The gifted brain is a unique place. In fact, it is so unique that many of the complexities of giftedness are still not fully understood. Still, there are some common quirks that have been identified as being associated with the gifted brain.

Overexcitabilities

Dambrowski identified five overexcitabilities that he believes are strongly connected to giftedness: intellectual, psychomotor, imaginative, sensual, and emotional. These overexcitabilities give gifted individuals some of their unique traits, but can also make it hard to function within a traditional classroom environment.

Psychologist Carrie Lynn Bailey noted in Overexcitabilities and Sensitivities: Implications of Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration for Counseling the Gifted:

“A challenge for gifted individuals is that they can often be viewed negatively, or pathologically, particularly in educational settings.”

So how do you deal with a gifted child with overexcitabilities? An article from the California Association of the Gifted suggests a combination of teaching stress management techniques, ensuring clear verbal and nonverbal communication skills and creating a comforting environment can help gifted children manage their overxcitabilites.

Social and Emotional Vulnerabilities

Many gifted children are very emotionally sensitive. A passing comment that may seem harmless to you can be crushing to a gifted child, who could internalize and overanalyze it. Because of their high-sensitivity, gifted children often perceive others to have a lower view of them than they actually do, leading to social issues, such as interacting and bonding with their peers and teachers.

The article “The dark side of being the ‘gifted’ kid”  highlights the extremes of gifted social and emotional issues. It notes that many gifted kids live in a world that doesn’t fully understand them, leading them to feel isolated and lonely. The author suggests gifted students should learn in environments that focus not just on their brains, but also the “fragility of their hearts”.

(Hoagie’s Gifted Education Page has a plethora of resources on the social and emotional lives of the gifted for further reading.)

Twice-Exceptional

Twice-exceptional children demonstrate both giftedness and a learning or emotional disability, making them the most under-identified group in today’s schools, according to the National Education Association. These students are often forced between choosing programs that serve their giftedness or their disability. Consequently, they are often underserved.

This “quirk” of the gifted is often difficult to diagnose even by professionals. SENG notes that even those in the gifted community have trouble imagining a gifted child with a learning disability. Luckily there is a growing awareness of 2e and, as a result, more resources available on serving these children.

If your child has been diagnosed as twice-exceptional or you expect they may be, the 2e Newsletter has some helpful tips for serving 2e students.

Although we still don’t understand everything about the gifted brain, identifying the quirks and giving students, parents and teachers the tools to deal with them is a win-win for everyone.

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Nicole LaChance graduated from Michigan State University with a B.A. in Journalism before moving West in pursuit of milder winters. Prior to joining the IEA team, she spent time working in marketing for an architecture firm and completed two years of national service in the AmeriCorps program. Over the past few years she has worked with nonprofits to communicate their message and impact to the world around them, work she is excited to continue at IEA. When not at the office, she enjoys reading, cooking, traveling wherever she can and making bad puns.

This post is part of the Hoagies’ Gifted Blog Hop Mysteries of the Brain. Please click the image below to keep on hopping!

Though overexcitabilities are not, in and of themselves, negative characteristics, they are often discussed as though they are problems to solve. However, there are some wonderful benefits to “experiencing in a higher key.” Because we have talked about overexcitabilities in general and strategies for “coping” with overexcitabilities on this blog before, we wanted to take this time to highlight some of the more delightful elements of overexcitabilities in gifted children and adults.

Extreme compassion, empathy, and sense of justice

Many gifted children have such a deep sense of empathy, compassion, and justice that they will stick up for others, challenge authority figures when authority is unfairly imparted, work toward solving problems they see in the world, take social action, and act as mediators and peacemakers. These are the kids who will make a positive difference in the world, on both small and large scales.

A deeper connection to the world

“Overexcitable children are more receptive and responsive to what they experience. In some areas of their lives, they are extremely perceptive and may be aware of what other people cannot even imagine.” (Meckstroth, 2013, p. 279)

Gifted children and adults with emotional intensity often develop a deep connection to people, animals, nature, places, and objects that have sentimental value for them; Piechowski  (2006) states that this “connection with the world as the place where we live is an important aspect of our emotional development” (p. 5). Emotionally intense individuals also enjoy deep, strong, and loyal friendships.

The ability to delight in simple pleasures

Those with sensual overexcitabilities take delight in what they see, taste, smell, touch, and hear.  The taste of food, feel of nice fabric, sound of music or poetry, and the beauty of art or a sunset can bring these children great joy and comfort.

Desire to think more deeply about and solve world issues and problems

Intellectual intensity as well as the empathy found through emotional intensity combine to propel gifted children’s deep interest in world problems and solutions to those problems. Gifted children “consider the possibilities of how things might be” (Sword) and can work toward achieving that ideal world. They often “search for solutions to known problems, find it difficult to let go of a problem, and identify new questions to be asked.” (Piechowski, 2006, p. 53)

Strong focus

Both Piechowski (2006) and Winner (1996) describe the gifted child’s capacity for intense interest and focus, which Piechowski describes as a “capacity for absorption,” allowing gifted individuals to tune out their surroundings and achieve a state of flow when working on a project or thinking about a topic.

