With gifted children, why do we see these so often: perfectionism, anxiety, sensitivity, sensory issues, difficulty with anger management?

Do these just go hand in hand with giftedness? Is it related to asynchronoous development? Is it neurological? Does it have something to do with heightened development of certain ares of the brain? Is it chemical? What's the link?

Sorry for my ignorance, but I'd really like to understand the physiology behind this connection. Thanks!

IMO... Nothing scientific about it. GT kids are not only smarter, they seem to be "MORE" of everything! More sensitive, More anxious, More, More, More!!!

LOL Shari , I completely agree.
When I had my DD6 tested (for IQ) the way it was described it to me is that they are so much more aware of their surroundings, but don't know what to do with the information yet because of their age. Some of it gets better as they get older

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/dabrowski.htm

You can also google Dabrowski and/or overexcitabilities. There's lots of info out there.

HTH!

You also have to consider some selection bias.... If a kid has no perfectionism, anxiety, sensitivity, sensory issues or emotional difficulties... how likely is it that his parents will bother finding out that he's (happily) gifted?

In our case, DS is happy, calm and even-keeled. No sensory issues, not much anxiety (no more than anyone else in the family, but it is something I keep an eye on), no anger management issues or other emotional or behavioral difficulties, no potty training issues, tests well, reads social cues and subtleties like a psychic, takes on challenges without blinking, turns on a dime as needed... He was clingy as a baby, but at the time I thought that was normal.

I don't know why he doesn't have issues, except that we only tested (IQ) because of some early verbal quirks, and (achievement) because of the homeschool laws here. I could see never having realized he was anything more than just a good student, if a few little things had been different.

Erica,
That makes a lot of sense! We found out ds was gifted because we were trying to rule out ADHD. It just didn't seem to fit exactly. I still don't think ADHD is a longshot, but we have much more info now. I doubt we would have ever considered reseraching it without the issues. We knew he was bright, but we probably would have left it at that without the problems. Thanks!

As I recall, this book tries to explain the connections:

A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children
By James T. Webb, Janet L. Gore, Edward R. Amend

I would think selection bias plays a major role as well. We've never had any major behavior issues. I often said about one DS as a baby that I wouldn't have any idea what parenting was really like if he was my only kid. He cried when hungry or tired. He slept a ton and if he was awake, he was smiling. I thought PG and early reading made for easy parenting because even at 3 or 4, my sons would disappear and read for a long time. There aren't that many 3 or 4 year olds that will do something safe and quiet for hours at a time, so I found it to be a huge bonus.

One son has always been a bit more challenging and more sensitive, but only in comparison to his very laid-back siblings. We used to think he'd have been happier as an only child, with no one messing with his stuff, less noise, etc. That wasn't his choice, so he's adapted. He did test every limit to find all the boundaries, try to outsmart us, and try to be a bully with his siblings, but he's over it. He still can't watch any movie with scary music though, including things that seem utterly innocuous to me.

My "PG" son was also quite easy. He came third in my closely spaced 3-pack, and I often joked that he came out of the womb at age 2. He was just "one of the kids" before he could really even walk. He hung with them, got around well (and if he didn't, his older sister drug him around), and I forgot at times I had a "baby". I do remember looking at a friend's 2 year old...sitting quietly in the umbrella stroller while the "older" kids (and DS) played, and wondered how she pulled off that feat.

We did always find DD2 somewhat "emotional", and yes, she was intense (especially compared to the other 2), but I didn't even think in terms of GT until we started school. On an interesting sidenote too, DD2 is only intense with us. She is very reserved at school, and her teachers probably don't believe some of the tales I tell. She does warm up and give out some of her creativity in time, but only the "good" stuff. The emotions stay home, . Even so, she's only really had sensitities, anxieties, sensory issues, a newfound perfectionism. There has never been a hint of anger management problems with any of my kids.

Perhaps with gifted children they just have a hard time mixing with their same-age peers.

My little'un is said to be intolerant of his class mates and doesn't mix well. Well, intellectually I guess he's at least 2-3 years ahead - who wants to be wasting time doing "the earth year is 365 1/4 days" when your head is with Einstein and relativity? (Dottie - you know our history)

Imagine spending all day with kids, and only kids (not teaching 'em of course). You would very soon get quite hacked off, bored, morose......