Myth: Gifted students can succeed without help.

Reality: One of the biggest myths about gifted children is that they are able to succeed on their own without any assistance.聽 This is not necessarily the case and many gifted children will not be 鈥渏ust fine鈥� on their own.聽 Similar to many students with disabilities and other high-risk populations which have barriers and needs, gifted students face difficulties in school unless they have access to individualized services and support.聽 The right services can help a gifted child develop appropriately and reach for their full potential.聽 Research suggests that a gifted child鈥檚 emotional adjustment is directly related to the extent to which a child鈥檚 educational needs are addressed.

Myth: Gifted children do not know they are gifted or different from others.

Reality: Although gifted children may not be aware of the term gifted, they often recognize very early that they are different from other children. They may have atypical or more intense interests, or larger vocabularies that turn away other children.聽 Their unusual sense of humor can get them branded as 鈥渨eird.鈥� Many young gifted children feel like they are unusual because they feel very different from everyone else and that no one understands them.聽 Telling children they are gifted and assisting them with understanding their strengths and weaknesses can help a child better understand these differences and view them more positively.

Myth: Gifted children naturally want to be 鈥渓oners.鈥�

Reality: Most gifted children do feel different from their same-age peers and many like to spend some time alone.聽 Gifted children may seek to find peers who share their interests, but these friends will not necessarily be from their own age group.

Myth: Gifted children always get good grades

Reality: Gifted underachievers are real. Some gifted children are bored and disengaged from being unchallenged in the classroom, therefore they stop really trying to get good grades. Other children聽聽that required work goes uncompleted. These students benefit from the guidance of an adult to help break the cycle of underachievement.

Myth: Gifted students鈥� emotional stability is significantly atypical relative to other children.

Reality: Although the available research shows that gifted children are as well-adjusted as other groups of children, they often experience uncharacteristic social and emotional development.聽 The tendency toward perfectionism, the susceptibility to depression and the uneven or asynchronous development of the gifted child can create tension within the child both at home and in the classroom.聽 A disparity between a students鈥� needs and the educational services provided, or from inadequate support to deal with peer and societal pressures, also can result in adjustment difficulties in their lives.

Myth: Gifted children are more mature (or 鈥渟hould be鈥� more mature) than other children their age.

Reality: Regardless of extraordinary talent or ability in academic and other areas, gifted children generally show the same level of emotional maturity as other children their same age.  Adults should not expect gifted children to demonstrate a degree of maturity beyond their years.

The Institute for Educational Advancement (优蜜视频) is dedicated to the intellectual, creative and personal growth of our nation鈥檚 gifted and high potential youth. Most gifted-centered organizations focus strictly on talent development and academic achievement but neglect the personal development of gifted children who are often misunderstood and misdiagnosed.  The Institute for Educational Advancement is uniquely focused on the development of the whole child, providing programming and services that support a child鈥檚 intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual and physical needs.  优蜜视频 provides both challenging educational programming and a nurturing community that families can count on to meet the distinctive needs of their gifted children.

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Since last week was Earth Week, I thought I鈥檇 share one of my favorite pictures with you:

In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development defined sustainability as 鈥渄evelopment that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.鈥�

Sometimes referred to as 鈥渢he three pillars of sustainability鈥�, the goal is to achieve a balance between economic development, social development and environmental protection.聽 This is often referred to as the 3-E鈥檚 鈥� Environment, Economy and Equality.聽 This has altered the way we do construction (i.e. LEED certified buildings,) the way we design goods and products, (Cradle-to-cradle vs. recycling or upcycling,) and the way corporations report on resources, including staff (examples include Northstar Initiatives, CSRs or Corporate Sustainability Reports, the Global Reporting Initiative鈥檚 (GRI) Sustainability Guidelines, etc.,) and various other reports, indices, philosophies, codes and agreements both in America and throughout the world.

The thought is that, in order to thrive and continue, a system must satisfy all three components.聽 An environmental plan that is cost-prohibitive will not be feasible. A cost-effective solution that is detrimental to people is not acceptable, and a financially sound project that benefits humans at the expense of the planet will not allow for a continued reliance on that resource.

Oftentimes we look at a part of the equation out of context. As a species, we enjoy taking things apart to see how they work and then try to put them back together again. We look at a tree leaf and tree bark and tree roots. Those pieces taken separately, while helping us understand certain aspects of a tree, do not show how a tree works as a whole, living entity. It鈥檚 like the story of the three blind men and the elephant. (You know that one, right?) The point of that story is about communication, but it also serves as a reminder that a thing is greater than the sum of its parts.

