Ah, but it’s in a classic Business Insider Template Bullshit, so it works for them.

While they threw a dart on the wall and landed on 19 then proceeded to introduce each cherry picked Reddit comment with a stock photo and an encapsulating 3 word introductory sentence while managing to put it on a 20 click ad driven slideshow summed up in a sensation headline, we’ll throw it up on Tumblr highlighting what really needs to be highlighted—Problems unique to intellectually gifted individuals.

19 Reasons It’s Horrible To Grow Up Gifted

Wait, let’s just give quick credit to this header photo; Coloured Boy Playing Chess. It was not one of those outrageous ridiculous stereotypical stock photos of a baby Einstein with unnecessarily thick prescription glasses to emphasize genius, but of a boy playing chess. Let’s not subject this innocent little boy who has the future of the world in front of him by scaring the shit out of him as to why it’s horrible to be who he is. [(REUTERS/Gil Montano) (chess-player-young-kid.jpg)]

If you’re born gifted, life is handed to you on a silver platter, right?

Not according to several Reddit users who answered the question, “[For those] labeled as gifted children, do you think the label harmed you, or helped you?”

Most said that the “free passes” and special treatment given in school and beyond are not worth the price of having above-average IQ. In fact, any complacency they enjoyed during their early years ended up hurting them later in life.

“I often feel like a huge failure and I can’t look at my transcript without crying,” writes one user. “I still consider myself extremely intelligent and capable but I can’t push myself to do the work required to make straight As. Overall it’s forced me to set an unreasonably high standard for myself.”

We’ve pulled together some of the most interesting comments from the thread about why it’s horrible to grow up gifted.

From an early age, you believe it’s you vs. the world.

“You’re suddenly looking around at the world and realizing that you’re supposed to have some crazy work ethic at everything because YOU’RE gifted and THEY aren’t. More is expected of YOU than THEM because of the big giant brain that YOU were given that THEY weren’t. See a pattern there? There’s this exclusivity complex there where it’s an ‘Us vs. Them’ mentality.”

(RaptarIsTheShit, Reddit)

You develop a superiority complex.

“When you’ve been told all your life that you’re the smartest person in the room, you don’t take orders from others very well, especially those who you don’t find very bright (which, sadly, is most people).”

( RaptarIsTheShit, Reddit)

And that makes you arrogant.

“Harmed me. Made me an arrogant self-righteous prick, because I was taught for years that my classmates and I were smarter than all the rest of the school. I’m still trying to undo all that.”

(McHaven, Reddit)  

Inflated expectations also lead to a deep feeling of inadequacy.

“Being labeled as gifted caused my parents to have inflated expectations of me which I will never meet. I am quite happy with an undergraduate degree and career in business. My parents think I should be curing cancer while working on my 4th PhD.”

( Inspector VII, Reddit)

You put too much pressure on yourself.

“School has always been the biggest trigger for my anxiety because I’m afraid of not doing well enough, and I never cut myself any slack. I also have other mental illness issues, and my preoccupation with marks expanded into believing my parents won’t love me if I don’t get the grades I think I should. The pressure comes entirely from within. They have always said as long as I try they will be proud, but I stress myself out anyway.”

(Goram Doctor, Reddit )

You become way too competitive.

“Even my best friends in school were also my fiercest competitors. You had to put school completely aside if you wanted to hang out, because you’d end up hating each other otherwise.”

( indifferentwindmill, Reddit )

Your parents constantly raise the bar.

“My brother and sister were praised for mediocrity, getting extra allowance or other such gifts when they got Bs and Cs. If I brought back anything but top grades I didn’t get such treatment. I always thought it was stupid and unfair.”

(shh_Im_a_Moose, Reddit )

In fact, everyone expects you to be perfect.

“I’ve had a genius-level IQ my whole life, and it’s caused my parents (mother in particular) to believe that I should be able to go whole semesters without ever getting a single exam question wrong. Every time I try to explain that that isn’t how intelligence works, I get told ‘that’s just an excuse, you’re smart.’ Genius does not equal perfection.”

( JBtheBadguy, Reddit )

You’re always trying to get everyone’s approval.

“I think the worst is the constant need for other people’s approval, and basing my entire self-worth on what others think. It’s led to tons of anxiety, because I can never fail at anything, or let other people down. It’s led to a bunch of self-destructive behaviors, where I’ll do things that I hate or that harm myself, just to please other people and gain their approval.”

( BCSteve, Reddit )

You become terrified of failure.

“The ease at which I excelled when I was younger made it hard when I DID struggle, as I was terrified of disappointing everyone. I still suffer from severe anxiety because, frankly, I never learned to fail. And I think that’s an important lesson for people to learn.”

