How to treat gifted children

Carol S Whitney, PhD
Gifted Teaching Consultant/Educational Therapist with Twice-Exceptional Specialty

Motivating gifted children can be tricky. Because learning comes easily to them and many schools are inordinately concerned with standardized testing scores, gifted students may not receive the kind of attention and guidance they need to reach their full potential. Teachers may assume that these talented children will “get it on their own” and not give them the challenges that are appropriate and necessary for their development.

Do:
treat gifted students as partners in their own learning
take the time to discover a child’s interests and dreams
encourage kids to be proud of their abilities
listen to their opinions and ask “why?”
keep kids engaged in the search for knowledge

Don't:
go toe-to-toe with gifted children if you have a disagreement
try to redirect gifted students from their interests to yours
reward intelligence; instead, reward effort
expect kids to be perfect
be negative, critical and judgemental

To motivate and stimulate the minds of our brightest youngsters is essential. We can partner, help them discover their inner passions, encourage them not to hide their abilities, listen and keep them engaged in their search for knowledge.

Due to the sensitive nature of gifted children, we need to be careful not to continuously criticize and judge them. They already critically judge themselves, so we need to help build them up, not tear them down.

Perfectionism is a common issue with gifted children, so we should not expect perfection and let them know that mistakes are steps in learning. We should not reward their intelligence, but we should reward their effort. We need to develop children’s interests and avocations without trying to redirect them into what we think they should be when we know its not a natural interest. We want to teach them to enjoy life and develop their minds with confidence and success. After all, these children have the potential to be our leaders of tomorrow. Isn’t it our job to help them develop these abilities to their full potential?

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