This Summer, the Institute for Educational Advancement’s Academy program will be offering a wide variety of classes, including the online class “Electronics for Cosplay.” Cosplay (a portmanteau of costume play, the art of making fun costumes) is a unique opportunity to incorporate knowledge and experiments of electronics. To learn more, we talked with instructor Joan Horvath.

Why cosplay? There’s a lot of ways to learn about electronics, but what is it about the medium of cosplay that makes it ideal for a class?

Cosplay is a great motivator for design because it inherently tells a story. It can be hard for kids to come up with “an electronics project” that they really get into, but if we already know we want to be a blinky unicorn, then it’s easier to break that down and figure out some fun things that can be done with programmable lights, or maybe some servos to make things move or spin around.

Is the class mostly working with those programmable lights and servos, or is there also a lot of cutting/sewing/tailoring fabric involved?

Minimal hand sewing if any, probably some hot glue. Emphasis mostly on storytelling, and designing what the cosplay item is supposed to do. Then the main emphasis will be on figuring out what sensors to use, writing computer code to control the sensors (like an accelerometer to tell that the wearer is moving a certain way) and blinking lights or moving something in response to what is being sensed. So it is mostly a technical class, not a craft one. 

How do you think costumes tell stories?

Kids can imagine themselves as a fantasy character, and the costume or prop (we’ll probably mostly be making props, like a hat or necklace) helps them get into character, just like any other actor. So for instance if you have a necklace that glows green if you move fast enough than can warn your adversaries that you are supercharged and they better get out of the way! I’m also thinking they could make themselves a little “familiar” that moves a tail or an ear if it detects something. But the choices will be up to them. 

What can a student that takes this class do with the skills they’ve learned? How do you imagine their path in electronics continuing?

We will use a basic microprocessor that will teach them to code in a common computer language, or build on skills if they already know that. They will be able to take that for pretty much any future coding projects they want to do. Projects like this that mix hardware and software also are good background for robotics in particular and engineering in general going forward.

“Electronics for Cosplay” is an online Academy class for ages 12 through 14, taught on weekdays from August 1 to August 12. For more information about the class, as well as information about registering for Academy, see our program page here.

In today’s media and news, I feel like I hear more stories about the benefits of sharing emotions and discussing mental health than I ever did growing up. This is a wonderful thing and through popular media including television and movie portrayals and celebrity confessions, we are growing more accustomed to talking about historically taboo or just unknown topics surrounding emotions and mental health.

With great strides being made in these conversations, it seems important to discuss emotional intensity among our country’s brightest, and sometimes most vulnerable, youth.

The Davidson Institute has a great explanation for why gifted youth tend to experience more intense emotions, saying, “Intellectual complexity goes hand in hand with emotional depth. Just as gifted children’s thinking is more complex and has more depth than other children’s, so too are their emotions more complex and more intense.”

Gifted youth are often more aware of and affected by their surroundings. Children who feel things with great intensity experience the world in a different way than their non-gifted peers. Emotional or physical reactions to events can last longer for gifted children. These experiences of heightened stimulation observed in many gifted individuals are referred to as intensities or Overexcitabilities. Polish psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski identified five overexcitabilities and their associated behaviors:

1. Psychomotor: Characterized primarily by high levels of energy
2. Sensual: Characterized by a heightened awareness of all five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing
3. Emotional: Characterized by extreme emotional sensitivity
4. Intellectual: Characterized by deep curiosity and thought
5. Imaginational: Characterized by vivid imagination and visualization

The first step in managing intense emotions is identifying and understanding them. If you think your child exhibits overexcitabilities, talk to your child about how they feel and react to certain situations. Healthy discussions around expressing emotions make everyone feel safer and more understood. Starting these discussions at a young age enforces good habits for the future.

How exactly do these overexcitabilities manifest themselves? It varies from child to child, but there are common behaviors associated with all five overexcitabilities.