So how does this relate to gifted education?

Many educational programs and services focus on only one aspect of an individual 鈥� usually intellect. But it is difficult for an individual to achieve their intellectual potential when their needs are not being met in other areas of their lives. For instance, it is difficult to do well on a test when you just found out that your best friend is moving 1,000 miles away. Many gifted children have expressed the desire to find a peer-group of like-minded individuals to share intellectual ideas with, in order to expand on that knowledge and insight. And who hasn鈥檛 experienced feeling sick and trying to do鈥nything but rest?

It is essential to remember that “A child is a total entity; a combination of many characteristics. Emotions cannot be treated separately from intellectual awareness or physical development; all intertwine and influence each other” (Roeper, 1982, p. 21).

Education must also cultivate in young people spirituality, reverence for the natural environment, and a sense of social justice. Education must inspire children鈥檚 creativity, imagination, compassion, self-knowledge, social skills, and emotional health. In this way, the term holistic education simply means cultivating the whole person and helping individuals live more consciously within their communities and natural ecosystems (J. Miller, 2005).

So, perhaps, like viewing the tree as a system, greater than the sum of its parts, it鈥檚 paramount that we view each child as a system, a synergy of mind, spirit, body, emotion and relationships, to nurture a sustainable view of both the world and our place in it as growing, learning, experiential humans.

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Zadra Rose Iba帽ez joined the 优蜜视频 team in 2005 after several years of office and finance administration in banking and pension administration. She earned her B.A. in Anthropology from Colorado State University and holds a Certificate in Global Sustainability from UCLA. She remembers how frustrating it was to be an inquisitive child and appreciates that 优蜜视频 provides the solution for that frustration, giving joy and a feeling of belonging and satisfaction to otherwise thwarted children. In addition to managing the operational side of 优蜜视频, Ms. Iba帽ez helps support individuals in their health and wellness goals, collects fountain pens, and sings in a band.

Linnea is a Certified Mindfulness Facilitator and a . She often teaches Mindfulness at the 优蜜视频 Academy.

Those who spend time with, raise, teach, and care聽for young gifted people agree that these individuals are different from their peers in both wonderful and challenging ways. The stories are anecdotal but the research is clear: The gifted person’s experience of the world is quantitatively and qualitatively different from those we might describe as more “neuro-typical” in their development. If we take a moment to empathetically step into the shoes of a gifted child or teen, it is not difficult to understand the vulnerability of these young people as they grow and develop.

Mindfulness is a powerful tool that can be used to address a variety of the needs of gifted children on several different levels and in different areas of development. I’ll go into this in a bit more detail but, first, what is Mindfulness, and how can it help a gifted child as they grow, learn, and move out into the world?

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the practice of being in the present moment with openness, curiosity, and a willingness to be with “what is.” It is learning to gently and non-judgmentally guide your attention to the natural unfolding of your own human experience as it occurs聽鈥� sensory, emotional, and mental 鈥� which grounds you in a more direct, and often joyful, experience of life. So, right away, we see that the practice of Mindfulness offers a level of self-acceptance and self-compassion that the world around a gifted child may not.

As parents and educators, we can do our best to find the right environments for gifted children to thrive but, oftentimes, we end up having to accept that there is no “perfect” place for them to grow and learn. The public education system in the U.S. is not designed to meet their needs 鈥� socially, emotionally, or intellectually. In addition, each gifted child is different, and the more gifted the child, the more difficult this search can become. So some of the tools in the gifted student’s tool kit must serve to help them become self-aware enough to accept their differences, advocate for themselves, be resilient in the face of adversity, reach out to others for help and companionship, and have compassion for and acceptance of themselves and others.聽 Mindfulness is one such tool that can help in all these areas.

Let’s look at some of the well-documented challenges that some gifted, particularly聽highly and profoundly gifted, youth can face and how Mindfulness addresses these.

1) Stress/Anxiety

Since gifted children are often asked to adapt to a world, culturally speaking, that they are out of sync with, stress levels can be higher for them from the get go, especially in unfamiliar situations. In addition, the gifted child often has very high expectations both for themselves and others that can lead to self-induced stress. Some gifted children also have an additional layer of what could be called “existential stress” whereby they become chronically worried about, for instance, global concerns like world hunger, war, or global warming.

