The emotional development of the highly able

The highly able can be expected to be at least as well balanced-as any other children, but they do have special emotional problems arising both from other people's reactions to their exceptionality and from inappropriate education. This was investigated in a British 14-year comparative study. Children labelled as gifted were found to be from different home backgrounds and to have different emotional profiles than others of the same measured ability who had not been seen as gifted. From this and other research it can be seen that expectations of highly able children can be confusing, for example that they either have poor social relationships or are natural social leaders. Teachers and parents may over-pressure pupils to excel at all times, or raise their all-round expectations for a child, even though s/he is only gifted in a specific area. Stress may also come from always having to learn at an unstimulating level, producing boredom, apathy and underachievement. Suggestions are made for helping the emotional development and improving educational provision for the highly able.