social and emotional issues for the gifted learner “brighter doesn’t necessarily mean happier,...
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Social and Emotional Issuesfor the Gifted Learner
“Brighter doesn’t necessarily mean happier, healthier, more successful,
socially adept or more secure.”
Challenges for Gifted StudentsLike minority students, they feel
“different.”A desire to be like everybody else –
even positive differences cause anxiety.
They may have problems “connecting” with other kids.
Parents and Teachers may dismiss emotional problems because so many others have more difficult issues.
Challenges from Within
Extra Perception
High Involvement
Super SensitivityPerfectionism
Uneven Integration
Top 8 Gripes of Gifted Children
“Why is it all of my good friends are older or younger than I am?”
Top 8 Gripes of Gifted Children
Number
8
“School is so boring, but nobody seems to care...
There has to be a better way to learn.”
Top 8 Gripes of Gifted Children
Number
7
“I’m 12 years old... with the mind of a 16-year-old and the social skills of a 1000-year-old Druid!
Where do I fit in?!”
Top 8 Gripes of Gifted Children
Number
6
“No matter how well I do, there is always someone telling me I could have done better!”
Top 8 Gripes of Gifted Children
Number
5
“How will I ever select a career or college major?”
Top 8 Gripes of Gifted Children
Number
4
“Does my being able to do things other kids can’t do make me a more valuable member of society?”
Top 8 Gripes of Gifted Children
Number
3
“If I don’t become a doctor or a lawyer, will I be perceived as a failure?”
Top 8 Gripes of Gifted Children
Number
2
“Everybody tells me I’m Gifted, but nobody tells me what that means!”
Top 8 Gripes of Gifted
ChildrenNumber
1
Contrasting Abilities
Accelerated Learners Interested in mastery
and integrating increasingly complex material
Process, retain, and apply large amounts of knowledge
May be indifferent to academic subject – but know everything about a topic
Often frustrated by lockstep learning
May need help learning social skills
Contrasting Abilities
Accelerated Learners
Enriched Learners Interested in mastery
and integrating increasingly complex material
Process, retain, and apply large amounts of knowledge
May be indifferent to academic subject – but know everything about a topic
Often frustrated by lockstep learning
May need help learning social skills
Ability to become wholly immersed in a problem
Focus on the problem as an end in itself
May be highly emotional, imaginative, internally motivated, curious, driven to explore
Often have a keen sense of humor
Artists, musicians, dancers, writes, and actors
Thrive on discovery and experience
May not be top performers
Gifted GirlsSocietal pressures –
◦“Traditional” roles for women vs. men
◦“Women are supposed to be sweet, dependent June Allyson types pretending to be overawed by the opposite sex.”
◦How to be feminine and talented at the same time?
◦Career vs. family
Gifted Boys
Societal pressures – ◦“Traditional” role - jock vs. nerd◦Strong peer pressure to fit in
and conform◦Negative attitudes or bullying
if they are “too feminine”◦Tendency to overload
Ethnic and Cultural Minorities
Caught between two worlds – How to maintain their culture...
but succeed in a white classroomBeing different than your own
family◦Succeeding where others don’t
(parents)◦Succeeding outside the ethnic “norm”
Testing below the norm due to language bias
Twice Exceptional Children
Lowered expectations for physical and learning or behavioral disabilities
May have uneven academic skills
Motor skills may frustrate and cause them to act out and have self-esteem issues
Social integration issues may be more profound
Signs of TroubleHalf are underachievers10 – 20% of high school dropouts test
within the very superior ability range40% of graduates in the top 5
percent of their class don’t graduate college
Depression - “Hostages of their own special insights”
20% of the prison population is gifted
“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to
failure is trying to please
everybody”Bill Cosby
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