Ability to see multiple sides

Emotional empathy along with intellectual intensity allow deep thinking, internal debate and dialogue, and the ability to see different viewpoints. Dabrowski (1972) described overexcitable individuals as “see[ing] reality in a different, stronger, and more multisided manner…. Enhanced excitability is a means for more frequent interactions and a wider range of experiencing” (p. 7). These abilities can be applied to external situations, or they can be used for individual development, to gain more self-awareness and understanding.

This ability to see issues from multiple sides can also combine with imaginational excitability that helps gifted children work out problems in their mind using creative solutions to result in inventiveness and out-of-the box thinking.

Creativity

Aesthetic and intellectual creativity are often results of imaginational and sensual overexcitabilities. Children who experience the world differently, delight in the beauty of the world, and have active imaginations are often natural creators.

Stress relief

Sensual overexcitability helps us delight in everyday sensual experiences. Psychomotor overexcitability helps us physically expel negative energy through movement. Individuals with imaginational intensity may harness those powers to help create an imagined situation that can bring calm and relieve any tension experienced. Intellectually intense individuals can carry on internal debates, dialogues, and arguments – natural to this form of overexcitability – as a way to vent emotions privately. When gifted individuals are stressed, emotionally tense, or nervous, they can turn to these overexcitabilities for relief.

Let’s help our children see these benefits

In an article on emotional intensity, Leslie Sword concluded, “If emotional intensity is seen and presented positively to gifted children as a strength, they can be helped to understand and value the gift of emotion. In this way gifted children will be empowered to express their unique selves in the world and use their gifts and talents with confidence and joy.” The same can be said for all areas of overexcitability. While not losing sight of the challenges our children face due to their intensities, let us also help them see the positive power of these intensities and embrace them for good.

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This blog article is part of the Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page Blog Hop on Overexcitabilities. Please click on the graphic below (created by Pamela S Ryan–thanks!) to see the full list of Hoagies’ Blog Hop participants.

References

Bailey, C. L. (2010). Overexcitabilities and sensitivities: Implications of Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration for counseling the gifted. Retrieved from http://counselingoutfitters.com/vistas/vistas10/Article_10.pdf

Dabrowski, K. (1972). Psychoneurosis is not an illness. London: Gryf.

Delisle, J. R. (2006). Parenting gifted kids: Tips for raising happy and successful gifted children. Prufrock Press.

Meckstroth, E. A. (2013). The asynchrony of overexcitabilities: Advice for parents and teachers. In C. S. Neville, M. M. Piechowski, & S. S. Tolan (Eds.), Off the charts: Asynchrony and the gifted child (pp. 260-281). Unionville, NY: Royal Fireworks Press.

Piechowski, M. M. (2006). “Mellow out,” they say. If I only could: Intensities and sensitivities of the young and bright.  Madison, WI: Yunasa Books.

Sword, L. Gifted children: Emotionally immature or emotionally intense?. Retrieved from http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10241.aspx on 8/14/15

Winner, E. (1996). Gifted children: Myths and realities. New York, NY: BasicBooks.

Lisa is the mother of 3 gifted children and lives outside of San Francisco.

Which of the following is a symptom of anxiety in a gifted child?

a. An eye twitch
b. Pacing in circles
c. Fighting with her mother

The answer?
All of the above.

The eye twitch and the pacing were easy for me. My oldest son’s eye began to twitch in fifth grade, around the same time he started to disengage at school. Our middle child began pacing in circles around the bathroom in second grade. That was the year that his teacher wrote his name on the blackboard with the word “teacher” before it because she thought he was too bossy.

My daughter is the one who fights with me. She is in an ideal educational environment. We fight because I am annoying.

If you met my daughter, you would find her to be an adorable, Justin Bieber-loving 11 year old. And she is. She is also super critical of me. According to my daughter, I clear my throat excessively. I use the word “sweetie” when I’m irritated and I make squishing noises when I chew. When I do these things, she tells me to stop. Sometimes she even imitates me.

My daughter’s need to correct me leads to terrible fights. I can’t understand why she won’t overlook my annoying behavior. She doesn’t know why I keep doing things that irritate her. Usually, I just walk away. That enrages her. She hates it when I walk away.

I don’t tell many people about my daughter’s criticism because it makes both of us look bad. It’s disrespectful. It’s insensitive. It’s evidence of my bad parenting skills. And, according to a psychiatrist I know, it’s a symptom of high anxiety.

About a year ago, I was talking with a psychiatrist about anxiety issues of my own. She went down a laundry list of symptoms. At one point she asked me if I get annoyed easily. I said no, and she seemed surprised. She said that highly anxious people are often irritable. Then I remembered my daughter. I thought about how she hates it when her younger brother cracks his knuckles, when her older brother chews ice or when her father talks with food in his mouth. It occurred to me that my daughter is irritable because she is anxious.

