What does it mean to be gifted? Does it just mean that you are smart? Uh, no…

According to the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), giftedness means that a person’s ability is beyond the norm for their age. Often giftedness stems from an over-development of specific biological processes or attributes and can be at the expense of under-development in other attributes. Accordingly, giftedness is often seen only in specific area(s) of her abilities, and can be referred to as asynchronous development.

This imbalance is the source of a lot of confusion and frustration for both the gifted person as well as those interacting with the person. For example, a child that is very adept at high levels of reading and language may struggle with the physical and mental processing speed needed for handwriting at the same level. If this child is forced to write book reports or summaries with timeline pressures, it can cause feelings of frustration, inadequacy, and incompetence. However, if these asynchronous developments are uncovered and understood ahead of time, alternative accommodations may be able to be made for this child to use media such as narration or typing/texting to accomplish the assignment.

As stated by NAGC, “It is important that adults look hard to discover potential and support gifted children as they reach for their personal best”. Our Gifted Life hopes to make information and resources accessible to children, parents, educators, and others in order to help these children thrive, bloom, live their BEST lives, and help them become their TRUE self.