In clinical studies, Mindfulness has been shown to actually reverse the brain patterns that are activated during biological stress. Mindfulness also helps the child become aware when unnecessary worry is taking place. Mindfulness gives gifted children and teens a “jump start” to begin recognizing when their thinking is driven by unsubstantiated fear and a vocabulary to describe the experience grounded in their physical body. In addition, the practice of Mindfulness itself has no “goal.” There is no one “right” way to do it and no measurement of success, thereby allowing the gifted child freedom from the potential inner tyranny of being “right” or “perfect” or “not disappointing anyone.”

2) Overexcitabilities/Intensity

Research has shown that we learn best in a relaxed and open state of being. Ironically, it can often be hard for gifted children to find a relaxed, open, receptive state. They tend to receive the world’s stimulus more intensely and have trouble filtering that stimulus. It is vital the gifted child have some way to return to a mind-body connection to ground his or her experience in the “here and now.” Mindfulness provides just such an anchor. As children begin to strengthen their attention and awareness in the moment, they have a visceral experience of “space” around their intense experiences. They can slowly begin to trust in their ability to “choose” their response when confronting overstimulation, rather than simply reacting to it. Mindfulness empowers them to come “home” to themselves.

3) Asynchronous Development in Executive Functioning

Many gifted children struggle with executive functioning tasks such as organization, study skills, and switching attention. According to a 2006 article published by the NIH, this appears to be attributed to a slower development of the cortex of the brain in certain areas of high IQ kids. The cortical layer starts out thinner and develops more slowly, while other areas of the gifted brain appear to be operating far more efficiently and effectively than their same age peers. And, don’t you know, Mindfulness has been shown to actually thicken the brain’s cortex! It also helps train one’s awareness of their attention, eventually giving a child or teen an increased ability to place their attention where they choose as opposed to operating on autopilot. This may be, in part, why researchers believe Mindfulness helps with ADD and other issues related to attention regulation.

4) Social Development

It is natural for everyone to have some feelings of anxiety in social situations, particularly new ones. However, if a gifted child or teen repeatedly has the experience of being misunderstood, negated or even ostracized, his or her social anxiety may increase over time. We all have the need for connection, love, and acceptance. It is wired into our human DNA. So how can Mindfulness help? First, it helps individuals become more emotionally resilient. As they begin to neutrally observe their own feelings, thoughts, and sensations, they learn about themselves. This learning gives them more perspective about situations they encounter. For instance, they may begin to recognize the internal warning signs that tell them a social situation is not right for them and ask for help to change it. If they feel rejected, they may be able to see that that person was not able to act with compassion instead of feeling they themselves are “unlikeable.” It may give a gifted teen the self-awareness to honor his or her authentic self instead of using a great deal of energy to “be funny” or “be popular” or “be pretty.”

Mindfulness does not take away our pain, emotional or physical, but it teaches us how to navigate it and to notice when we are adding to our struggles with stories like, “I am weird,” “No one likes me,” or “I guess this is because I’m gifted. I wish I were normal.” We create these stories, quite naturally, to understand our world and feel some sense of identity in it. But sometimes they no longer serve us, and Mindfulness can help us see this and open a compassionate space where once there was none. And, interestingly, in my personal experience of working with gifted children, it is that open, compassionate space where gifted children find self-love and the ability to share their authentic selves openly and joyfully with others.

Next Steps

So where can your child learn the practice? If you can find a Mindfulness class for your gifted child or teen, that will provide the best initial experience and a place to practice with others. Since the practice stresses non-judgment and compassion, a seasoned teacher should be able make sure that your child feels safe and welcome even if it is not a class for the gifted per se. Most of these classes do follow a structure, however, with some level of behavioral expectation. So if you child is not ready for this, there are also coaches like myself who will work to tailor at-home classes for your child and/or your family. For very young children, a kid’s yoga class is a great place to start. Yoga offers them an introduction to the mind-body awareness skill set they will use in their Mindfulness practice later on. Finally, a wonderful gift to offer any child is to learn the practice together. As a parent or teacher, I encourage you to take a class yourself, for adults or educators, and then聽re-teach from your own experience once you have a regular practice yourself. Because the practice is very individual in nature, it is this authentic teaching from one’s own experience that truly brings the practice to life.

Linnea is a regular Mindfulness teacher for 优蜜视频’s Academy, leads various Mindfulness classes in the LA area and consults and teaches privately.聽 She can be reached through her company website,聽, 聽and followed on Twitter at .

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Kate Duey is a private college counselor serving gifted students. She has worked with students on traditional schooling paths, home schooled students, community college students and students seeking accelerated or early college entrance. Kate is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School. She has a Certificate in College Counseling from UCLA.