( Cheezit624, Reddit )

Other people hate you for being smart.

“I was always an overachiever, despite being told I was extra smarties, until I got to high school and I suddenly started caring what everyone else thought. In elementary school I got perfect grades. In high school, I stopped trying so damn hard, because everyone hated the kid with the perfect grades. I remember taking a bio test once, I think that was the swing point, where the closest grade to mine was a 78%, and I got a 96%, and everyone hated me.”

(Justice_Man, Reddit )

And jealousy leads to bullying.

“Precocious + bullied, that was probably the formula that made people think I needed the label, really. Adults, rather than dealing with said bullies, just reassured me I was special and that they’d be ‘bagging your groceries’ etc. Ironically I only stopped waiting tables and working in supermarkets about two years ago.”

( TM3Sb, Reddit )

It’s hard to stay positive.

“I found the hardest part of the expectations was staying positive. Top of the line grades were expected. If you got the best grades, you were doing what you were supposed to do. If you got less than stellar grades, you obviously just weren’t applying yourself. It’s hard to be positive when the only reactions are neutral and negative.”

(Griddleman, Reddit )

You constantly feel like you are alone.

“The idea that I was smarter than everybody meant that I only trusted myself, listened to no one and would only except advice when it made sense to me. I mostly used my gifted brain to do as little work as possible and I developed bad habits. I believed that I did not need to do well in school … because I could make up for it later.”

( -sasnak-, Reddit )

You don’t develop a work ethic.

“It would of been nice if they had separated us somehow so school was actually challenging, but once everyone in my life was telling me that I was brilliant rather than just my parents, I never did any work or paid attention in classes. … If I had some work ethic in school I think my life would have turned out loads differently. But as it was, because they knew I was so bright, I never had to do anything.”

( kvellarcanum, Reddit )

And you realize you can’t always fake your work ethic.

“I excelled in grade school without having to put in any effort. I would show up to finals, asking which exam we were taking that day, and get top scores. I never learned how to do homework or maintain any sort of work ethic, but I became very skilled at coasting through courses and bullshitting on essay questions (writing what I speculated the teacher wanted to hear, and not something with actual substance). Once I hit university I couldn’t get away with not doing any work anymore, so I hit a wall that I’m still trying to overcome.”

(Gifos, Reddit )

You develop a false sense of security.

“I was always put in ‘gifted’ programs up until grade six. While I learned a lot in those sessions that I would not have had the privilege to otherwise learn, I feel now it lulled me into a false sense of security of my perceived capabilities, and began to coast in school. It eventually caught up to me, and I still kick myself over letting myself get complacent.”

( Coastty, Reddit )

Weakness become uncomfortably apparent.

“It put a lot of expectations on myself and made the things I was (and still am) weak at a huge deal. For example, I can’t spell or punctuate correctly even now.”

( ByronicHero56, Reddit )

Ultimately, you set unreasonably high standards for yourself.

“I often feel like a huge failure and I can’t look at my transcript without crying. I still consider myself extremely intelligent and capable but I can’t push myself to do the work required to make straight A’s. Overall it’s forced me to set an unreasonably high standard for myself. I have considered myself in a three-year slump (I’m a junior in high school now), but I’m starting to accept that I’m just a B student.”

( Blooopimafish, Reddit )

Yes, those were a solid 19 points highlighting the curses of being labelled Gifted, with a short introductory headline to introduce each comment. 

19 seemingly random comments cherry picked and taken out of context off a currently popular Reddit thread, out of the possible 7000+ and counting, flipped into a nice little Business Insider slideshow, with 150,000+ hits (real hits?) and counting. Good job Business Insider Slideshow, for highlighting a problem and providing a solution to those problems— Oh wait, all you did was further compound the stigma that Giftedness should only be discussed in deprecating or depressing terms, by highlighting the terrible 19.

Still yes, a solid 19 points. While the topic question is heavily weighted on the consequence of being labelled Gifted in school, and not necessarily being an Intellectually gifted individual who shares characteristics with other intellectually gifted individuals, these are only 19 issues facing gifted individuals, labelled gifted or otherwise.

Because Giftedness is a Double Edged Sword, just know that there are definitely 19 Reasons It’s Amazing To Grow Up Gifted. I don’t know if it’s socially acceptable to talk about those reasons, but you’re definitely allowed to live out 20 Reasons It’s Amazing To Grow Up Gifted.

If you don’t know, NOW YOU KNOW. GIFTED.

Every week since the publication of my first book, The Gifted Adult (previously Liberating Everyday Genius), I have received phone calls, letters, and emails from gifted people around the world and have been fascinated by the similarity of their impassioned comments. Whether from New York City, rural Arizona, Costa Rica, or France, each of them has voiced astonished relief: “For the first time I feel like somebody gets it.” “At last I can see myself clearly!” “Finally I have figured out what has always been wrong with me, and it’s not wrong at all!” “If only I had known!”