• Psychomotor responses can include pacing, rapid talk or use of hand gestures
• Sensual responses can include sensitivities to clothing textures, food tastes or a need for physical displays of affection like cuddles or hugs
• Emotional responses can include intense feelings of empathy or compassion, depression, anxiety or loneliness
• Imaginational responses can include visualizations, use of metaphorical speech, dreaming or magical thinking
• Intellectual responses can include constant curiosity, deep thinking or a propensity towards solving puzzles and problems

Understanding what emotional intensities are and the behaviors associated with them can help with misdiagnosis or just plain misunderstanding. While some of the more extreme behaviors associated with overexcitabilities can be worrisome for a parent or educator, such as a child’s depression or anxiety, there can also be a wonderful bright side to overexcitabilities.

Some of the benefits of overexcitabilities can include:

• Empathy and compassion towards others
• A desire to solve major world problems
• Creativity
• A high sense of self-awareness
• Enthusiasm
• High energy

Intense emotions don’t always need to be feared or regulated. They are what make so many gifted children wonderfully unique. However, for the times that overintesities do need to be managed, here are some strategies:

• Meditation
• Yoga
• Outdoor physical activities such as going on walks, hikes or playing at a park
• Quiet reflection time
• Journaling or drawing
• Encourage discussions about how your child feels and why they feel the way they do

I hope this blog post helps with identifying and managing intense emotions in a gifted child. IEA’s Gifted Resource Center also hosts a list of books, articles, programs and professionals that can be used as additional sources of information about overexcitabilities.

It’s a scientific fact that 20% of the population is born with a gene that allows them to “process sensory data much more deeply and thoroughly” than other people do.  We also know that a common thread that runs among gifted people is their ability to understand the world more deeply and thoroughly than others, a trait that is simply sensitivity by another name.  Unfortunately, our society tends to view sensitive children as “weak” or prissy in many ways.

This mis-categorization ignores the fact that highly sensitive people are often highly successful people, specifically because of their creative and perceptive temperament.  Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Steve Martin, Robert Frost, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mozart and Elton John are all highly sensitive.

Highly sensitive people have a number of very sought-after traits, including soaring creativity, intense focus, careful conscientiousness, empathetic kindness, and the ability to understand the world around them very deeply.

TYPICAL SIGNS of SENSITIVITY

Summarized from Dr. Elaine Aron, a leading research scientist in the field of high sensitivity

• Processes things deeply. Thinks long and hard about things. Very concientious and can be slow to answer quesions.  Generally responds with accurate, unusual, or creative ideas.

• Overstimulated very easily.  Doesn’t handle time pressure or deadlines well.  Don’t rush them!  Group work is unpleasant for them; they prefer a quiet space to think.  Noise is distracting, and chaotic situations are a nightmare.  Needs lots of personal space and downtime.

• Reacts emotionally.  Takes criticism very personally.  Cries easily, even if feedback is kind and positive.  Has tremendous empathy for others, and tends to worry how others are doing.  Will make a point to give direct and positive feedback to others.

• Aware of subtleties.  Notices very small differences in surroundings, including minor rearranging, changes to lighting or smells.  Reads people in a similar way; almost seems to be a mind-reader.

BENEFITS OF BEING SENSITIVE

• We are more creative.  Brainstorming takes introspection, and the process of combining and editing ideas requires solitude.  The sensitive or introverted person is ideally situated to take his deep experience of the world, quietly turn it over in his brain until it blooms into an explosion of new ideas, then shape it into a workable solution.

• We have an exuberant and lavish inner life.  We are vivid dreamers and daydreamers, we have inventive imaginations, and we recall memories in great detail. We are happy to spend time contemplating instead of acting, which helps us see connections between important things, which makes us smarter.

• We are more emotionally aware. Emotional intelligence, or the ability to recognize our own emotions as well as those of others, is a significant indicator of success in relationships and in the workplace.  People with high emotional intelligence are better decision-makers, better problem-solvers, and enjoy more fulfilling relationships.

• We’re really hardworking.  Some might call us perfectionists, but we aren’t happy until things are clean, organized and RIGHT. That makes us favored students, esteemed colleagues, and excellent managers. We are also careful and conscientious, which again is a strong marker of success in life. We’re also really good at noticing small errors.

• We notice more sensory detail. The world is full of amazing things, and we can see them all. Whether it’s gorgeous artwork, or the scent of an amazing meal, or the indulgent softness of a favorite blanket, sensitive people experience the world around them more deeply, and as a result can derive more happiness from beautiful things than other people can.

