roeper Review, 34(2), 114-122.
Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program. (n.d.). Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from http://www2.ed.gov/programs/javits/index.html
Jensen, Deborah (2009). Child Testing - IQ and Intelligence Testing - School Psychology Services. (n.d.). Child Testing - IQ and Intelligence Testing - School Psychology Services. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from http://www.school-psychology.com.au/blog/child-testing-iq-and-intelligence-testing/
Kitano, M. K., & Lewis, R. B. (2005). Resilience and coping: Implications for gifted children and youth at risk. Roeper Review, 27(4), 200.
Lamont, R. T. (2012). The fears and anxieties of gifted learners: Tips for parents and educators. Gifted Child Today, 35(4), 271-276.
Lovecky, D. V. (1992). Exploring social and emotional aspects of giftedness in children. Roeper Review, 15(1), 18-25.
National Association of Gifted Children. (2008). What is Gifted? Retrieved June 10, 2014, from http://www.nagc.org/
O'Connor, J. (2012). Is it good to be gifted? The social construction of the gifted child. Children & Society, 26(4), 293-303.
Schuler, P. A. (2000). Perfectionism and gifted adolescents. The Journal of Secondary Gifted Education, 11(4), 183-196,222.
Shechtman, Z., & Silektor, A. (2012). Social competencies and difficulties of gifted children compared to nongifted peers. Roeper Review, 34(1), 63-72.
Seon-Young, L., & Olszewski-Kubilius, P. (2006, Fall). The emotional intelligence, moral judgment, and leadership of academically gifted adolescents. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 30, 29-67,119.
Emotional Vulnerabilities
Children who fall into the category of being gifted or talented can face many issues as they move through their educational journey. These students can have many positive experiences. However, these students also may face some areas of vulnerability as they progress. According to research, “while the label of gifted has many positive aspects, there are psychological, emotional and social prices to pay for the label of gifted and talented” (O’Connor,2012, p. 293).These students can experience feelings of isolation, fear, anxiety, stress, perfectionism, boredom, and frustration. They can experience problems in their interpersonal relationships and can also have feelings of self-criticism. There are also indications that insomnia can be associated with giftedness (Lamont, 2012). Academically or artistically gifted students can experience problems with physical limitations or a lack of desire to perform in physical activities. These vulnerabilities are areas that need to be addressed in the educational and home settings for these children so as to help them create a more positive attitude concerning their abilities. In the areas of social and emotional development, gifted students can have several areas where they may experience vulnerabilities. These can occur through isolation, poor interpersonal relationships, self-criticism, and struggles with fear and anxiety. Gifted students usually exhibit weaknesses in the areas of “stress management, tolerance, and ability to control impulses compared to the normative sample” (Seon-Young, 2006, p. 57). Highly gifted students can often times feel unchallenged in the traditional school environment. These students tend to be either overachievers or can become underachievers as they feel they are not being challenged in their academic studies (Gibbons, 2012) According to Gibbons, Pelchar and Cochran, highly gifted students will often experience the beginnings of underachievement as early as elementary school. They interviewed gifted students interviewed who said they felt “disrepected by peers and teachers and unaccepted at school in general.” (p. 115)
Highly gifted students often feel frustrated with performing menial tasks they may have already mastered. This results in boredom and frustration. They can also tend to be very critical of their own performance. This type of self-criticism along with feelings of having to be perfect, can often “cripple the imagination, kill the spirit, and so handicap performance that an individual may never fulfill the promise of early talent” (Schuler, 2000, p. 184). These feelings of failure can be devastating to the students and can cause them to become so discouraged they drop out of school (Gibbons, 2012).
Research has also shown that this type of frustration causes some gifted children to become underachievers. Gifted students can have difficulties in their academic journeys. In their quest to be the best, they often times will become so frustrated they eventually give up completely. These students become known as underachievers (Gibbons, 2012). Some even go so far as to drop out of school. According to the article, “Gifted Students from Low-education Backgrounds,” these gifted dropouts often feel their problems and frustrations began at an early age and they often felt “disrespected by peers and teachers and unaccepted at school in general” (Gibbons, 2012). Other factors mentioned by these gifted underachievers include substance abuse and other significant losses.
Self-esteem is the feeling that one possesses about their own selves. Barbara Clark refers to this as "complex and dynamic system of beliefs that individuals hold to be true about themselves" (Clark, 2013, p. 107). These beliefs can shape how a person acts and can influence their relationships with others. According to the article, Is It Good to Be Gifted? The Social Construction of the Gifted Child, O’Connor believes “there is growing evidence that children labeled as academically gifted are subjected to negative attitudes from others and that this impacts on their self-esteem and motivation to succeed” (O’Connor, 2012, p. 293). Gifted children can sometimes have high self-concept. This can be attributed to their stellar accomplishments (Shechtman & Silektor, 2012). However, some children suffer with low self-esteem as the result of extreme expectations that are placed on them by themselves or others. This can lead to feelings of failure (Shechtman & Silektor, 2012).