No matter what their background, they confess to having felt misunderstood for years; to being bored, held back, and plagued by self-doubt; and to struggling with loneliness. Yet once they had a legitimate explanation of their difference, they quickly began a life review process. Armed with new information about their abilities, they set off on a journey of rediscovery to unearth self-truths that had been lost. They soon realized that their distorted self-concepts were largely the result of uninvited commentary about their difference. Their identity confusion is not surprising, given their lack of useful information about giftedness and given that as they grew up they were defined by others’ views of them more than by their views of themselves.

The first two years of school I colored pictures; then I became a student teacher.

Identity formation occurs gradually and becomes a central task during adolescence. Teens are on a mission to figure out who they are, what they stand for, and where they are going. A formidable task for everyone, it is an even greater challenge for the gifted. This wouldn’t be so if giftedness were better understood by teachers, parents, and peers. The characteristics of the gifted that are the underpinnings of excellence (e.g., extrasensitivity, intensity, complexity, and above-average energy and drive) are the same ones so often criticized by others as excessive or annoying.

Gifted people often grow up with a pervasive sense of being considered an extremist—having too much of just about every personal trait to fit everyone else’s definition of acceptable. The criticisms they face often are leveled not at their performance but at their personhood. A performance complaint sounds like this: “That essay is not acceptable, because it does not address the topic I assigned.” A personhood attack sounds like this: “Once again I see that you decided to make up your own assignment. Why do you think you always deserve special treatment?” The first statement implies the student has done something unacceptable; the second, that he or she is unacceptable. Paradoxically, such criticisms are often mixed with praise like “You’re so smart; you can do anything!” It’s no wonder that gifted people, faced with conflicting information, find it nearly impossible to develop an accurate self-view.

How can we help the gifted value their difference and deal with the criticism? This is what I asked my gifted clients and readers. As adults who had gained a life-changing understanding of what it meant to be gifted, they were able to impart practical lessons for those of us who teach, parent, and guide gifted youth today:

• Stay on track with important goals. Conceptualize and operationalize them from start to finish. Identify clearly what you want to achieve and then find people who can help you develop a step-by-step plan, who have gone where you want to go, and who can share with you what they have learned.
• Become a skilled negotiator. Find a counselor who can help you learn to do more than complain about or put up with the status quo. When you want to change something but are not the decision maker, come to the table with three things: a respectful attitude; a brief, positively stated reason for the change that sounds like a win-win solution; and a specific suggestion that others will find doable.
• Don’t let your strong reactions to unfairness lead you astray. Before you go off on a mission to correct some injustice, ask yourself, “Is this something I am willing to go to the wall for? Is this the right time? If so, what will be the probable versus the preferred result?”
• Get the mundane tasks out of the way without getting sidetracked by how much they annoy you. Save your energy for your greatest passion.
• No matter how many talents or interests you have, do not allow yourself to become scattered. Develop a self-care plan and practice a technique like meditation, yoga, guided imagery, or deep breathing to center yourself each day. This will help you spread your energy around and lessen the risk of coming apart at the seams.
• Look for and take advantage of opportunity and luck, but don’t expect them to come to you. Do expect setbacks and make room for them in your plans. Be prepared to have your dreams ridiculed and your hopes dashed from time to time—it’s what happens to creative producers. Tell yourself again and again that few things come about by chance. When you are knocked to the ground, get back up, dust yourself off, and keep going. Don’t let anyone tell you that the fulfillment of high potential works any other way.

Of course, even when gifted people fully understand their difference, they may discover that the world is not the haven for creative development that they had hoped for. But no matter how rocky the road, my gifted adult clients surely agree that it is their giftedness that has carried them. Giftedness holds fast to optimism and dreams in the face of adversity. And the dreams and ideas of self-starting visionaries are nearly impossible to suppress.

Moreover, once the gifted know who they are and who they are not, they gain strength, confidence, and resilience. From then on it’s a matter of building skills—of getting smart about being smart. Once equipped, they find that the world in which they must make their way is far more manageable.

—Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, PsyD

Ten Myths About Gifted Students And Programs For Gifted

By Carolyn Coil, Special to CNN

(CNN) – American educators have struggled for more than 40 years to define giftedness. Yet even now, there is no universally agreed upon definition of what it means to be gifted. U.S. federal law defines gifted students as those who perform or who show promise of performing at high levels in any one of five categories: general intellectual ability, specific academic aptitude, creative or productive thinking, leadership ability or visual/performing arts.

