Addressing the Affective Needs of Gifted Children

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Addressing the Affective Needs of Gifted
Children

• presented by
• Dr. Edward R. Amend
• Licensed Psychologist

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Giftedness One Definition

• Giftedness is asynchronous development in which
  advanced cognitive abilities and heightened
  intensity combine to create inner experiences and
  awareness that are qualitatively different from
  the norm. This asynchrony increases with higher
  intellectual capacity. The uniqueness of the
  gifted renders them particularly vulnerable and
  requires modifications in parenting, teaching and
  counseling in order for them to develop
  optimally.
• -The Columbus Group, 1991

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Factors that Obscure Giftedness

• Underachievement
• Divergent thinking that challenges status quo
• Twice-exceptional (2e) issues
• Minority status and low SES
• Families that dont prize education
• Hiding talents or lacking opportunities to show

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Factors that Obscure Giftedness

• Many are often related to, or dependent upon, the
  affective needs of gifted students!

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Growing up gifted is more difficult now due to

• Fractured families
• Faster pace that is seemingly more urgent
• Information explosion handicaps relationships
• Disturbing role models
• Unthinkable acts are no longer unthinkable
• Peers and society influence more than parents
• Lack of consistent consequences for behaviors
• Depression is now ten times the rate of the 1950s

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What is the Social Educational Climate?

• Parents of gifted children have very few
  resources for information
• Gifted children have few alsotaboo?
• Much ignorance and misinformation still exists
• The curriculum generally is lock-step where every
  child is expected to learn the same material at
  approximately the same age
• Educational systems increasingly focus on basic
  minimal levels of competence and achievement
• Social and emotional concerns take a back seat to
  test scores

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What is the Social Educational Climate?

• The most eminent and successful adults received
  educational programs very different than those
  currently offered in most schools
• Students in honors/advanced classes report being
  bored just more than half of the time
• Our society is perilously drifting into an
  anti-intellectual mode with emphasis of
  mediocrity and conformity

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What We Know about Social Emotional Needs of
Gifted Talented Persons

• General Conclusions
• Typically, G/T students are at least as well
  adjusted as other groups of youngsters.
• However, they face risks to their social and
  emotional development
• Mismatch with classrooms not responsive to the
  pace and level of gifted students learning and
  thinking
• Inappropriate accommodations for high creativity,
  energy, intensity, and aspirations
• Few if any adaptations to their internal
  asynchronous development (e.g., maturity versus
  immaturity depending on the domain)
• Inadequate support to deal with peer pressures to
  be like everyone else

Neihart, M., Reis, S.M., Robinson, N.M., and
Moon, S.M. (Eds.) (2002). The Social and
Emotional Development of Gifted Children What do
we know? Waco, TX Prufrock Press. Information
compiled by F.R. Olenchak, Ph.D.
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What We Knowcontd

• Educational Issues
• out of sync with level and pace of instruction
  in heterogeneous classrooms
• few teacher accommodations that are appropriate
  with repetitive, minimalist curricula
• academic concerns can lead to problems
  establishing and maintaining friendships
• Peer Relations Issues
• heightened sensitivities to their differences so
  that they try to hide their talents
• exacerbated distinctions during adolescence

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What We Knowcontd

• Special issues for extremely gifted students
• significant discrepancy between physical and
  intellectual selves
• inevitable frustration finding supportive
  environments can produce serious isolation
• difficulty finding compatible friends resulting
  in less social skill
• Unevenness in abilities issues
• heightened unevenness in domain-specific
  giftedness
• significant discrepancies between verbal and
  visual-spatial abilities or global versus
  sequential problem solving abilities
• social maturity lagging behind talent areas
  despite such maturity being greater than same-age
  peers

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Discussion Question 1

• How do gifted students benefit from having access
  to a counselor who is familiar with the
  characteristics and social-emotional needs of
  gifted learners?

