Psychologist: Even a gifted child has the right to be recognized and educated
How to describe a gifted child? Often the first thought is someone who gets high marks at school. Or, to describe it more broadly, as psychologist J. Misiūnienė says, “the first word that comes to mind is outstanding. Such children are distinguished by their enormous potential to do something, to strive for something and to achieve more than most of their peers. This potential is primarily manifested in logical thinking, the ability to see patterns, predict, draw conclusions, and generalize. But we must understand that a gifted child, although he has such potential, does not necessarily realize it. Very often we have to hear: how gifted is he, if he cannot boast of anything, if he studies poorly… It is important to understand that gifted children can study well, but do not necessarily do so…” According to the psychologist, if a gifted child does not study well, you need to look for reasons in his environment. Sometimes they do not like going to school. This can happen because the educational program is boring and uninteresting for a gifted child. Such children may even have behavioral problems because they get bored in class. Gifted children like complex games and are not interested in those that their peers are interested in. As a result, a gifted child isolates himself, becomes withdrawn. Gifted children often prefer to communicate and play with older children. For this reason, it may be difficult for them to become leaders, because they lag behind their older friends in physical development. Gifted children are characterized by an internal need for perfection. They do not rest until they reach the highest level. This characteristic manifests itself very early. In addition to all the cases mentioned, it is very important to understand that a gifted child may also experience certain difficulties in learning, for example, due to dyslexia, dysgraphia, autism spectrum disorders. The literature defines this as “double exceptionality”, and children with it may remain unidentified for a long time, because talents can disguise themselves, so it is difficult to recognize what kind of support a gifted child needs. In this case, it is very likely that a gifted child will not achieve good results in school and will not receive the necessary support.