Research Briefs

Revealing True Potential: A Great Beginning for the Gifted

Volume 1 / Issue 3 / Spring 2001

The Children’s Mental Health Foundations and Agencies Network recently released A Good Beginning: Sending America’s Children to School with the Social and Emotional Competence They Need to Succeed. The monograph summarizes two papers commissioned by the organization. The first addresses the risk factors for early school problems, and the second regards the federal policies and programs implemented to improve the social and emotional development of young children. Together, these papers demonstrate the gaps between what works to improve the social and emotional readiness of young children for school and the federal programs that have been implemented. A strong case is made for coordinating research and practice more closely and thus increasing the impact of future policies on children’s social and emotional health.

Risk factors associated with early school failure include cognitive deficits, early behavioral problems, parental psychological problems, problematic parenting practices, and difficulties with peers and teachers. These factors can diminish a child’s ability to establish and maintain secure relationships with parents, teachers, and peers.

What Does This Mean for the Gifted?

Risk factors can be amplified by the gifted child’s heightened awareness and sensitivity. For example, peer relationships may pose a great challenge. Even as young children, the gifted are aware of the cognitive differences between themselves and their same-age peers. They perceive that their peers consider these differences strange, and the development of a positive self-concept for them may be jeopardized. As gifted children grow older, they are often faced with the choice of downplaying their intellectual interests in order to develop and maintain relationships with classroom peers.

By the age of five or six, openness and confidence are
frequently replaced with self-doubt and layers of protective defenses.
Being different is a problem in childhood.
—Linda Kreger Silverman, Gifted Development Center

Parental psychological problems and other family difficulties (e.g., divorce, alcoholism, and domestic abuse) may hinder the social and emotional development of young gifted students as well. Gifted children may have a heightened sense of responsibility, particularly if they feel that it is their duty to resolve a domestic problem. Distracted by such circumstances, these children may not reveal their true potential at school.

Particularly among preschool gifted children, behavioral problems become apparent when patterns of uneven development emerge, for instance, when fine-motor skills lag behind cognitive abilities. Furthermore, an unchallenging curriculum may cause behavioral problems to surface. Young gifted students often start school having mastered many of the skills that their peers must be taught.

Instructional modifications that focus on acceleration and enrichment are needed to provide more appropriate and stimulating educational experiences for these students.

What Can Parents Do?

• There are many things that you can do to foster the healthy social and emotional development of your gifted child:
• Continue to provide enriching experiences (e.g., visit museums and enroll your child in weekend or summer
  enrichment programs).
• Actively communicate with your child’s teachers and inform them of family issues (e.g., a death in the family, a divorce, or sibling problems) that could impact your child’s performance.
• Maintain a supportive and responsive home environment. Listen to your child and acknowledge that his or her problems are real.
• Teach your child strategies for handling stress and frustration.
• Look for a parent discussion group in your school district or through your state gifted association.
• Start a play group with other bright children so that your child can experience the joy of playing with someone who understands him or her.
• Read to your child. Particularly seek out books that address issues he or she may be facing (e.g., peer relations, a divorce, or a new baby in the house).

By realizing that intellectual prowess and advanced social and emotional competence do not always coincide, parents and teachers can better address the affective needs of gifted students and ensure them a great beginning.
—Kristen R. Stephens, PhD

Kristen R. Stephens is support services coordinator at the Duke University Talent Identification Program and adjunct assistant professor of gifted education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.