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Potential Benefits of Services that Address S/E
Aspects

• Explore giftedness and asynchrony, and their
  impact on life
• Deliberately counter myths and stereotypes
• Cultural
• Gender
• Giftedness
• Encourage appropriate risk-taking
• Foster social interactions with peers
• Provide opportunities for expression
• Help develop social understanding

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Potential Benefitscontd

• Increase perspective taking
• Develop resilience
• Improve time management and goal setting
• Reach At-risk students
• Include Underachievers
• Foster Career Exploration
• Effects of multi-potentiality
• Intense interests
• Unrealistic expectations

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Discussion Question 2

• Sowhy dont we do it?

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Barriers to Services Addressing S/E Aspects

• Lack of Understanding for
• The students
• The necessity
• The nuts bolts

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Barriers to Servicescontd

• Lack of
• Resources
• Training
• Opportunities
• Access
• Support (e.g., by administration or parents)

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Onomatopoeia

• A group of students are discussing a class
  lecture as they leave the classroom.
• TERRY I think its crazy that Mr. Coleman
  expects us to remember all of that material in
  Chapter 10 for the test in English Lit!
• JERRY What does he think that we have nothing
  better to do than memorize that stuff from the
  book?
• STACEY Some of those words are hard. I dont
  even understand what he means by onomatopoeia,
  do you guys?

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Onomatopoeia

• They all shake their heads, with the exception of
  Jamie (who has said nothing to this point.) They
  turn to Jamie. Stacey says, How about you,
  Jamie? Knowing you, you probably know it.
  Right?
• Jamie understands all of the terms and knows that
  onomatopoeia is nothing more than a word that
  describes a sound.

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Onomatopoeia

• If you were Jamie, which would you be MOST
  inclined to say?
• Its pretty easy, it means a word that imitates
  a sound, like crash or bang.
• Its hard to remember those words, but I think
  it means a word that describes a sound, like
  bang or crash.
• I think youre right, Mr. Coleman is expecting
  too much.
• Its not easy to remember those terms, no one
  can keep them straight.
• I have no idea of what those words mean, either.

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(No Transcript)
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Forms Expressions of Psychic Overexcitability

• Psychomotor Marked enthusiasm, fast games and
  sports, acting out impulsive actions
  compulsive organizing
• Sensual Sensory pleasure appreciation of
  beautiful objects (gems, jewelry, etc.),
  writing styles, words
• Intellectual Probing questions curiosity avid
  reading detailed planning analytical
  thinking, introspection

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Forms Expressions of Psychic Overexcitability

• Imaginational facility for invention and
  fantasy poetic and dramatic perception
  animistic and magical thinking elaborate dreams
  and illusions
• Emotional Intensity of feeling (positive or
  negative) extremes of emotion, complex emotions,
  identification with others feelings strong
  affective memory concern with death, depressive
  and suicidal moods sensitivity in relationships

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Ten Common Criticisms of the Gifted (Jacobsen,
Liberating Everyday Genius)

• Why dont you slow down?
• You worry about everything.
• Cant you just stick with one thing?
• Youre so sensitive and dramatic!
• You have to do everything the hard way.
• Youre so demanding.
• Cant you ever be satisfied?
• Youre so driven.
• Where do you get all those wild ideas?
• Who do you think you are?

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Discussion Question 3

• Do you foster, counteract, or ignore those common
  criticisms?

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Identity Development (S. Lind)

• Awareness Emerges
• (SensitizationInsight)
• Has feelings of differentness regarding
  abilities, ways of processing, and levels of
  intensity and sensitivity
• May be drawn to bright or creative people
• Feels dissonance with friends, perhaps family or
  co-workersdoesnt seem to be on the same
  wavelength

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Identity Developmentcontd

• Differences become associated with giftedness
• (Identity ConfusionIsolation)
• Realizes that interests, abilities, and behaviors
  are more like those labeled as gifted, than not
• May not have a clear definition for
  gifted/talented as it pertains to self and others
• Carries around a terrible secret
• Demonstrates a variety of reactions fear,
  sorrow, confusion, joy, denial, camouflage,
  acceptance

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Identity Developmentcontd

• Public Person includes talents/gifts
• (Identity Tolerance-Disclosure)
• Begins sharing with accepting others
• May begin to explore gifted culture chess club,
  internet café, conferences, etc.
• Encounters slow, painful coming out process in
  unaccepting environments (home, work, school,
  play group, athletics, etc.)

