3 Common Emotional Characteristics

Resources

Emotional Intensity in Gifted Children

Gifted Asynchronous Development and sensory Integration

“The most important thing we can do to nurture emotionally intense gifted children is to accept their emotions: they need to feel understood and supported… …Help them to use their intellect to develop self-awareness and self-acceptance.” -L. Sword

Overexcitabilities

Perfectionism

• Erase until there are holes in the paper
• Impatient with others, aren’t “doing it right”
• Meltdown at the first sign of trouble
• Decisions are impossible
• Reach for impossible goals
• Cannot be criticised, dwell on mistakes
• Trouble accepting compliments
• Unwilling to start, afraid to fail, avoidance

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Strategies to Use:

1. Share your mistakes and struggles
2. Teach them to practice- build stamina
3. Teach them rise when they FAIL

F (first) A (attempt) I (in) L (learning)

• Laugh! Be silly, and help them lighten up
• Focus on the process, not the product
• Explain expectations & stick to them
• Don’t make being perfect part of their identity

Helping Gifted learners cope with Perfectionism

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Perfectionism and Gifted Children

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National Association For Gifted Children on Perfectionism

Intensity

• Tears of joy over a beautiful sunset
• So focused they don’t “hear” you
• Obsessions about a topic of interest
• Difficulty with transitions
• Big focus on fairness
• competitive: most, best, fastest, highest, etc.
• Intense nightmares, fears
• sleep issues- hard to settle down, stay asleep, sleep through the night
• major meltdowns
• mood swings- higher highs, lower lows
• stubborn, strong-willed, inflexible

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Strategies to Use:

• Be clear about the family rules, which should be child-centered but not child-driven.
• Find motivators to help your child follow the rules.
• You are the boss.Gifted kids lack judgment but they are remarkable at reasoning. Teach your son or daughter to respect your wisdom.
• Have some realistic short-term consequences that set limits
• Let your child make up some of the rules that are personal and that do not disrupt the family or impair safety

15 Strategies for Managing Gifted Intensity

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Emotional Intensities in Gifted Children

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Living with your Gifted Child’s Intensities

Sensitivity

• too loud; fireworks, movies, toilets
• too scary: movies, even G rated ones
• crying when another kid gets hurt
• concerned about tigers going extinct
• scratchy tags in clothing, buttons, sock seams, etc.
• low pain tolerance
• bathing/swimming: water in eyes/ nose intolerance
• picky eater- foods touching, textures, smells
• food sensitivities / allergies
• big reactions to minor setbacks, discipline
• sensory seeking- loves snuggling, soft fabrics, OR hates being touched…

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Strategies to Use:

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• Help your child to value their sensitivities as a strength; model this mindset for them
• Help redirect fear through process and product (draw a picture, write a poem, create a game, or skit)
• Reward the process of effort, not only outcomes
• Appreciate the sensitivity, find the positive through question and conversation, and listen without interruption, distraction, or advice: “where is your emotional thermometer today?” And just listen with affirmation.

Emotional Intensity in Gifted Children

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Sensitivity in Gifted Kids

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11 Sensory Processing Tools to use with Gifted Kids

Overexcitabilities

The Gifted Brain :

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Dabrowski’s 5 “super-stimulatibilities”

• psychomotor (more energetic)
• sensual (feel deeper)
• imaginational (imagine deeper)
• intellectual (more curious)
• emotional (see and hear more)

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Hard wired to be super efficient

• more neurons & smaller interhemispheric fissure
• experience a more intense reaction, for longer periods of time, to a stimulus that may be very small
• generalize faster, abundant creativity and no box= future problem solvers
• OEs aren’t an accident; they support higher intelligence: more energetic and fast paced

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HONOR IT! Look for the unique SEL needs. Coach how to cope with OEs, not change them.

The Other Side of Giftedness

Existential angst & depression

• “nothing really matters”
• fascination with death
• even as young children!

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Imposter Syndrome

• Very successful people who deep down believe that they’re fakes
• and will be found out

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Trauma

• High sensitivity & intensity LOWERS the threshold

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What is Highly Capable?

Discussions

Competitions

lots of curiosity

explosions

argumentative

strong-willed

intensity

fascinations

freedom of choice

mutual respect

Expectations

access

failure

persuasive

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determination

A Better World for many others

success

…and when fostered, it’s game changing for the world…

creative

Last Parent Night we explored:

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Understanding our Scholars through:

Executive Functioning and

Behaviors that Mask Abilities

A shift in Mindset:

Understanding our Scholars

Gifted Characteristics Mask Ability

Ask yourself:

“What is that behavior telling me?”

“What is missing from the environment?”

Understanding Executive Functioning

HiCap brains have a different developmental timetable than the average brain. So what does this mean?

“The maturation of the prefrontal cortex of gifted children is often delayed, compared to other children, but then catches up unusually rapidly.” -Willis, 2009

What is Executive Functioning, and what does it have to do with HiCap?

Regulation & (the amygdala)

• Impulse Control
• Waiting to speak until it’s your turn
• Mental flexibility
• Initiating, getting started

Organization

• Organizing materials, time, or procedures
• Multitasking, keeping track of more than one task at a time
• Planning, time management, breaking down bigger parts into smaller ones
• Sustaining attention through distraction

• Executive Functioning refers to a skill set and capacity to meet the demands of:
• Planning
• Attaining set goals
• Maintaining self control
• Following multi step directions even when interrupted
• Stamina with remaining focused despite distractions

• Fun Facts:
• These skills are essential for survival- controlling impulses, make plans, stay focused
• We are not born with them, but most have the potential to develop these capacities
• Experiences during infancy, childhood, and adolescence create the blueprint that leaves a long lasting signature on those genes (the blueprints are the development of these skills) - Harvard University Center on the Developing Child

a voluntary or involuntary restraint on the direct expression of an instinct.

The Gifted & the Unidentified Gifted

Common Characteristics and Traits of

The Gifted & the Unidentified Gifted

Common Characteristics and Traits of