Low self-esteem in highly gifted students can result in feelings of anxiety and pressure for the student. They can often feel as if there are extreme expectations placed on them that they must meet (Clark, 2013). Parents and teachers must be careful how they acknowledge the successes of gifted students. Students must feel that any praise given them is genuine. Heaping large amounts of praise on students can add to the pressure they already feel and may increase their fear of failing. According to Clark (2013), "extreme praise by parents may cause gifted children to believe that they expect much more of them than the parents really do" (p. 109) Educators must be careful not to bring excessive attention to gifted students in class as it may put unnecessary pressure on the child to always be successful (Clark, 2013). t is important that these students understand and set realistic goals for themselves so as to offset the pressure and anxiety. Students must be challenged at a healthy level in order to avoid the pitfalls of overachievement or underachievement.
Perfectionism is a characteristic that is largely associated with gifted children. In the understanding of their giftedness, these students often feel they must achieve perfection status on every task they undertake. This perfectionism can be seen at two different levels. Normal perfectionism can be a healthy attitude. This affords students the opportunity to do their very best on any assignment given to them. However, when taken to the extreme, neurotic perfectionism can occur. Neurotic perfectionism occurs when students feel they are never fully able to meet the expectations of others and therefore feel they have let others down (Schuler, 2000). This type of unhealthy perfectionism is also called self-oriented perfectionism (Clark, 2013). When gifted students set extremely high standards for themselves, they will often feel depression and anxiety when these standards are unmet (Clark, 2013). Clark believes unhealthy perfectionism can fall into three different categories (Clark, 2013). In addition to self-oriented, students can also have socially prescribed perfectionism or others-oriented perfectionism. According to Clark (2013), students can also set high standards for others, which results in other-oriented perfectionism. This occurs when the gifted students believes others should perform at the level they have set. In socially prescribed perfectionism, students feel that other hold extremely high standards for them and that they must perform t those levels in order to receive the approval of others (Clark, 2013). All unhealthy types of perfectionism must be addressed in order to help students feel they are successful in the accomplishments they make.
According to a survey taken of rural, gifted students, “87.5% were perfectionistic. Most (58%) were in the healthy range of perfectionism, while (29.5%) were in the neurotic range” (Schuler, 2000, p. 186). This type of attitude often is accompanied by fixations and fears of less than perfect status and creates unhealthy levels of anxiety for the students (Schuler, 2000). Perfectionism at this level can lead to feelings of low self-esteem and a feeling of never measuring up to the standards of others (Schuler, 2000). It is important that gifted students feel successful even when their work is sub-perfect.
Relationships with Others
Students who are labeled as gifted in a certain area may feel isolation as they are pulled from their regular classrooms and given instruction in separate settings. These students sometimes “they feel lonely even when they are popular and that they try to hide their giftedness to save their friendships” (Shechtman & Silektor, 2012, p. 63). They may feel as if they are different from others and experiences feelings of loneliness, especially in the school setting. Children who are gifted often may feel as if they are not part of the normal group. According to Barbara Clark, “the gifted label itelf may create problems between these children and others in the classroom” (Clark, 2013, p. 113). These feelings can lead to poor interpersonal relationships among highly gifted students and their average intelligence counterparts. According to Lovecky (1992), highly gifted students can have trouble finding peers who truly understand and appreciate their unusual and advanced perceptions (p. 18).” It is important for parents and teachers to help these students find peers who have either common interests or are intellectually challenging.
Highly gifted students can have their interpersonal relationships affected by their perfectionism. They may often feel they have more unstable relationships due to the fact they feel they do not measure up to the standards of others (Schuler, 2000). Perfectionism can also cause gifted students to set unrealistic expectations and standards for those around them (Clark, 2013). These unhealthy expectations can put a strain on their social interactions. These children tend to take on too take on too much responsibility for their relationships. They then compensate by trying to please those around them resulting in them feeling personal responsibility for the feelings of others (Lovecky, 1992). Diedre Lovecky (1992), author of Exploring Social and Emotional Aspects of Giftedness in Children, believes these children,
“negative affect in another is seen as their own personal failing. Some try to avoid any negative situations by being exceptionally good at all times. Those children who withdraw from feeling too much pain from others may actively avoid people and situations that tend to produce negative feelings. This results in isolation and disconnection from common bonds with others (p. 21).”
The resulting relationships can be negative because the child is not fully involved in the relationship as an individual and, instead, behave in ways they believe will please their peers. Their relationships can also tend to be somewhat one-sided. For example, often their peers tend to take advantage of them using them to do the work and forcing them to be the responsible party (Lovecky, 1992). Children who are gifted often have trouble interacting with children their own age. They often feel isolated and lonely (Schechtman & Silektor, 2012). As a result of these feelings, the students will often have trouble with certain social skills such as friendship, conflict resolution and tolerance (Schechtman & Silektor, 2012).
