This is a great thread, despite being old and a little short. It should be dredged up and added to every so often as people have wisdom to contribute.
That article makes a lot of sweeping but questionable statements:
Many parents of highly gifted children have reported that the physical changes of puberty and the emotional adjustments of adolescence began years earlier than expected for their children.
Sure, I suppose that four or more parents of gifted parents have felt that way, along with lots of parents of intellectually normally developing children. The implication that gifted children mature more quickly physically sexually on average is as far as I know without solid evidentiary support. What does seem to be true is that children in general are maturing sexually at younger ages with each passing generation.
A 15 year-old boy said this, "It's hard for my parents and I right now. They like how gifted I am when I get awards and stuff, but they want me to slow down with my girlfriend. They say I'm moving too fast. It's the same speed I've always moved at."
In other words, gifted teenaged boys can be horndogs too, and may be no slouches at coming up with obvious rationalizations.
Polish psychiatrist and psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski described five "Overexcitabilities" (OE) present in gifted people: Psychomotor, Sensual, Intellectual, Imaginational, and Emotional.
He
theorized about overexcitabilities. Here the author asserts as fact that all five exist, and are present in gifted people.
One young man, a senior in an accelerated academic high school program, described his experience of sex as an incredible sensual exploration: "It takes me from the mundane, closed-in world of homework and rules, to this.. blissful place beyond words, beyond physical limitations."
"I'm an eloquent horndog."
A young woman who graduated from college at 18 years old commented that in her experience, her highly gifted peers seemed to experience sex in a fuller, more multidimensional way than their age peers.
What does this even mean? That one young woman witnessed her highly gifted peers having relations in the fifth dimension? That intellectually normally developing teens don't feel deep emotional connections when they have sex?
Highly gifted people tend towards a more androgynous style, and few of them act out gender role stereotypes.
... and on and on. The article is fluff.
)but that feel right for my DD. I told her recently that her dad and I realized that because she and her BF were both gifted, that the feelings they feel for each other may be more intense than what was typical of her friends in their relationships, and her face lit up and she turned to me and said "Thank you" in such a sincere voice--I could tell it meant a lot to her.
