Gifted children are blessed with talents and competencies that appear marvelous on paper, but these intellectual and artistic advantages can often lead to lopsided emotional development, especially when adults and educators do not strive to consider the diverse and particular needs of this special group. Ideally, educators and parents of gifted children should unite to satisfy a gifted child’s full spectrum of emotional needs.
There can be grave costs when children strive under an expectation of perfection. Children may put undue pressure on themselves to meet expectations, or they may focus more heavily on academic and artistic tasks, setting friendships and emotional expression aside. As they grow older, they may be less willing to take risks. These children often fear failure in their academic and social lives, and therefore require emotional support and targeted educational efforts to help them cope with common emotional difficulties such as impostor syndrome, chronic shyness, perfectionism, and fear of failure.
Indeed, gifted children are often much more emotionally sensitive than their peers. It is all the more important that these children be given a strong supportive framework within which they may safely learn to confront and process their heightened emotional responses. Highly sensitive children may attempt to “take care of it themselves” or isolate themselves if they feel unsupported or misunderstood, which can have saddening consequences for their long-term social and emotional development.
Supporting a gifted child means maintaining a truly open dialogue, not only about the subjects in which the child is gifted, but also about all aspects of the child’s life. Gifted children may feel alienated from their peers and from the adults in their lives, so supporting these children will mean embracing what makes each of them unique. Gifted children have a range of learning styles to which they are all very sensitive, and it therefore helps to place gifted children in learning environments that will cater to this diversity, preventing frustration and upset in and outside the classroom. By fostering healthy and appropriate modes of learning, reflection, and emotional expression, parents and educators can ensure that each gifted child will learn to thrive.
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