Beyond that definition, there are no specific national criteria for identifying gifted and talented students nor does federal law provide funding or mandates for identification of these students or programming for them. This definition is left to the states.

The result has been a wide variety of state definitions and methods for the identification of gifted children. Some states have specific definitions for giftedness, while others have none. Some states require programs for gifted students, while others do not.

In other words, the availability of programs and services for gifted students depends for the most part on where a student lives and what state, school district or school he or she is in.

There is debate over how to identify and measure giftedness, whether giftedness is innate (nature) or developed (nurture) and whether giftedness is driven by intelligence test results or through other indicators.

These varying perspectives have led to much misinformation about gifted students and what programs for gifted students should look like. Here are 10 of the most common myths about gifted students and programs for the gifted:

Myth No. 1: Intelligence is inherited and does not change. Gifted students, therefore, do not need any special services.

All of us do inherit certain traits, intelligences and talents. But these need to be developed and nurtured throughout life for them to grow and reach their full potential. A beautiful flower inherits certain traits. But if it is not watered and fed and if it does not get the right amount of sunlight, it does not develop as it could. The same is true for gifted children.

Myth No. 2: Giftedness can easily be measured by intelligence tests and tests of achievement.

Giftedness is difficult to measure. This is why schools and school districts try so many different ways to identify gifted students. Tests are often culturally biased and may reflect ethnicity, socioeconomic status, exposure and experiences rather than true giftedness. Other children may be gifted but are not good at taking tests. They may not score well on standardized tests but may be gifted, especially in creative and productive thinking.

Myth No. 3: There is no need to identify gifted students in the early grades.

Many school districts do not begin identifying gifted and talented students until third grade. There is a belief among some educators that giftedness cannot be properly identified in the early grades. However, the National Association for Gifted Children programming standards start with pre-kindergarten. The group’s early childhood network position paper says that “providing engaging, responsive learning environments … benefit all children, including young gifted children.”

Myth No. 4: Gifted students read all the time, wear glasses and/or are physically and socially inept.

From Jason, the cartoon character in the “Foxtrot” comic strip, to Sheldon on the TV show “The Big Bang Theory,” we can see this stereotype in action. But like all other kids, gifted children come in many varieties. Some are successful in sports or music, and some are physically attractive. Some have many friends, while others have only a few. Some are extreme extroverts, while others are introverts. There is no one type of person or personality we can pinpoint as gifted.

Myth No. 5: Gifted kids are all model students – they’re well-behaved and make good grades.

This statement reflects another stereotype about gifted students. Some gifted children are model students. They are compliant, follow directions, never misbehave and make straight A’s. But many others challenge teachers, do their own thing instead of the assigned work, procrastinate until the last minute when doing long-range assignments, get low grades, are disorganized and have poor study skills.

Myth No. 6: All gifted students work up to their potential.

Most schools have their share of gifted underachievers. These students have the potential for excellence but - for a variety of reasons - do not fulfill that potential. Gifted underachievers may decide they will only do the minimum requirements and choose the easy work instead of more challenging tasks. They often lack study and organizational skills because in the early grades they don’t need to develop them. Some get discouraged when the work doesn’t come easily, and others don’t want to look gifted because it isn’t “cool.”

Myth No. 7: Teaching gifted students is easy.

Some believe that a good teacher can easily teach any student. If this were the case, good teaching with no special training would be all that is needed to teach gifted students. However, in my many years of teaching graduate-level courses in gifted education, I have found that good teachers add to their skills and learn new strategies and techniques targeted particularly to meeting the needs of the gifted. Most teachers of the gifted tell me this is the hardest, most challenging, most exhausting and most rewarding teaching they have ever done.

Myth No. 8: Gifted students will get by on their own without any special help from the school.

I hear this myth often, especially in times of budget cutting. Some people claim that gifted students come from wealthy families who can meet their children’s needs. Others assert that the expense of providing gifted programs cannot be justified. In general, the assumption is that gifted students will succeed regardless of the quality of the education they receive. This is simply not true. Gifted students require special services and programs to ensure the growth rather than the loss of their outstanding abilities.

Myth No. 9: It never hurts gifted students to teach others what they already know.

If gifted students already know the grade-level standards, it may seem logical to have them teach others. This is faulty logic. It assumes that teaching struggling students is something gifted kids innately know how to do. Most gifted students do not know how to tutor others. They often are frustrated that struggling students don’t understand what they perceive as easy. Peer tutoring using gifted students also takes away time they should be using for more advanced work, more rigor and more higher-level thinking.

Myth No. 10: All children are gifted.