• We feel emotion physically. Instead of simply hearing and enjoying music, we literally get goosebumps from beautiful lyrics or harmonies.  Hugs become physical healers, and holding hands produces a flow of energy that we can almost see.  It’s a wonderful way to experience life deeply.

• We understand nuances in meaning. Highly sensitive people can read other people like a book.  Micro-differences in facial expressions or vocal timbre tell us volumes about the validity and real meaning behind what other people are telling us.  This gives us an advantage, in that it is much harder to fool or cheat us.  We recognize inauthentic people and can avoid them, and we have additional information at our disposal that we can use to make important decisions.

• We have superhuman intuition. Our gut instincts are spot-on, which can save us from a lot of heartbreak and hassle.  It’s like having six senses instead of five!

• We have greater empathy. We can sense emotion in other people, and that makes us great friends, teachers and parents.  We act out of a deep sense of understanding for where another person is coming from, and are more likely to do exactly the right thing.

• We are incredibly compassionate.  We have a sincere need to support, guide and comfort others, and it makes us very useful, as well as appreciated.

• We are awesome partners.  We are great listeners, we’re kind and thoughtful, and we naturally want to help people.  How many girls do you know who are dreaming of a boyfriend who is self-centered, oblivious and aggressive?  None.  YOU are the ultimate boyfriend!

• We experience love very deeply.  Because we understand the ones we love so well, and because we naturally tend to want to make other people happy, we form very strong bonds of love.  This love is reflected back to us, as our parents, children and partners appreciate what we give to them, and want to make us as happy as we make them. It’s a blessing to be able to be surrounded by such deep love.

DIFFICULTIES OF BEING SENSITIVE 

• Boys aren’t supposed to be sensitive.  Our society still perpetuates the misguided notion that men and boys should be tough, stoic, aggressive and hardy.  To be otherwise is to be labeled weak, or fussy, or feminine.

• We can mistakenly feel that there is something wrong with us. Because only 15 – 20% of the population is highly sensitive, we may not know many people in our orbit who are like us. Between the messages society sends us about the importance of extroverted behavior, and our own tendency to analyze input from other people very carefully, we may conclude that we are abnormal or even damaged. This is catastrophic for our self-esteem.

• We are often misunderstood. We may be labeled “over-sensitive” or “over-dramatic” by people who don’t realize how deeply we feel, because it’s not their reality.  If we are introverts (80% of sensitive people are) we may be deemed reclusive or standoffish; if we are empaths we may be labeled histrionic or attention-seekers.

• We are susceptible to getting stuck in relationships with toxic people.  Narcissists in particular are drawn to sensitive people because we give them the focused care and attention they crave, and are less likely to break off an unbalanced relationship because our natural perfectionism, work ethic, and tendency to see the best in people lead us to conclude that if WE just work a little harder, things will turn around. We are often in danger of giving more than we receive.

• We need more time alone to decompress. Space to breathe and let go of the stresses that we have internalized is essential to our well-being, but our modern lifestyle can make it impossible to find enough time to take care of ourselves.  In addition, the desire for solitude can be misinterpreted as anti-social behavior.

• Anxiety can present itself as real physical ailments. Because we internalize so much emotion from the world around us, our bodies can reach the limit of what they can hold.  Stress and anxiety can display themselves as stomach aches, IBS, muscle aches, fibromyalgia, migraines, and more.

• Sensitive people absorb negative emotions from others. This can happen just by being in the same room as people who are arguing or crying, or even by watching emotionally broken people on television or in the movies.  We not only notice and are uncomfortable watching other people get upset (or embarrassed), but we FEEL what they feel, despite clearly understanding that whatever is happening is not happening to us.

• There is no such thing as constructive criticism. Sensitive people take feedback as a personal judgment.  Because we are programmed to want to do things well (we can be perfectionists) and receive approval, we are very hurt when someone points out a mistake we made.

• Sensitivity can really get out of hand.  “Emotional Snowballing” may occur in stressful situations, where the emotional response increases to a level disproportionate to the events at hand. Popular situations (such as crowded public events) can become overwhelming, and result in a dire need to escape to somewhere quiet and peaceful.

This post originally appeared on Raising Wizards; it has been reposted with permission.

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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.