1. Gifted Children’s Intensities Barbara Branch Executive Director California Association for the Gifted

2.  Dabrowski’s Overexcitabilites  Intensity in Gifted Children  Suggested Classroom Interventions for Intense Gifted Children Agenda

3.  Kazimierz Dabrowski (1902-1980) – Polish psychiatrist  Two Concepts Developmental Potential Your initial opportunity for growth Depends on how it is actualized Multilevelness Various levels of inner growth Might be higher in a young person who has been self-integrated The work of personal growth Dabrowski’s Overexcitiabilites

4.  Psychomotor  Sensual  Intellectual  Imaginational  Emotional Dabrowski’s Overexcitiabilites

5.  Surplus of Energy  Rapid Speech  Need for Action  Misdiagnosed as ADHD Psychomotor

6.  Enhanced sensual experience  Sight  Sound  Touch  Taste  Smell  Beauty  Music Sensual

7.  Curiosity  Capacity for sustained intellectual effort  Search for truth and understanding  Capable of reflective thought Intellectual

8.  Creative thinking  Capacity for image and fantasy  Can create private worlds  Need for novelty and variety Imaginational

9.  Extremes of emotion  Empathetic  Shyness and timidity  Capacity for strong attachments Emotional

10. Overexcitabilities lead to Intensities

11. INTENSITY OF THOUGHT “Her mind is always whirring.” From J.R. Delisle, Once Upon a Mind: The stories and scholars of gifted child education. 2000.

12. INTENSITY OF PURPOSE “Once he makes up his mind to do something, he’s not satisfied until it’s accomplished.” From J.R. Delisle, Once Upon a Mind: The stories and scholars of gifted child education. 2000.

13. INTENSITY OF EMOTION “She internalizes anything anyone says about her.” From J.R. Delisle, Once Upon a Mind: The stories and scholars of gifted child education. 2000.

14. INTENSITY OF SPIRIT “He’s always looking for someone less fortunate who needs help.” From J.R. Delisle, Once Upon a Mind: The stories and scholars of gifted child education. 2000.

15. INTENSITY OF SOUL “She asks questions that philosophers have asked for centuries and gets upset when we can’t give her definitive answers to them.” From J.R. Delisle, Once Upon a Mind: The stories and scholars of gifted child education. 2000.

16. Emotional Intensity Emotional intensity in the gifted is not a matter of feeling more than other people, but a different way of experiencing the world: vivid, absorbing, penetrating, encompassing, complex, commanding- a way of being quiveringly alive.

17.  Emotionally intense  Unrealistic expectations of self and others; perfectionist; depressing  Excessively competitive  Low frustration tolerance  Easily hurt  Feels powerless to solve world problems Problems with Being Gifted

18.  Impatient; sees too much  Disruptive; class clown  Uses humor to seek attention  Excessive questioning (why, why)  Goes too far; seems disruptive  Unable to accept help Problems with Being Gifted

19.  fMRI showed intense and diffuse brains  Not one mode thinkers – multi-modality  Enhanced distractibility but leads to creativity (daydreaming)  Need time for rumination and reflection Brains on Fire

20.  Learn about giftedness  Understand gifted intensities  Create a learning environment that allows for movement, creativity, exploration, choice, structure, and opportunity for questioning.  Know that gifted children need less repetitions and review  Often gain incidental knowledge Teacher’s Role

21.  Understand that gifted students may know more than you do about some subjects  Understand and value them intellectually and emotionally  At the beginning of the year find out the learning style and interests of your students  Give the Overexcitability Questionnaire Teacher's Role

22. 1.Do you ever feel really high, ecstatic, and incredibly happy? Describe your feelings (Younger children can draw a picture.) 2.What has been your experience of the most intense pleasure? 3.What are your special kind of daydreams and fantasies? 4.What kinds of things get your mind going? Overexcitability Questionnaire

23. 5.When do you feel the most energy, and what do you do with it? 6.How do you act when you get excited? 7.What kind of physical activity (or inactivity) gives you the most satisfaction? 8.Is taste something special to you? Describe in what way it is special. Overexcitability Questionnaire

24. 9.Do you ever catch yourself seeing, hearing, imagining things that aren’t really there? Give examples. 10.When do you feel the greatest urge to do something? 11.If you come across a difficult idea or concept, how does it become clear to you? Describe what goes on in your head in this case. 12.Describe what you do when you are just fooling around? Overexcitability Questionnaire

25.  Talk about being gifted and what it means including advantages and challenges  Maintain a structured environment and clear discipline  Teach organizational skills and processing of information  Teach them to think like a disciplinarian (expert in the field) Teacher's Role

26.  Teach gifted children to be metacognitive – understand the nature of thinking  Teach gifted children to evaluate the quality or status of a piece of information as knowledge – internet overload – what counts as knowledge  Teach Socratic seminar – the art of argumentation – a scholarly discussion of an essential question  Teach using moral dilemmas rather than just following rules Teacher's Role

27. How to Nurture Emotional Intensity  Accept children’s emotions  Don’t try to minimize their emotions  Teach children that their feelings are normal for them  Apply consistent discipline  Discuss feelings openly  Use expressive outlets such as art, music, poetry, journaling

28.  Too often gifted children’s facility for assimilating information is taken as a sign that gifted education should consist of “filling up their brains” with vast quanities of information.  On the contrary, information acquisition should take a diminished role in gifted education, and information processing a great one. Teaching Focus

29. We stand at the dawn of a new era. Before us is the most important decade in the history of civilization, a period of stunning technological innovation, unprecedented economic opportunity, and great cultural rebirth. The issue is how do we prepare our children for it. John Naisbitt Megatrends 2000 Final Thought

30. Suggested Reading  Living with Intensity  Susan Daniels  Emotional Intensity  Christine Fonseca  Once Upon a Mind  Jim Delisle  Misdiagnosis  Jim Webb

31. www.drbabs.wikispaces.com Barb’s website