#Sad gifted kid burnout full

There are five areas of overexcitability: intellectual, sensual, emotional, imaginational, and psychomotor. Dabrowski’s overexcitabilities have been embraced by the gifted community as they help to explain the extreme sensitivity and intensity that is common among this population. Gifted children are known for their overexcitabilities, a term used by Polish psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski as part of his theory of personality development. When frustrated, he can throw a tantrum to rival that of any 2-year-old. When he is sad, he dissolves into a mushy mess on the floor.

#Sad gifted kid burnout full

When he is angry, he is a tornado full of boy. If you ask a gifted mother to describe her gifted child, one of the most common responses you’d receive would be this: Gifted children are intense! When my son is happy, he is bouncing off the walls, bursting with joy happy. Due to his asynchronous development, he houses thoughts in his busy little mind that his emotions are not yet able to process. He was unable to watch television until he was 6-years-old because he was so incredibly sensitive to its content and themes. These are questions and fears that I have been navigating with my son since he was a toddler. Gifted children can be many ages at once, out of sync. A 7-year-old gifted child appears to be his age physically, but she can have the intellect of someone twice her age with the emotional development of a toddler. And the more gifted the child, the more asynchronous that child may be. While the general population develops in a relatively uniform way, gifted learners demonstrate asynchronous development. The reality is, most gifted children are asynchronous. The uniqueness of the gifted renders them particularly vulnerable and requires modifications in parenting, teaching and counseling in order for them to develop optimally. This asynchrony increases with higher intellectual capacity. Giftedness is asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm. My favorite definition of giftedness is this one, from the Columbus Group, because it defines giftedness in terms of asynchronous development: They tend to confuse giftedness with achievement when the they are two entirely different things.

When people hear the word gifted, they tend to imagine a start student who floats through school with straight-As and heaps of praise from teachers. Giftedness is better understood when you think of it in terms of asynchronous development. Today, I would like to share some gifted truths with you.

Parents of gifted kids push them to perform early and often. Gifted families are lucky they have it easier. Gifted children’s skills are evenly developed. When folks hear the word gifted, they tend to make assumptions, including: Did you cringe just now, when you read it? To be honest, I still cringe a little too.Īs the mother of a profoundly gifted and twice-exceptional child, I think that gifted is a terrible label it brings to mind images of beautifully-wrapped packages with neatly tied bows. Our gifted reality is sometimes beautiful but complicated and challenging and anything but neat.