If all kids are gifted, then there is no need to identify gifted students and no need for any special programs for gifted. I strongly believe that all children have distinctive and unique qualities that make each one valuable. This does not mean, however, that all children are gifted. Being identified as gifted simply means that certain children have needs that are different from most others at their age and grade level. All gifted students need programs and services to ensure their growth rather than the loss of their outstanding abilities.

laraswanland:

Ah yes, Giftedness & Oppositional Defiant Disorder!

Doesn’t follow the flock? Check. Questions authrority & motive? Check. Beats to his own drum? Check! (For the record, I know I’m an asshole, not a douchebag, and there is a big difference in that.)

Mis-Diagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children:
Gifted and LD, ADHD, OCD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder

By James T. Webb, Ph.D.

Many gifted and talented children (and adults) are being mis-diagnosed by psychologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians, and other health care professionals.

The most common mis-diagnoses are: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (OD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and Mood Disorders such as Cyclothymic Disorder, Dysthyinic Disorder, Depression, and Bi-Polar Disorder.

These common mis-diagnoses stem from an ignorance among professionals about specific social and emotional characteristics of gifted children which are then mistakenly assumed by these professionals to be signs of pathology.

In some situations where gifted children have received a correct diagnosis, giftedness is still a factor that must be considered in treatment, and should really generate a dual diagnosis.

For example, existential depression or learning disability, when present in gifted children or adults, requires a different approach because new dimensions are added by the giftedness component.

Yet the giftedness component typically is overlooked due to the lack of training and understanding by health care professionals (Webb & Kleme, 1993).

Despite prevalent myths to the contrary, gifted children and adults are at particular psychological risk due to both internal characteristics and situational factors.

These internal and situational factors can lead to interpersonal and psychological difficulties for gifted children, and subsequently to mis-diagnoses and inadequate treatment.

Internal Factors

First, let me mention the internal aspects (Webb, 1993). Historically, nearly all of the research on gifted individuals has focused on the intellectual aspects, particularly in an academic sense. Until recently, little attention has been given to personality factors which accompany high intellect and creativity.

Even less attention has been given to the observation that these personality factors intensify and have greater life effects when intelligence level increases beyond JQ 130 (Silverman, 1993; Webb, 1993; Winner, 2000).

Perhaps the most universal, yet most often overlooked, characteristic of gifted children and adults is their intensity (Silverman, 1993; Webb, 1993). One mother described it succinctly when she said, “My child’s life motto is that anything worth doing is worth doing to excess.”

Gifted children — and gifted adults— often are extremely intense, whether in their emotional response, intellectual pursuits, sibling rivalry, or power struggles with an authority figure.

Mis-Diagnosis of Gifted Children

Impatience is also frequently present, both with oneself and with others. The intensity also often manifests itself in heightened motor activity and physical restlessness.

Along with intensity, one typically finds in gifted individuals an extreme sensitivity to emotions, sounds, touch, taste, etc. These children may burst into tears while watching a sad event on the evening news, keenly hear fluorescent lights, react strongly to smells, insist on having the tags removed from their shirts, must touch everything, or are overly reactive to touch in a tactile-defensive manner.

The gifted individual’s drive to understand, to question, and to search for consistency is likewise intense, as is the inherent ability to see possibilities and alternatives.

All of these characteristics together result in an intense idealism and concern with social and moral issues, which can create anxiety, depression, and a sharp challenging of others who do not share their concerns.

Situational Factors

Situational factors are highly relevant to the problem of mis-diagnosis (Webb, 1993). Intensity, sensitivity, idealism, impatience, questioning the status quo—none of these alone necessarily constitutes a problem.

In fact, we generally value these characteristics and behaviors—unless they happen 10 occur in a tightly structured classroom, or in a highly organized business setting, or if they happen to challenge some cherished tradition, and gifted children are the very ones who challenge traditions or the status quo.

There is a substantial amount of research to indicate that gifted children spend at least one-fourth to one-half of the regular classroom time waiting for others to catch up. Boredom is rampant because of the age tracking in our public schools.

Peer relations for gifted children are often difficult (Webb, Meckstroth and Tolan, 1982; Winner, 2000), all the more so because of the internal dyssynchrony (asynchronous development) shown by so many gifted children where their development is uneven across various academic, social, and developmental areas, and where their judgment often lags behind their intellect.

Clearly, there are possible (or even likely) problems that are associated with the characteristic strengths of gifted children.

Lack of understanding by parents, educators, and health professionals, combined with the problem situations (e.g., lack of appropriately differentiated education) leads to interpersonal problems which are then mis-labeled, and thus prompt the mis-diagnoses. The most common mis-diagnoses are as follows.

Common Mis-Diagnoses

ADHD and Gifted. Many gifted children are being mis-diagnosed as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The gifted child’s characteristics of intensity, sensitivity, impatience, and high motor activity can easily be mistaken for ADHD.