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Identity Developmentcontinued

• Self is defined by gifts/talents
• (Identity Pride-Commitment)
• Is confident in own strengths and gifts
• Tries to find a solid connection with, and
  commitment to, people of like minds
• Hides less private identity public identity
• May defend self through confrontation
• Sees gifts and talents as totality of self

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Identity Developmentcontd

• Giftedness becomes integrated into total identity
  
• (Identity Synthesis)
• Integrates giftedness into all aspects of life
• Understands giftedness is just one aspect of the
  self
• Finds contact and comparisons with those of
  differing abilities less threatening
• Shows greater willingness to try to connect with
  those of lesser abilities

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Strategies for Social Emotional Development

• Exploring Feelings about Giftedness Differences
  can be done via many methods, from discussion of
  what is giftedness and what does it mean to the
  childto using books or movies for bibliotherapy
  and cinematherapy. Discussing the characters
  rather than the child specifically can make the
  discussion more lively and less threatening. The
  Sissy Duckling, Dr. Seusss The Sneetches, and
  many other books in popular press can be used.

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Strategiescontd

• Name that Nerd (N. Bernstein, Treating the
  Unmanageable Adolescent) uses before and after
  photos of stars and others to highlight the
  changes coming in ones life. Who you are today
  is not who or what you will be laterchoices make
  the difference.

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Strategiescontd

• HALT (AA expanded by J. Webb and S. Lind) is a
  strategy to identify stressors and label them.
  The acronym HALT stands for Hungry, Angry,
  Lonely, Tired. In this activity, the kids
  personalize this idea by coming up with their own
  stressors and acronym.

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Strategiescontd

• Whats on your plate? (P. Schuler) allows a
  student to graphically present the stressors or
  activities they are involved in. Highlighting
  the ones that create the most stress or take the
  most time can be especially enlightening for the
  older students (and teachers) who say where did
  all that time go?

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Strategiescontd

• Role Rolling (R. Olenchak) allows one to view his
  or her life without certain roles in it. List
  the top five or ten roles you are involved in, in
  order of time consumption. These are personal or
  professional (church, job, son, parent, etc.).
  Imagine your life without one role in it. How
  would it change?

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Strategiescontd

• Emotional Car Wash (S. Laskey, J. Murphy, J.
  Rossbach) involves students and feedback to
  others. Students line up in parallel lines
  facing each other. One student walks slowly
  between the lines. Each student in line takes a
  turn saying one positive thing about the student
  walking past. The student is bathed in the
  positive views of others. When the student
  reaches the end, another goes through until all
  (even the teacher) have had a turn.

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Final To Dos

• Value uniqueness and communicate acceptance
• Remember, giftedness does not equate to
• Good grades
• Good behavior
• BUT

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Be Careful!

• Use giftedness only to explain behavior, not to
  excuse behavior.

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Parenting Gifted Children James T. Webb,
Ph.D. Great Potential Press P.O. Box
5057 Scottsdale, AZ 85261 (602)
954-4200 www.giftedbooks.com Janet. L. Gore,
M.Ed. Great Potential Press P.O. Box
5057 Scottsdale, AZ 85261 (602)
954-4200 www.giftedbooks.com Edward R. Amend,
Psy.D. Amend Psychological Services 1025 Dove Run
Road, Suite 304 Lexington, KY 40502 www.amendpsych
.com Arlene R. DeVries 6408 Allison, Des Moines,
IA 50322 515-276-9077, arlfred_at_aol.com
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• Thank you for your time attention.
• www.amendpsych.com