Unmasking Gifted Behaviors

Teachers have a lot of responsibilities and protocols to get through in the beginning of the year. Compound that with teaching many classes and collecting data to effectively teach our children. General education teachers have a tough job. They are the front line of helping find and identify students who may have learning disabilities to gifted and talented. In order to properly identify these students general education teachers need to have proper training.

As it relates to students who are gifted, I am outlining some of the behaviors that could mask giftedness. The behaviors listed below aren’t exhaustive, but if general education teachers can work with gifted intervention specialists, students who are gifted can be found and supported. These behaviors are not present in every student who is gifted, but can be seen in some. 

• Social Isolation: Students who are gifted often  feel isolated from their peers. Their peers may not understand their interests, have trouble following their intricate games, and even have difficulty understanding their advanced vocabulary. Finding true peers can be a challenge as mental mates may be very different from age mates. Some students who are gifted find it easier to simply do things on their own.

• Underachievement: According to Dr. Jim Delisle, students who are gifted can simply choose not to perform to expectations of either peers or the adults around them. Disengagement is easier than facing or dissecting that problem that leads to underachieving. Some children may have serious psychological reasons that prevent them from achieving. Proper diagnosis of the type and cause of non-performance is very important.  

• Communication: This is connected to the social isolation. Age mates find it challenging to understand students who are gifted. Many times these gifted students use advanced vocabulary or discuss topics that far out distance abilities of their peers. They have the ability to think more critically or abstractly and feel misunderstood and unappreciated.

• Misdiagnosis: With the lack of knowledge of many aspects of behaviors and characteristics of gifted education, it can be easy to attribute quirky behaviors of students who are gifted with learning disabilities. Over or under focusing, difficulty sitting still, or an overactive mind could easily be seen as ADHD. High sensitivity, intense fears, or the inability to relate to peers can even be seen as emotionally disturbed.

• Perfectionism: We try to instill in children the goal of excellence. For some students who are gifted, this goal can become an obsession. Attention to detail can be taken to an extreme with homework or projects taking on monumental proportions in time and energy just to achieve completion. Moving onto another task may be impossible until perfection is achieved on the first task – not an achievable goal on a daily basis.

• Multipotentiality: Being good at many things sounds great but it can be a real challenge. How do you pick one interest over another? How to schedule time appropriately? Decision making can become overwhelming and stress of outside parties (coaches, parents, and teachers) complicates the confusion further. Multi-potentiality can also leave them scattered as they are interested in so many things, making them appear unfocused and unable to stick to one interest at a time.

• Impostor Syndrome / Chameleon Effect: For many students who are gifted reach a point in which they realize that it isn’t cool to be gifted. Some choose to hide their giftedness (typically in gifted girls) which is called the Impostor Syndrome. Like a chameleon they want to blend in with the crowd. The chameleon effect remains except in situations when the child perceives it alright to let go of their outer skin and reveal the real person in special situations. Many times these students let others know who they really are in small groups of other students who are gifted.

• Skewed Self Concept: Students who are gifted can have a skewed concept of themselves. It could be over inflated if their reference point is their peers. It could be very low if their reference point is an expert in a particular area. Children have difficulty in their own self-perception when they only have peers as reference points. Students who are gifted can have trouble finding reference points.

As a former general education teacher and a gifted intervention specialist, I would have loved to have the knowledge I have now when I was a general education teacher. I know early in my career I may have missed identifying potential gifted and talented students. 

To assist you in identifying students who are gifted, what types of professional development do feel you need to participate in? I would suggest looking at the free resource Ohio Leadership Advisory Council’s course on Gifted Education. It is a free resource that can help shed some light on areas that you feel you may be in need of more information. There are many others as well, such as the Ohio Association for Gifted Children’s GT Ignite series. This series is continually growing in topics.