Social Emotional

Students’ Social/Emotional Needs through Program Options

While academic programming is extremely important for gifted students, support for the social and emotional aspects of maturing may be equally critical. Growing up as a gifted learner can be a different experience from most children. Research shows that gifted children often need support in understanding their feelings and developing their self-concepts. They need to:

  • Know how they are like and different from other people.

  • Feel pride in their abilities, rather than guilt or anxiety.

  • Learn how to value and accept people less able than themselves.

  • Own their own talents and determine how they best fit into the world.

  • Belong to a group and to the school community.


—Schmitz, Connie C. and Judy Galbraith, Managing the Social and Emotional Needs of the Gifted, Free Spirit Press, 1985.


Small discussion groups or individual sessions may be helpful to students. Discussions may be led by the students or an adult trained in the interpersonal and intrapersonal aspects of giftedness. These experiences might evolve around the following topics.

  • Extra Perception. Gifted students often have a deeper understanding or more acute awareness of physical, social, and intrapersonal aspects of life.

  • High Involvement. Because of increased sensitivity to thoughts, actions, interests, and materials, gifted students have frustration with those who do not exhibit the same characteristics.

  • Emotional Sensitivity. Super-sensitivity caused by the high degree of perception may lead to problems. James Alvino comments that gifted students display “high standards of truth and morality . . . and are quick to judge those who don’t measure up. They’re affronted by hypocrisy, double standards, and other forms of logical and ethical contradiction.”

  • Perfectionism. While concerned with accomplishment and the pursuit of excellence, gifted students are often unable to accept a product of “high quality” because it is not perfect. Students need to learn to develop realistic criteria for their work and use that criteria for judging their accomplishments.

  • Uneven Integration. Gifted students may excel in mental math or story writing but do not have the ability to “get it down on paper.” This may be a learning disability but can probably be attributed to the unevenness in the development of students’ abilities. Few students are high in everything, and we must help them learn to cope with these differences.

For further exploration of the social and emotional characteristics and needs of gifted students, consult Growing Up Gifted, by A. Barbara Clark (8th edition, 2013, Pearson Education, Inc., pages 92 – 122).


More information on Social Emotional aspects of Gifted Students:

Social / Emotional Aspects of Giftedness - Hoagies

Gifted Learners’ Social Emotional Needs Article

Serving the Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG)


The characteristics of a gifted child cannot be removed; they are an integral part of that child. When these characteristics are criticized by others and portrayed as negative, gifted children learn to hide their giftedness, which is a great cost to the child. It is perfectly acceptable in our culture to be extraordinary in some areas, such as sports or music. But when children demonstrate strong intellectual aptitude and excellence, parents or teachers say, “Well, don’t let it go to your head”— a message that suggests that the child should be modest and disguise his mental abilities.


The very characteristics that make a child what he is becomes the reasons for the message:

“You need to change in some areas so that you will fit in better with the mainstream.”


~ Webb, James T. et.al. Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children, Great Potential Press, 2007. P. 121.