by Marilyn Martin

Created on: April 25, 2010   Last Updated: April 29, 2010

A Gifted Child needs more than just special classes or assignments.  And a Gifted Child in a small or rural school may not even have access to that.  Sometimes, if a Gifted Child finishes an in-classroom assignment before the others, he/she is given an extra workbook to do that is usually totally unconnected to the challenges and feedback Gifted Children need.

A Gifted Child is usually identified through IQ tests, and/or teachers who correctly evaluate the complexity of a Gifted Child's in-classroom questions, answers and test scores.  Once identified as Gifted, this child needs to be put in Special Classes, or transferred to a school with Special Classes.  If a truly Gifted Child has no access to special classes, parents need to seriously consider home schooling.  Since leaving a Gifted Child in an average schoolroom dooms that Gifted Child to misinterpret their potential and future.  Boredom and alienation in a regular classroom starts the ball rolling for yet another Gifted Underachiever.

Some schools offer no special classes for Gifted Children, but are open to putting the Gifted Child in a higher grade level, to match his/her intellect and learning capacity.  This may be an only option for parents to help their child work toward his/her potential.  But there may be jealousy and alienating behavior in those upper classes too, from average but older students.  And few of these older students will reach out to befriend this younger child, so the child is faced with the same dilemma - be smart and alone, or "play dumb" and have friends.

This also sends a negative psychological message to the Gifted Child that he/she may be smarter, but that it clearly is of no advantage, especially in that regular classroom or school.  If the rest of the class resents the Gifted Child, this also sends the message loud and clear that being Gifted means being a target of jealous and/or bullying behavior from their classmates.  So the Gifted Child may "dumb down" their efforts, becoming an underachiever for their potential, choosing classroom peace and friendships over striving to achieve anything beyond their average classmates.

Another point parents and teachers often overlook is that just because a Gifted Child has mental capabilities beyond his/her age, they are probably still emotionally at their chronological age.  Which means, as I stated above, they may "play dumb" due to peer pressure.  And pick up only

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