Some gifted children surely do suffer from ADHD, and thus have a dual diagnosis of gifted and ADHD; but in my opinion, most are not. Few health care professionals give sufficient attention to the words about ADHD in DSM-IV( 1994) that say “…inconsistent with developmental level….”

The gifted child’s developmental level is different (asynchronous) when compared to other children, and health care professionals need to ask whether the child’s inattentiveness or impulsivity behaviors occur only in some situations but not in others (e.g., at school but not at home; at church, but not at scouts, etc.).

If the problem behaviors are situational only, the child is likely not suffering from ADHD.

To further complicate matters, my own clinical observation suggests that about three percent of highly gifted children suffer from a functional borderline hypoglycemic condition.

Silverman (1993) has suggested that perhaps the same percentage also suffer from allergies of various kinds. Physical reactions in these conditions, when combined with the intensity and sensitivity, result in behaviors that can mimic ADHD.

However, the ADHD-like symptoms in such cases will vary with the time of day, length of time since last meal, type of foods eaten, or exposure to other environmental agents.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Gifted. The intensity, sensitivity, and idealism of gifted children often lead others to view them as “strong-willed.”

Power struggles with parents and teachers are common, particularly when these children receive criticism, as they often do, for some of the very characteristics that make them gifted (e.g., why are you so sensitive, always questioning me, trying to do things a different way, etc.).

Bi-Polar and other Mood Disorders and Gifted. Recently, I encountered a parent whose highly gifted child had been diagnosed with Bi-Polar Disorder. This intense child, whose parents were going through a bitter divorce, did indeed show extreme mood swings, but, in my view, the diagnosis of Bi-Polar Disorder was off the mark.

In adolescence, or sometimes earlier, gifted children often do go through periods of depression related to their disappointed idealism, and their feelings of aloneness and alienation culminate in an existential depression. However, it is not at all clear that this kind of depression warrants such a major diagnosis.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Gifted. Even as preschoolers, gifted children love to organize people and things into complex frameworks, and get quite upset when others don’t follow their rules or don’t understand their schema.

Many gifted first graders are seen as perfectionist and “bossy” because they try to organize the other children, and sometimes even try to organize their family or the teacher. As they grow up, they continue to search intensely for the “rules of life” and for consistency.

Their intellectualizing, sense of urgency, perfectionism, idealism, and intolerance for mistakes may be misunderstood to be signs of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder.

In some sense, however, giftedness is a dual diagnosis with Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder since intellectualization may be assumed to underlie many of the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for this disorder.

Dual Diagnoses

Learning Disabilities and Giftedness. Giftedness is a coexisting factor, to be sure, in some diagnoses. One notable example is in diagnosis and treatment of learning disabilities.

Few psychologists are aware that inter-subscale scatter on the Wechsler intelligence tests increases as a child’s overall IQ score exceeds 130. In children with a Full Scale IQ score or greater, it is not uncommon to find a difference of 20 or more points between Verbal IQ Performance IQ (Silverman, 1993; Webb & Kleme, 1993; Winner, 2000).

Most clinical psychologists are taught that such a discrepancy is serious cause for concern regarding possible serious brain dysfunction, including learning disabilities.

For highly gifted children, such discrepancy is far less likely to be an indication of pathological brain dysfunction, though it certainly would suggest an unusual learning style and perhaps a relative learning disability.

Similarly, the difference between the highest and lowest scores on individual subscales within intelligence and achievement tests is often quite notable in gifted children.

On the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children -III, it is not uncommon to find subscale differences greater than seven scale score points for gifted children, particularly those who are highly gifted.

These score discrepancies are taken by most psychologists to indicate learning disabilities, and in a functional sense they do represent that.

That is, the levels of ability do vary dramatically, though the range may be “only” from Very Superior to Average level of functioning. In this sense, gifted children may not “qualify” for a diagnosis of learning disability, and indeed some schools seem to have a policy of “only one label allowed per student,” and since this student is gifted, he/she can not also be considered learning disabled.

However, it is important for psychologists to understand the concept of “asynchronous development” (Silverman, 1993), and to appreciate that most gifted children show such an appreciable, and often significant, scatter of abilities.

Poor handwriting is often used as one indicator of learning disabilities. However, many and perhaps most gifted children will show poor handwriting.

Usually this simply represents that their thoughts go so much faster than their hands can move, and that they see little sense in making writing an art form when its primary purpose is to communicate (Webb & Kleme, 1993; Winner, 2000).

Psychologists must understand that, without intervention, self-esteem issues are almost a guarantee in gifted children with learning disabilities as well as those who simply have notable asynchronous development since they tend to evaluate themselves based more on what they cannot do rather than on what they are able to do.

