Though we associate special education with learning disabilities and neurodevelopmental disorders, specialized programs can also be profoundly helpful for gifted children. Gifted children not only display an advanced rate of learning, they learn differently than other children, which creates the need for a responsive education environment. Giftedness is also typified by a pattern of asynchronous development, where certain skills and aptitudes develop more quickly than others, so simply advancing a gifted child’s grade level does not provide the personalized approach these kids need. Additionally, giftedness and learning disabilities can co-occur, further enhancing the need for specialized education.
Understanding the Way Gifted Children Think - and Learn
Gifted children are set apart from high achievers primarily by their thinking style: Gifted children have a high IQ that is paired with exceptional performance in at least one domain (e.g., mathematics, language, music, or the arts). Contrary to popular belief, gifted children do not necessarily excel across all subjects; many have one or two particular areas of specialty where they perform far beyond their grade level. Gifted children also tend to be very emotionally intense, have a strong sense of social justice and fairness, and exhibit an enhanced capacity for abstract thought. Other hallmarks of giftedness include:
- Early language development, i.e., speaking and reading at a very young age.
- Well-developed creative skills and a vivid imagination.
- Passionate interests and/or multiple hobbies.
- Curiosity and a desire to learn independently, which may be paired with a strong dislike for rules.
- An excellent capacity for logical analysis and problem-solving.
- A keen memory.
- Heightened empathy.
Though gifted children are insightful and may seem wise beyond their years, research shows that their social development often lags behind their advanced ability to process information. A gifted child may have social skills and motor skills that align with his or her physical age, while having specific mental aptitudes that approach an adult level, for instance. For this reason, gifted children who are moved ahead a grade may not fit in with their older peers, despite their intellectual capabilities. In fact, these kids sometimes become targets for bullying owing to their social naivete and smaller stature.
How Traditional Classroom Environments Under-Serve Gifted Kids
Those gifted children who perform well at school are, ironically, most in danger of falling through the cracks. In typical classroom settings, teachers often focus much of their attention on students who appear to be falling behind. They assume that children earning above-average grades don’t require a lot of individual attention, simply because they have already mastered the material at hand. Teachers do not always have the time or training required to recognize when a gifted child is not meeting his or her full potential, despite performing adequately in terms of grades.
Many teachers also fail to understand that some gifted kids, despite their solid academic record, may need help in specific areas, such as organization, planning, or focusing their many ideas. Because gifted kids are such abstract, “big picture” thinkers, it’s not unusual for them to struggle with certain executive functioning skills. By contrast, high achievers generally do not have executive function deficits.
The gifted thinking style is also ill-suited to conventional classrooms. The emphasis on rote learning present in most schools can be frustrating to gifted children, who are more interested in experimental thinking than memorizing sets of correct answers. Gifted kids need to have the freedom to ask why certain answers are considered correct and examine multiple possibilities, but this isn’t always possible in typical classroom settings. Gifted children may even be called difficult or disruptive if their curiosity is mistaken for defiance or argumentativeness.
Finally, gifted children frequently become bored at school because they aren’t sufficiently challenged by the material presented to them. Over time, this boredom can lead to apathy or create the assumption that learning should always be easy. As a result of the latter attitude, gifted kids may experience great anxiety or feel like they are “failing” when they are eventually presented with complex or challenging material that they cannot master immediately. This anxiety is often magnified by gifted kids’ tendency to be self-critical perfectionists.
What Are the Benefits of Special Education for Gifted Students?
All children stand to benefit from individual attention at school, but for gifted kids, the advantages of specialized education are especially profound. Special education programs often group gifted children with other gifted children, which facilitates healthy, challenging discussions. When gifted children are grouped together, they also feel like it’s more socially acceptable to reach their full potential - that is, they no longer feel a need to “dumb themselves down” to fit in with their fellow students. At the same time, they are still surrounded by same-age peers who share their general level of social and physical development.
Special education programs typically allow gifted kids to learn at their own pace, so they can progress rapidly in areas where they excel. These programs may offer a range of other valuable services, too, such as the opportunity to study subjects in depth, debate complex questions, complete independent projects, and receive individual mentoring. This kind of learning environment inspires creative thought, rather than discouraging it, and allows gifted children to maximize their innate potential.
Evidence supports the notion that gifted programs improve the future outcomes of gifted children: Studies have shown that gifted kids who receive special education are far more likely to pursue higher education. Fully 63% of gifted kids enrolled in special education programs go on to earn a master’s degree, and 44% eventually get a doctoral degree (as compared to just 2% of the general population). Furthermore, research shows that they’re also significantly more likely to maintain their creative interests in adulthood.
If you know your child is gifted, enrolling him (or her) in a full-time gifted program can alleviate boredom and create the right conditions for success, especially if your child is currently unhappy with his school experience. If your child does not want to leave his regular classroom environment, pursuing part-time special education programs or extracurricular activities aimed at gifted kids may be a viable option. Talk to your child, his teachers, and (if possible) a qualified mental health professional to decide the best course of action for your gifted son or daughter.
Author: Marie Petrescu
This is a guest post by Thornhill psychotherapist, Marie Petrescu. Marie provides therapy for adolescents, adults, and couples in her private practice in Markham Ontario. She is an expert in various treatment modalities, including Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), Psychodynamic Therapy, and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). As the mother of a 'twice exceptional' child, Marie has firsthand experience with giftedness and special education. You can follow Mrs. Petrescu on Twitter at @thornhillmom
