The characteristics of gifted children often lead to social and emotional problems that can affect their emotional and social development. To understand your gifted child completely, it's a good idea to see how your child's giftedness can influence his or her behavior.
Problems Resulting From Asynchronous Development
- Gifted children can intellectually understand abstract concepts but may be unable to deal with those concepts emotionally, leading to intense concerns about death, the future, sex, and other such issues.
- Gifted children's physical development may lead to an inability to complete a task they are capable of intellectually envisioning. (Perfectionism may play a role in this frustration as well.)
- A gifted child may be able to participate in adult conversations about issues such as global warming or world hunger one minute and the next minute cry and whine because a sibling took a favorite toy.
Problems Resulting From Advanced Verbal and Reasoning Ability
- Gifted children can be argumentative and/or manipulative. (Adults often remark that theses children are little lawyers!) Parents and other adults need to remember that, although credit should be given for logical and convincing arguments, a child is still a child and requires appropriate discipline, no matter how clever or cute the behavior may look. Children who see that they can manipulate adults can feel very insecure.
- Gifted children can be manipulative. (Parents and other adults need to take care that they don't allow this manipulation.)
- A gifted child may try to outsmart parents and teachers.