Sharing formal ability and achievement test results with gifted children about their particular abilities, combined with reassurance, can often help them develop a more appropriate sense of self-evaluation.

Sleep Disorders and Giftedness. Nightmare Disorder, Sleep Terror Disorder, and Sleepwalking Disorder appear to be more prevalent among gifted children, particularly boys.

It is unclear whether this should be considered a mis-diagnosis or a dual diagnosis. Certainly, parents commonly report that their gifted children have dreams that are more vivid, intense, and more often in color, and that a substantial proportion of gifted boys are more prone to sleepwalking and bed wetting, apparently related to their dreams and to being more soundly (i.e., intensely) asleep.

Such concordance would suggest that giftedness may need to be considered as a dual diagnosis in these cases, or at least a factor worthy of consideration since the child’s intellect and sense of understanding often can be used to help the child cope with nightmares.

A little known observation concerning sleep in gifted individuals is that about twenty percent of gifted children seem to need significantly less sleep than other children, while another twenty percent appear to need significantly more sleep than other children.

Parents report that these sleep patterns show themselves very early in the child’s life, and long-term follow up suggests that the pattern continues into adulthood (Webb & Kleme, 1993; Winner, 2000). Some highly gifted adults appear to average comfortably as few as two or three hours sleep each night, and they have indicated to me that even in childhood they needed only four or five hours sleep.

Multiple Personality Disorders and Giftedness. Though there is little formal study of giftedness factors within MPD, there is anecdotal evidence that the two are related.

The conclusion of professionals at the Meiminger Foundation was that most MPD patients showed a history of childhood abuse, but also high intellectual abilities which allowed them to create and maintain their elaborate separate personalities (W. H. Smith personal communication, April 18, 1996).

Relational Problems and Giftedness. As one mother told me, “Having a gifted child in the family did not change our family’s lifestyle; it simply destroyed it!”

These children can be both exhilarating and exhausting. But because parents often lack information about characteristics of gifted children, the relationship between parent and child can suffer. The child’s behaviors are seen as mischievous, impertinent, weird, or strong-willed, and the child often is criticized or punished for behaviors that really represent curiosity, intensity, sensitivity, or the lag of judgment behind intellect.

Thus, intense power struggles, arguments, temper tantrums, sibling rivalry, withdrawal, underachievement, and open flaunting of family and societal traditions may occur within the family.

“Impaired communication” and “inadequate discipline” are specifically listed in the DSM4V (1994) as areas of concern to be considered in a diagnosis of Parent-Child Relational Problems, and a diagnosis of Sibling Relational Problem is associated with significant impairment of functioning within the family or in one or more siblings.

Not surprisingly, these are frequent concerns for parents of gifted children due to the intensity, impatience, asynchronous development, and lag of judgment behind intellect of gifted children.

Health care professionals could benefit from increased knowledge concerning the effects of a gifted child’s behaviors within a family, and thus often avoid mistaken notions about the causes of the problems.

The characteristics inherent within gifted children have implications for diagnosis and treatment which could include therapy for the whole family, not in the sense of develop coping mechanisms for dealing with the intensity, sensitivity, and herwise may cause them problems later (Jacobsen, 1999).

Conclusion

Some of our most brightest and most creative minds are not only going unrecognized, but they are being given diagnoses that indicate pathology. For decades, psychologists and others have given great emphasis to the functioning of persons in the lower spectrum.

It is time that we trained health care professionals to give correct assessments to gifted, talented, and creative children and adults. At the very least, we must help professionals gain sufficient understanding so that they no longer misinterpret characteristics of giftedness.

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Article in M. Neihart, Chair, Cutting Edge Minds—What it Means to be Exceptional Paper presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Convention, Washington, D.C. August 7, 2000

Copyright © 2005 Great Potential Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published here with kind permission of the author.

This article has now been expanded into a book, Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults

Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG), a non-profit organization dedicated to gifted children and adults, has partnered with the film production company Our Children’s Future to create a feature-length documentary highlighting the plight of children who are misdiagnosed with disorders such as ADHD or Asperger’s Syndrome - see information page on the SENG site.

grayer:

Gifted education is one of the most misunderstood branches of education. As an educator, it is more crucial than ever to have a basic understanding of gifted education. As of 2011, the US government has abolished federal gifted funding. Even if your school has a gifted program, you are the eyes and ears of the classroom. Most teachers have little professional development in gifted education. Many educators erroneously believe certain practices are beneficial for gifted students. Can you answer these questions?

Myth or Fact: Cooperative learning in heterogeneous groups provide academic benefits for gifted and talented students.

Myth or Fact: Every child is gifted.

