Special Needs: What About Gifted Children

This answer varies! There are a select few gifted children who you can recognize their specialness even before they are 1 year old! Then there are those, who may never even realize they are gifted! Many children do not become “classified” as gifted until they are in upper elementary school-or even older, if ever at all.

Many gifted child are seen as “problem” children in school and are not understood. Some are even consistently kicked out of schools for behavioral issues! Whatever the case may be, being the parent of a gift child myself, these children are grossly misunderstood and looked over.

One site that I love for gifted resources is Hoagies Gifted Education Page. It really helped me when my son was little!

Gifted Children in the Classroom

Finding the right teacher plays a key part in helping a gifted child succeed in a classroom. Many gifted kids can get overwhelmed or under stimulated causing them to act out and be seen as a behavior issue. Emotions is a hard thing to understand and sometimes grasping basic concepts can seem difficult. If you have a child who is constantly disrupting the class, ask yourself if they are engaged enough? Are they interested in what is going on?

It is hard to keep a healthy balance for accelerated learning. On top of academics you also have different levels of social ability which further deepen the issue. Gifted children can have very sensitive feelings, but then have no clue about other people’s feelings.

It is amazing to me how my 3 year old can master an upper level I Spy computer game and build small electronic kits to make lights and fans, and at the same time he is crying and screaming because his brother took a sip out of his drink. It’s quite the conundrum!

Parents of the gifted child truly have an extremely exhausting and unique job. Not only do they want their children happy and healthy, but many of us are presented with issues we never dreamed about. Who would have thought my 1 1/2 year old would unlock all the keyed locks in my house, walk outside, and climb our 7 ft. pool fence just to get his floaties and be a big helper?

Gifted kids just think differently- it’s not a disease, it’s not a deformity, it’s a different way of thinking. Gifted children tend to be extremely literal. They do not understand jokes and humor, or teasing. If you told me son to run into a busy street, he would not even hesitate he would take off running. You may think that sounds absurd or funny- but it’s not! This is very typical of a gifted child.

I can write you a whole book about the ups and downs of gifted children, and I feel so passionately about this subject because we have found ourselves with a gifted child and a twice exceptional gifted child. To say we stay busy in our household is an understatement!

Just because our children don’t look physically handicapped doesn’t mean that they don’t require extra treatment or special care. I’ve heard so many times from parents that wish their child wasn’t gifted because they are treated so poorly by people who don’t understand.