Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Understanding 'Immaturity' in Gifties

1. Psychomotor. In Dabrowski�s model, this is more than just an abundance of large-muscle physical activity. A child might not race from room to room or jump on furniture, but express psychomotor excitability by rapid speech, nervous habits, restlessness, and difficulty quieting his mind in order to sleep. Like every excitability, this isn�t necessarily something negative; it can also be the source of a child�s boundless energy and stamina. Often, however, a gifted child with psychomotor overexcitability is mislabeled with AD/HD.

2. Sensual. Heightened sensitivity to sound, light, touch, texture, or smell can also be viewed in two ways: as a difficulty (the excessive sensitivity associated with Sensory Integration Dysfunction) or as the capacity for esthetic appreciation. In a supportive context, a child with sensual overexcitability may find a life of passion and artistic engagement. In an environment lacking sufficient stimulation or, conversely, with too much competing stimulation, the same child may become anxious, irritable, withdrawn, or even explosive. The mismatch between temperament and environment is the source of the difficulty � not an inherent defect in the child.

3. Emotional. Once again, this overexcitability can be easily misunderstood. The emotional instability of a child with intense highs and lows may be seen as evidence of immaturity, bad upbringing, or even a serious mood disorder � but it might be none of these. In particular, adults need to be very cautious before assuming that emotional swings represent a psychiatric condition like Bipolar Disorder. With emotional overexcitability, there�s a greater responsiveness to actual stimuli (including thoughts and memories); even if the responses seem excessive, they�re responses. With a condition like Bipolar Disorder, on the other hand, the emotional swings follow their own rhythm and aren�t always connected to objective events.

4. Imaginational. This overexcitability is characterized by vivid dreams, creativity, love of fantasy, and inventiveness. Here, too, traits that might seem indicative of AD/HD or even a delusional disorder (requiring treatment) can also be seen as talents (requiring expression). Gifted children who become lost in a fantasy world or insist on peculiar interpretations may become poets, artists, or inventors. If outlets for expression are denied, however, they may develop problems like anger or depression.

5. Intellectual. Dabrowski�s fifth category is the one most typically associated with giftedness � an insatiable appetite for questioning, discovery, finding answers, and solving puzzles. Such children can seem annoying or arrogant, and their stubborn individuality can be misperceived as defiance toward authority or indifference to social context. They may be caricatured as �little professors� or, if their intellectual drive is focused on a narrow or esoteric subject, labeled with Asperger Syndrome.

My 10 year old son and I watched an interesting show on the science channel yesterday called Searching for Sanity where a group of experts in psychiatry and psychology tried to figure out who, among a group of ordinary looking people, some of whom had diagnosed disorders and some perfectly normal, had certain psychiatric disorders. The experts were not told anything about their backgrounds. Social anxiety, bipolar, and depression were some of disorders they were looking for and they could only watch for clues in their behavior in order to match people with disorders. The experts got it wrong more than half the time. The show made it easy to see how misdiagnosis could occur. Some of the people they suspected of having a psychiatric disorder were perfectly normal.