Continue reading to gauge your understanding with questions and answers…

Myth or Fact: Every child is gifted.

Myth: Every child is unique, special, and deserving of the best education opportunities we can provide. However, based on federal definitions, not every child is gifted. Gifted students typically fall under special education criteria, once again it varies from state to state. Claiming every child is gifted is akin to suggesting every child is a special education student. This negates the best professional practices for each end of the spectrum.

Myth or Fact: He can’t be gifted his grades aren’t good.

Myth: If a cheetah isn’t running at 70mph is it still a cheetah? We run the risk of neglecting unidentified gifted students if we only base our criteria on academic accomplishments. Many gifted students have become disillusioned or have learned to “not go ahead.” Other gifted students tend to “space-out” if they have already mastered a topic, instead choosing to pursue their own interests. Studies also show that gifted students will play dumb to avoid attention, especially low-income minority students. Gifted students do not have synchronous development. For example, a student may be gifted but his/her writing will typically lag behind the other skills. Gifted students have asynchronous development.

Myth or Fact: She has a learning disability, but she is gifted.

Fact: Students who are gifted and have a disability are called Twice Exceptional. While we can acknowledge a student can still be gifted with a physical disability, we have a harder time acknowledging it for others. It is possible for a student to be gifted verbally, but have a learning disability in math. A student may be dyslexic but excel in mathematics. This is true for Autism, ADD/ADHD, and other factors that would make them twice exceptional.

Myth or Fact: There are different levels of giftedness.

Fact: There are generally 5 types of giftedness. A student at Level 1 is usually your typical high achiever, chances a grade level has around 20% of students at Level 1. A Level 1 student is usually fine in the regular classroom but will require more advanced work. As you progress through the levels, different accommodations must be made such as gifted programs, pull-out, acceleration. Your Level 5 is considered a prodigy.

Myth or Fact: He is such a behavior problem he can’t be gifted.

Myth: While we think a gifted student may be the eager teacher’s pet in the front, this is not always the case. A bored gifted student may lash out, refuse to do assignments, and become an expert debater. A large amount of bored gifted students will show signs of ADD/ADHD. Many of our gifted students are misdiagnosed and drugged.

Myth or Fact: I can accommodate all students with differentiation.

Myth: Differentiation is a wonderful tool to accommodate the needs of Level 1 gifted students. However, many teachers are not trained in acceptable differentiation for gifted students. It must contain challenge, higher-order thinking, and contain breadth and depth. A fun art project is not differentiation, more questions is not differentiation, and teaching other students is not differentiation. Gifted students also need instruction. Would you be able to give them instruction in advanced areas or would they be primarily left to independent work while you helped other students?

Myth or Fact: Cooperative learning in heterogeneous groups provide academic benefits for gifted and talented students.

Myth: It seems every teacher wants to pair students high-low so gifted students can serve as a mini-teacher. Stop it! Students should be able to work with different abilities for non-academic tasks (planning a class celebration, working on a fundraiser, completing a school-wide project). Pairing academic high with academic low is not best professional practice. The gifted child has not spent the hours or coursework learning how to teach. No study supports any positive academic outcomes. Gifted students resent it and the low students feel embarrassed. All students report frustration. It is more preferable to group high-high, high-middle, low-low, or low-middle. These groupings show much better outcomes.

Myth or Fact: Acceleration and Special Programs are harmful for social skills.

Myth: There is no evidence that shows acceleration is harmful to a gifted child’s social skills. In fact, the opposite is true. Gifted students report higher self-esteem and having more friends when they are accelerated. The report A Nation Deceived goes into detail how acceleration is one of the best practices, but hardly ever used in schools. This report is a must read. Gifted students also do better when they are clustered. They are able to work at a higher pace with much more breadth and depth of subject matter. Middle and Low students also benefit. The teacher is able to provide more support because she doesn’t have to worry about different levels of differentiation. Middle students benefit because without the highest students they can rise to the top. Gifted students need to spend the majority of the day with other gifted students.

Myth or Fact: A pull-out program is not ideal for gifted students.

Fact: While a pull-out program is better than no program, it still falls short. A gifted student isn’t only gifted on Tuesday at 2:15 for the pull-out program. Acceleration or self-contained multi-aged (for example 4th-6th) gifted rooms are a much better solution.

Myth or Fact: Gifted children will be fine regardless it’s much better to focus my attention on the students that need support.

Myth: As an educator, you have a commitment to all students. Gifted students have a high drop-out rate. Gifted students are also prone to feelings of isolation. With appropriate gifted programs, students are more likely to enter into STEM fields. Gifted programs are especially beneficial to low-income minority students who would have never furthered their education without the gifted programs foundation.

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