I am the first to admit that I might be fooling myself by thinking that my daughter’s behavior reflects anxiety instead of permissive parenting because I don’t want to take responsibility for the behavior. Having said this, I can’t escape the genetic component of her anxiety. After all, I’m anxious, and so is my husband. Our sons? Anxious and anxious. Any genetic predisposition she might have received was certainly nurtured by my anxious parenting.

Okay, maybe I lied to the psychiatrist. Sometimes I am irritable. Early in our marriage, I told my husband what to do when I behave this way. When I am at my most unlikable, what I really need is a hug. I need some physical reassurance that I am not bad despite my bad behavior.

We tried it with our daughter. Or more accurately, my husband tried it. In the middle of a particularly bad fight, he waited for her to catch her breath and then asked her if he could give her a hug. Surprisingly, she said yes. Eventually, she would ask for a hug after she made a snarky remark but before we would get into a full blown fight. Those were hard hugs for me to give. It seemed like I was rewarding bad behavior. It did, however, prevent the fight and hasten an apology from her. She always expressed genuine remorse for her behavior after we fought.

I found support for our hug therapy in a blog by Dr. Claudia M. Gold, a pediatrician and author of Keeping Your Child in Mind: Overcoming Defiance, Tantrums, and Other Everyday Behavior Problems by Seeing the World through Your Child’s Eyes. According to Dr. Gold, this behavior has to do with the underdevelopment of the higher cortical centers of the brain. Our daughter didn’t experience early trauma, nor does she have sensory processing problems like the children discussed in her blog. She is, however, intense and highly sensitive like many gifted children. She has almost all of Dabrowski’s overexcitabilities. The way she externalized her intense nature felt like a personal attack, but it was no different from the boys’ eye twitching and pacing.

I can’t say that I’m entirely at peace with the way our daughter expresses her anxiety, and if I’m wrong and I am a poor parent, please don’t tell me. I have found a solution that involves holding my daughter close and giving her a squeeze. My hope is that the memories of the fights will disappear and what she will remember are the hugs.

In what ways do your children exhibit anxiety? How do you handle these expressions of anxiety? Please share with us in the comment section below.

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Children who feel things with great intensity experience the world in a different way. Gifted young people are often more aware, stimulated, and affected by their surroundings. Emotional or physical reactions to events can last longer than expected and are often replayed in the child’s mind.

Intensities can be characterized by:

• Extreme feelings: positive or negative feelings; complex emotions; connection with the feelings of others; grand laughter and tears
• Physical reaction to emotion: stomachaches and headaches; blushing; rise in body temperature
• Strong affective memory: re-living or re-feeling things long after the triggering event; nightmares; elaborate daydreams connected to actual events

Psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski studied the mental health of gifted youth and adults. He described the areas of heightened stimulation observed in gifted individuals as “overexcitabilites.” The five areas of overexcitabilites are:

1. Psychomotor: extreme physical activity and movement; rapid talk; pacing; use of hand gestures
2. Sensual: perceptiveness of sensory experiences; unusual awareness and enjoyment of sensation
3. Imaginational: clear visualizations; metaphorical speech; dreaming; magical thinking
4. Intellectual: need to question or analyze; delight in the abstract and theoretical; puzzle and problem solving
5. Emotional: intensity of feeling and relationships; natural empathy and compassion; susceptibility to depression, anxiety, or loneliness

Dr. Michael Piechowski, who studied alongside Dabroswski, has dedicated much of his life to researching the emotional and spiritual aspects of gifted children. In his book ‘Mellow Out,’ They Say. If Only I Could: Intensities and Sensitivities of the Young and Bright, he stresses the need to “give voice to the emotional life of bright young people, to show how their intensities and sensitivities make them more alive, more creative, and more in love with the world and its wonders.”

Piechowski, along with other gifted experts, teaches gifted children a variety of techniques for coping with their overexcitabilities. For Caroline, this required her teachers, parents, and siblings to understand and embrace her overexcitabilities. At the same time, Caroline learned exercises to calm her senses and help her focus.

Guided imagery and meditation are excellent tools for those like Caroline learning to master their sensitivities. A good place to start is with a simple exercise. Have your child close his or her eyes, breathe deeply, and say with the breath,

“Breathing in I calm my body,
Breathing out, I smile.”

Learning to use the mind to control the body through exercises like this — along with overall awareness and understanding — is an important step in mastering intensities.

For more strategies, see our post 15 Strategies for Managing Your Gifted Child’s Intensities.

Does your child experience any of these overexcitabilities? What coping techniques have worked for you? Please share with us in the comment section below!

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We are excited to share this post as part of the New Zealand Gifted Awareness Week Blog Tour. Gifted children worldwide share many unique characteristics, including intensities. It is important for those who are in the lives of these gifted individuals to better understand these characteristics in order to help nurture and support their intellectual, social, spiritual, emotional, and physical growth.