Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Impulse control and the strong willed child

It might make you feel better to know that the behavior you describe is something that many parents of seven year old boys, gifted or not, deal with on a daily basis. Behavior has been quite the topic lately among the mothers of seven year old boys in my circle. Everyone is having issues with their son's behavior. The boys seem to have their worst behavior at home, yet are on their best behavior at school.

We talk to the twins a lot about thinking before they act, and have a lot of "How would it make you feel if someone did that to you?" type conversations. The conversations about how they would feel seem to be having the most impact on behavior, even though usually at the time of the conversation it doesn't seem to be having an impact.

momoftwins, thank you! We really don't have friends with boys this age, so he's our only real example.

We have made some progress here. The book aeh recommended has some great advice. It's still one hour at a time, though... had a major meltdown over homework the other night. He made a mistake and wanted to turn it in without fixing it. Since the mistake had to do with not having read the directions, we insisted he reread them and redo that part of the assigment. (I am not a big fan of homework, but do believe he must learn how to read and follow directions if he's to get through school showing his potential!).