Another area of vulnerability for academically gifted students is that they are often viewed as less appealing than their artistically or physically gifted counterparts. Children who are advanced in certain sports are often idolized or thought more highly of than those who are smart in reading or math. “Smart” children are often labeled as nerds or geeks and can be the brunt of cruel bullying by their peers (O’Connor, 2012). Often students who are “sporting prodigies are characterized by admiration, and stories about musical prodigies are characterized by awe, then stories about academic prodigies could best be described as being characterized by pity” (O’Connor, 2012, p. 301). Academic students need to be encouraged to foster their talents just as athletic or artistic students are taught to foster their skills. These stereotypical attitudes must also be addressed in order to help gifted students feel accepted and understood.
Limited Physical Development
As gifted students develop, they are often less likely to foster or develop skills in other areas. Academically gifted students can often have underdeveloped social or physical skills. This can affect their ability or desire to perform well in other areas and may also become a source of frustration and discouragement. Gifted children “were found to have a higher academic self-concept but a lower physical self-concept than non-gifted children” (Shechtman & Silektor, 2012, p. 64). According to Barbara Clark (2013), gifted children can often suffer from a Cartesian split. This occurs when there is a “mental separation between the mind and the body” (Clark, 2013, p. 18). Such an asynchronous development can result in neglect in their physical bodies and a shying away of any type of physical activity (Clark, 2013). It is important to foster mind and body activities and encourage a wide range of physical activities for gifted students so as to counteract their avoidance or lack of desire in their own physical development.
Tips for Educators and Parents
There are several things that parents and educators can do to help reduce the amount of vulnerabilities within the gifted child. These include:
• Recognize that a gifted child's emotional and social development will not always match his or her intellectual development. Before responding to your child's emotional outburst or concluding that your child is socially or emotionally immature, stop a moment to remind yourself of your child's chronological age.
• Understand that asynchronous development creates special needs. For example, gifted children need emotional support as do all children, but they also need advanced intellectual stimulation. A gifted four-year-old who can discuss black holes still needs comforting hugs.
• Recognize that gifted children may not get their emotional, social, and intellectual needs met by the same peers. This means that they may be able to socialize to a degree with children their own age, but may also need opportunities to interact with other gifted children, older children, or even adults. Parents should make every effort to provide these opportunities. (Bainbridge, 2014)
Parents are also encouraged to find resources and materials about giftedness and to help their students to have challenging academic experiences without the pressure of requiring or expecting too much from them. One good resource for parents is the National Association of Gifted Children (2008) website ( http://www.nagc.org/). This resource has a plethora of information and resources in order to help parents, as well as educators, see that gifted children are able to reach their fullest potential without experiencing severe negative consequences. Listed in the table below, parents and educators will find other helpful resources that will be a valuable source of information as they are working with their gifted students.
References
Bainbridge, C. (2014). Dealing with a gifted child's asynchronous development. About.com Gifted Children. Retrieved from http://giftedkids.about.com/od/familylife/qt/asynch_help.htm
Clark, B. (2013). Growing up gifted: developing the potential of children at home and at school (2nd ed.). Columbus: Merrill.
Cross, Tracy L. Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 72, No. 3/4, Charting a New Course in Gifted Education: Parts 1 and 2 (1997), 180-200. Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1493044
Gibbons, M. M., Pelchar, T. K., & Cochran, J. L. (2012). Gifted students from low-education backgrounds. Roeper Review, 34(2), 114-122.
Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program. (n.d.). Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from http://www2.ed.gov/programs/javits/index.html
Jensen, Deborah (2009). Child Testing - IQ and Intelligence Testing - School Psychology Services. (n.d.). Child Testing - IQ and Intelligence Testing - School Psychology Services. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from http://www.school-psychology.com.au/blog/child-testing-iq-and-intelligence-testing/
Kitano, M. K., & Lewis, R. B. (2005). Resilience and coping: Implications for gifted children and youth at risk. Roeper Review, 27(4), 200.
Lamont, R. T. (2012). The fears and anxieties of gifted learners: Tips for parents and educators. Gifted Child Today, 35(4), 271-276.
Lovecky, D. V. (1992). Exploring social and emotional aspects of giftedness in children. Roeper Review, 15(1), 18-25.
National Association of Gifted Children. (2008). What is Gifted? Retrieved June 10, 2014, from http://www.nagc.org/
O'Connor, J. (2012). Is it good to be gifted? The social construction of the gifted child. Children & Society, 26(4), 293-303.
Schuler, P. A. (2000). Perfectionism and gifted adolescents. The Journal of Secondary Gifted Education, 11(4), 183-196,222.
Shechtman, Z., & Silektor, A. (2012). Social competencies and difficulties of gifted children compared to nongifted peers. Roeper Review, 34(1), 63-72.
Seon-Young, L., & Olszewski-Kubilius, P. (2006, Fall). The emotional intelligence, moral judgment, and leadership of academically gifted adolescents. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 30, 29-67,119.