Social and Emotional Struggles Faced by Gifted Children

Gifted children have amazing intellectual abilities but they have to face social and emotional struggles. Find out more about the social and emotional problems faced by gifted children. The personal characteristics of a gifted child can cause social and emotional issues which can hamper her normal development. Parents and educators must therefore understand how giftedness can affect the normal behaviour of a gifted child and provide the right kind of support. In this articleMotor Skills and Conceptual AbilitiesUnrealistic ExpectationsFeeling LostLack of Physical AbilitiesAge RestrictionsMisconceptions about BehaviourProblems Due to Lack of Emotional MaturityCommon Struggles Faced by Gifted Children Some of the common struggles faced by gifted children are: Motor Skills and Conceptual Abilities Motor skills and conceptual abilities of gifted children may not develop proportionately. For example a gifted child may want to recreate or draw something that she may have seen or imagined. However, her motor skills may not be developed enough to enable her to recreate the image. This may cause frustration and disturb the child emotionally. Unrealistic Expectations Gifted children aim for perfection at all times. Such children have very high expectations of themselves. They attempt to be perfect in whatever they do. When they fail to meet their own unrealistic expectations they feel discouraged and de-motivated. Feeling Lost Gifted children do not have much in common with children of their own chronological age. They interact better and relate easily to older children who challenge them intellectually. Hence, in their own classroom gifted children feel lost and tend to be loners. Lack of Physical Abilities Gifted children may be developed intellectually but may not possess the requisite physical ability to complete a specific task. This may make them feel depressed and frustrated easily. Similarly while such children may have the ability to participate in adult conversations and topics they may also cry for trivial issues like their toy breaking or getting lost. Age Restrictions Gifted children can participate easily in adult conversations for which they must be praised and given credit for. However, at the end of the day despite their logical reasoning abilities a gifted child is still a child who requires disciplining. Due to their superior thinking such children must not be allowed to manipulate the adults around them. Misconceptions about Behaviour A gifted child often gives the impression that she is trying to outsmart her parents and teachers. This is largely due to the child being knowledgeable, well informed and her ability to participate in adult discussions. Advanced language ability in some gifted children is often mistaken for the child trying to act superior to those around her. These issues cause misunderstandings which can make the gifted child feel rejected and inferior. Problems Due to Lack of Emotional Maturity Gifted children have the intellectual ability to understand abstract concepts. However, they do not have the emotional ability to understand these concepts. This often makes them feel concerned about issues like death, the future and sex. Particularly when these children reach their teens these issues can affect them immensely and must be handled with extreme care and caution. Parents and teacher must both be sensitive to the special abilities of the gifted child and respond accordingly. At a very early age itself some gifted children have a very well-developed sense of right and wrong. This causes them to react differently to human concerns like wars, starvation, homeless children, injustice and violence. Some gifted children feel very strongly about these issues and spend a lot of time thinking about it. This often causes depression and makes them introverted. Such children may also be extremely sensitive. This may cause them to take criticism, or even general anger, very personally. Therefore, it is important for parents and teachers to understand these kind of issues and handle their behaviour What are the struggles faced by gifted children? Why are gifted children loners? What are the emotional issues faced by gifted children? Discuss here.