Celebrity Baby Shower Gift

Oh, wow.

Sometimes I forget all the cool things I find in my research and blog about.  I recently re-read my post on Raising Bill Gates, and I forgot about this wonderful gem:

I also found another list of gifted traits at RIAGE (Rhode Island Advocates for Gifted Education) in an easy to read format.

They include a wonderful summary of the more frustrating (for parents/teachers) aspects of the creatively gifted child:

…[T]he creatively gifted may also show traits that upset normal parents, teachers and administrators as well as other students and colleagues. Viewed in a positive light, it is important to realize that most of these traits are related to the creatively gifted child’s confidence, independence, curiosity, interest in novelty, humor and persistence. Some of these traits include:

1. Indifference to Common Conventions and Courtesies
2. Stubbornness and Resistance to Domination
3. Arguments that the Rest of the Parade is Out of Step
4. Uncooperativeness
5. Capriciousness
6. Cynicism
7. Low Interest in Details
8. Sloppiness and Disorganization with Unimportant Matters
9. Tendency to Question Laws, Rules, and Authority in General
10. Egocentric and Demanding
11. Emotional and/or Withdrawn
12. Overactive Physically or Mentally
13. Forgetfulness, Absentmindedness, Mind Wanders

It explains quite a lot, from my rebellion in my teen/young adult years to my current tendency to bristle and rebel a lot over the social expectations and demands of me, while at the same time, demanding a lot from others. I tend to be sloppy and disorganized on matters unimportant to me (so honey, that’s why the house tends to be messy and I frequently forget appointments). And I do get emotional on some things, and on other matters I withdraw a lot.

Yeah…I might need to stop being so hard on myself. I am who I am and I tend to be very hard on myself for not being like other people. But that’s not a terrible thing.

On the flip side, the good qualities of the creatively gifted balance it out quite nicely:

1. Consciously Aware of Their Own Creativity
2. Confident & Willing to Take Risks
3. Highly Energetic & Adventurous
4. Strong Sense of Curiosity
5. Good Sense of Humor
6. Idealistic and Reflective
7. Needs Time Alone
8. Has Artistic and Aesthetic Interests
9. Attracted to the novel, Complex & Mysterious
10. High Tolerance for Ambiguity
11. Tends to be Reflective Rather than Impulsive as a Young Child – This Tends to Reverse as in Adolescence

So, I need to keep things in a little perspective here. I have a tendency to feel really badly about some of my intense needs to write, but that comes at the expense of other things like, keeping a tidy home. I tend to castigate myself quite harshly for my utter failure to be a domestic goddess. Maybe someday I will actually work on a writing career and make some money from it, which would justify my time spent writing instead of cleaning.

Creativity and Underachievement
Creativity predicts future accomplishments better than intelligence or school grades. In social sciences, for example, creativity explains more variability in performance than reasoning capacity, speed, or memory. Unfortunately, although creativity can lead to great accomplishment it can, far too often, lead to underachievement.

Many creative and gifted children perform below their ability level. Don't get me wrong, they still get above average marks compared to their peers, but a gifted child (or any child, for that matter) should not be compared to other children, but to him/herself only, focusing on self-improvement, rather than social comparison.

Can Creativity Be Mistaken for ADHD?
Many traits associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are similar to the traits of gifted, talented, or creative children. Teachers may even misidentify energetic and unconventional students, a description that fits many highly creative students, as having ADHD. Research shows that students with ADHD are highly creative, and gather and use more diverse, nonverbal, and poorly focused information, compared to their peers without ADHD. Therefore it is possible that a highly creative student is labeled as having ADHD and is medicated, which in turn will certainly impede his/her creativity.

Neuropsychology of Creativity and Underachievement
Creative underachievers show defocused attention with a lower level of frontal lobe activation. In an average person, the low level of cortical arousal is present during an inspirational phase of a creative endeavor (e.g., thinking of a story), but not during an elaboration phase (i.e., writing down the story). Thus, creative underachievers exhibit the potential (lower level of frontal lobe activation), but do not use materialize that potential into a creative outcome.

Conclusions
From social to cognitive to even neuropsychology, there is evidence that a highly creative child is different from his/her less creative peers, and requires a special kind of understanding and environment. From personal experience as an AmeriCorps teacher of 3- and 4-year-olds, I know it can sometimes be overwhelming to have a classroom full of loud energetic children, where our primary responsibility is to keep them safe. But teachers need to become aware that children's creativity, especially of those who are gifted or highly creative, can greatly suffer if they are not allowed to express themselves. Teachers are encouraged to understand what types of behaviors are associated with creativity, and not ignore or punish such behaviors.