Tips for Keeping Gifted Kids Challenged
It's unfair to think of gifted kids as perfect kids. They're not. They're kids.
Gifted kids are rare but they are not perfect. They have exceptional abilities or talents that drive one dimension of their personalities. They are not one-dimensional people, though, and everything about being a child is expressed in the gifted child's other dimensions of personality.
Gifted kids go through the same growth spurts other kids do. There are several periods during childhood where physical growth seems accelerated. The rapidly growing child becomes gangly, awkward. Gifted kids can be clumsy kids, too, especially during these periods of active growth. Their minds may be humming along smoothly but they still need a little practice and patience with coordination and balance from time to time.
Gifted kids go through all the same emotional lessons other kids experience, too. New siblings usher in competitive and comparative feelings. Divorcing parents are confusing. Starting school seems like rejection and punishment. Puberty is an emotional roller coaster. And being dumped for the first time is an absolute nightmare. No matter what the IQ.
Gifted kids come from all levels of societies, girls as well as boys, across all races. One home in America is just as likely to house a gifted or talented child as the next one is. That means gifted kids come from homes of all sorts and sizes, every neighborhood and every town.
Gifted kids often grow up in troubled households. There may be divorce and separation, illness and death, limited income, violence and abuse in the gifted child's household on a regular basis. Many gifted children never see this lifestyle. Instead, they grow up in homes where money is no object and violence and abuse are absent. Still others grow up in some combination of these scenarios. Or in others entirely.
Gifted kids experience all the same life lessons as do the rest of the kids. They feel the same joy and sorrow. They feel loved at times and ostracized at others. Sometimes they cry, argue, and disobey.
Gifted kids are not perfect kids. They're just kids. Just kids but experiencing life through a unique perspective. Just like the rest of us do.