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Spontaneously, the term « gifted » evokes two ideas: that of a « gift » that the child has received, but also that of « too much », specific to a non-standard, marginal intelligence. Contrary to popular belief, and to what their IQ might suggest, these children’s intelligence is not quantitatively superior, but qualitatively different. What if we were to unveil the secrets of this atypical intellectual functioning?

Intellectual precocity is not uncommon, affecting around 3% of children, or an average of one or two pupils per class. If a teacher or parent suspects that a child is gifted, he or she can refer the child to a psychologist. At present, IQ testing (e.g., using the WISC-IV, a commonly used test battery) remains the most widespread way of identifying giftedness, considered to be effective when the child’s IQ exceeds 125/130 (bearing in mind that the average is 100). However, taking this test is far from sufficient, as the figures themselves are not sufficiently informative. The psychologist usually also gathers testimonials from the child’s parents and teacher, in order to get as close as possible to the child, his feelings, his daily life.

They process information in parallel

The « arborescence » of thought is one of the major characteristics of the gifted child. Each of his ideas will divide, then subdivide into new ideas, which in turn will generate new branches, like the branches of a tree. Whereas an ordinary person processes information linearly (one after the other), a gifted child will process it simultaneously, in parallel (one at the same time as the other). For example, a teacher might ask her pupils to reconstruct an entire historical event, with its facts, causes and consequences. An average child will render the facts in a scrolling list, one after the other, in a linear fashion. A gifted child, on the other hand, will be presented with all the facts of the event at once, like a firework display. He will then have to find the links between the different elements, in order to present them to the teacher in a linear and logical way, so that they can be understood by everyone. In other words, he has to put some order into his thinking, which can be described as « rough ». It’s worth noting that linear thinking is favored in teaching, which can set gifted children back. Yet it’s this very particular way of thinking, which mainly involves the right side of the brain, that enables creativity and the emergence of « brilliant » ideas. Experts tend to think that the greatest inventions in our history were born of this type of intellectual functioning!

They’re intuitive

Their mental manipulation of data is so acute that they are able to produce a quick and accurate answer, but without always knowing how to justify it. They take it for granted. As a result, these children are generally referred to as intuitive by those around them.

They don’t share our implicit codes

Whether we’re aware of it or not, we share implicit codes with each other, which vary from one context to another – in the supermarket, at home, at work, among friends. When someone asks you « How are you? », you spontaneously reply « Fine, thank you, and how are you? », even if you’re not at your best. This is an implicit code known to both interlocutors. We tend to believe, not necessarily rightly, that the other person thinks like we do. This illusion of shared thinking can lead to many misunderstandings in our day-to-day relationships with others. This discrepancy is all the more marked with gifted children, in that their thinking and codes of understanding are different from our own. At school, implicit codes are numerous. For example, the teacher asks Stéphane, aged 9, to « make » a set of geometric figures in his notebook. Spontaneously, the child envisages making, in the sense of « fabricating », these figures. So, he’s not just going to trace these figures on the paper, as his teacher implicitly asks him to do, but actually make them using the materials at his disposal (scissors, paper, glue). Of course, this behavior can be quite misinterpreted by a teacher who is not sensitive to precociousness, especially if it is repeated often enough. Whatever the situation, gifted children tend to understand and use words in their first, most common sense. This is quite surprising, as they have access to abstraction.

They absorb a lot of information in record time

Gifted children can absorb much more information than others, and at an exceptionally fast rate! As a result, they take great pleasure in acquiring new knowledge, and show a keen interest in privileged collections of information such as books, encyclopedias, television reports and so on. According to some authors, this knowledge helps to combat the boredom and existential anguish specific to these children.

What does neuroscience have to say?

Advances in neuroscience now enable us to better understand giftedness, and to highlight the specificity of these children’s brains. Here are two major conclusions. On the one hand, research has highlighted a « cerebral hyperactivation ». In other words, certain neuronal networks are permanently activated. Not only are their rest phases less frequent, but they always maintain a minimum level of activation. This hyperactivation translates into a continuous feeling of being « on top of things ». What’s more, these children’s cognitive processes involve the right hemisphere, which is more « emotional », to a greater extent than the left hemisphere, which is more « rational ». This involvement would explain the simultaneous processing of information, as well as the intuition and creativity of these children.

Are these children happy?

The personalities and ways of being of gifted children are very different from those of other children, and from those of us adults. Unfortunately, difference often means marginality, or even exclusion. The lives of these children are marked by « discrepancies » that Jean-Luc Terrassier has called « dyssynchronies ».

Dyssynchrony between their verbal level (which is very good) and their psychomotor level (which remains within the norm) can, for example, lead to difficulties in writing. As the mind moves « faster » than the hand, the latter is likely to tense up and thus form letters incorrectly.

Another dyssynchrony between their intellectual level (very good) and their emotional level (within the norm) can result in intellectualized, unspontaneous behavior: their brilliant intelligence can lead them to « calculated » behavior aimed at concealing their emotional discrepancy. As a result, they can appear cold and unreassuring to those around them.

Such a child may also suffer from dyssynchrony between his mental age (which is higher than his own) and his real age, which encourages him to engage more in dialogue with adults than with his peers. Indeed, the latter, with their lower mental development than his own, don’t really meet his needs; he may find them uninteresting and futile.

This child thus suffers from « social » dyssynchrony, meaning that he or she will be and feel permanently out of step with others his or her age. This marginality can be painful to live with: the gifted child will have difficulty making friends, and will feel misunderstood most of the time, too different. These feelings are all the more difficult for them to bear because they are so lucid and hypersensitive.

The signs of a gifted child

Great intellectual curiosity
Quick learner
Sense of humor
Hypersensitivity, exacerbated empathy
Emergence of existential questions (about life, death, the universe, etc.)
Highly developed sensory perception
Great creativity
Excellent memory
Lucidity

• Read more

Siaud-Facchin, J. L’enfant surdoué : l’aider à grandir, l’aider à réussir. Odile Jacob, 2008

Terrassier, J-C. and Gouillou, P. Guide pratique de l’enfant surdoué : repérer et aider les enfants précoces. ESF, 2009

Tordjman, S. Helping high-potential children in difficulty. Identify and understand, assess and manage . Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2010