Razel Solow, Ph.D., and Celeste Rhodes, Ph.D., turn the chief criticism of early college entrance–that early entrance inhibits healthy social development–on its head in (Great Potential Press, 2012). Their book is centered on a longitudinal study of fourteen women who entered Mary Baldwin College鈥檚 Program for the Exceptionally Gifted (PEG) between the ages of 13 and 16. Dr. Rhodes, who had been the Assistant, Associate and Executive Director of PEG, began the study supported by a grant from the Malone Family Foundation. When poor health precluded her from continuing her work, Dr. Rhodes invited Dr. Solow to finish the project. Dr. Solow is the former Director, Center for Gifted Studies and Education, at Hunter College.

Rhodes and Solow鈥檚 case study materials stretch from birth into well-formed adult lives. Pseudonymously presented, the PEG graduates share their lives鈥� stories in detail. The reasons they entered PEG offer important insights into the life of a gifted girl in middle school. Many scholarly publications on the development of gifted children precede College at 13, but Rhodes and Solow stay away from normed studies. Instead, they stay with their subjects鈥� voices and let these fourteen women describe the world of giftedness. The women share stories of being isolated, confused, humiliated and slapped. The authors spare nothing.

Grounded in this detail, Solow and Rhodes make the case that socialization and social development ought not to be confused. Socialization, the art of joining a group, can be impossible if the group is fundamentally hostile. The middle school years, when students turn away from their families and toward their peers, present a painful choice: give up your passions, conform and be included; or not. Beyond fellow students, the girls鈥� teachers are a mixed bag, some supportive and some clearly annoyed. The consequences of socialization denied include social development inhibited. Echoing her fellow PEGs, Julia says, 鈥淣ot caring about what everyone thinks is one thing, but feeling okay about being different is something else.鈥�

Supportive parents are the heroes of the book, and Solow and Rhodes get to the parents鈥� stories straightaway. It takes a special kind of mother and father to move a thirteen-year-old daughter onto a college campus. Words describing home life with these parents include 鈥減eace,鈥� 鈥渢rust鈥� and 鈥渟eriousness鈥�. Over and over, the parents talk about how they want their daughters to pursue the daughters鈥� dreams and interests. Comparing these students to a study of 81 class valedictorians in Illinois, Solow and Rhodes observe that there are important differences between parents who want their children to succeed and parents who want their children to grow. Identifying those parents, and the support they have given and likely will give, is crucial in making radical acceleration work.

And what happens twenty years or so later? These students have remarkably unremarkable lives. To be sure, most of them continue as students (eight MA/MS/MFA degree holders, and one in progress; one lawyer; one Ph.D. and one in progress; one MD in progress). But they don鈥檛 speak of isolation and feeling different, even when they are different. One young woman entered law school at eighteen and surprised her classmates when everyone went to a bar and she couldn鈥檛 order a drink. She was confident, they were respectful and the evening rolled on. Other alumnae describe the nuts and bolts of everyday life: putting a bed in an office because of fibromyalgia; struggling to come out to a father; and coping, simultaneously, with her desire to build a woodworking business and her promise to finish her parents鈥� kitchen remodeling. These details are small, sometimes humorous and very reassuring. Being denied normalcy in their mid-teens, these women are having mostly stable and mostly happy ordinary adult lives.

Two clear advantages of radical acceleration for women emerge. First, they have more time to complete their educations and build careers before they start families. The challenge for many women, especially working in professions which require lengthy educations and apprenticeships, is the point at which to divide a career between working flat out and working with flexibility once professional credentials are in place. Second, being younger at graduation means the women have 鈥渆xtra time as a bonus, not as a launching pad for another round of running ahead.鈥� It struck me that these are not really bonus years, but transferred years. Skipping over high school moves years that can be destructive and esteem-busting into years better lived because the whole self is better formed. Social development is a lifelong affair.

College at 13鈥檚 shortcoming is that these are successful entrants and graduates of radical acceleration. Rhodes and Solow鈥檚 fourteen PEG alumnae are among twenty handpicked by Mary Baldwin鈥檚 administration. Did everyone鈥檚 story go so well? What about the students who dropped out of PEG or struggled with their youthfulness after graduation?

Solow and Rhodes do us all a favor by shining light on a subject that can arouse passions without understanding. We talk often about supporting the whole gifted child. What exactly does radical acceleration offer the whole gifted adult? Not every gifted child is a good candidate for radical acceleration. Not every gifted child is a good candidate for high school. College at 13 contributes to understanding the differences.

Have you read College at 13? Please let us know what you thought in the comment section below!

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