Pre Meeting Research
Understimulation
Children who are highly gifted are able to solve difficult mathematical problems. These skills are nice to have, but it could have negative effects on the child. For example, doing normal tasks for a child of their age is often easy for highly gifted people, which could result in understimulation. J.M. Chamberlain explains that behaviour challenges such as distractibility, tantrums, and school refusal may be a result of understimulation. Also problems with verbal communication could potentially be a reason for understimulation. (Bainbridge, 2022)
Kinds of stimulation
Initially, a conclusion could be made that only difficult problems spark the stimulation with our highly gifted child. However, this is not proven anywhere, so it is intriguing to consider that every extra small step the child needs to take, stimulates him more. This hypothesis will be tested in the next meeting, adding small, fun steps to drawing, speaking, and/or reading, to see what happens to the child’s interest. Considering the predominant focus on mathematics and technical aspects, one might inquire whether language engagement could also be effective.
During the interaction with a highly gifted child, it is important to take several aspects into account; attention to social skills, importance of effort, self-esteem, and empathy.
Paying attention to the social skills and emotions of a highly gifted child is really important, because it makes it easier for them to communicate and express themselves. Besides that, they need to be taught how to put effort into something. Highly gifted children usually are not persistent, since they do not need to put much effort into learning something. It could help to show them that not everything is easy and sometimes discipline and time is required to achieve the goal. Another point of attention is self-esteem. Due to perfectionism and fear of failure, highly gifted children do not have a good self-esteem. Highlighting that they enjoyed it, and feel valued when they learned something, and not only focus on the results could help to improve their self-esteem. The last attention point is empathy. Highly gifted children are really sensitive and empathic, sometimes they look more for the approval of others than what they want themselves. It helps to give children the space and liberty to be themselves. (Aranzábal, 2021)
Selective mutism
After consulting with a special education professional, a tip was given to explore selective mutism. Although Arne does not currently exhibit selective mutism (based on what we know), the tips provided could still guide the project in the right direction.
Based on the research, selective mutism belongs to the category of anxiety disorders. While the tips related to selective mutism may be useful, it is essential to recognize that it cannot be stated that Arne falls into this category, since no professional specifically identified this.
How to approach highly gifted children
In order to understand children, it is essential to analyse how they draw and play. They tend to express themselves through body language in unknown situations.
According to psychoanalyst A. Aberastury, drawing could be really useful in child treatment, especially when they fail to speak. It is recommended to connect drawing and games with other, objective evaluations. A structured environment should be created in which children feel comfortable and protected. (“Cómo Trabajamos Los Psicólogos Con Los Niños: El Juego Y El Dibujo Para Conseguir Que Se Expresen”, 2023b)
Some potential games that could be used during the meetings with Arne are: drawing, finger painting, puppets, theatrical performance, music, body expression, dice with letters, and clay.
Looking more in detail in the drawing part, several tests are found:
- Machover’s human figure test: the child is asked to draw a person, then a person of the opposite sex. Additionally, it can be asked that they narrate a story with the people as protagonists.
- Corman’s family drawing: the child is asked to draw his family, essential to understand family dynamics and how the child represents himself within the family.
- The Koch Tree test: the child is asked to draw a house, a person, and a tree once at a time and depending on the separation, lines, and space, it will be analysed.
- Abramson’s drawing of a person in the rain test: the child is asked to draw a person in the rain and elements such as if there is an umbrella or not will be analysed. (“Cómo Trabajamos Los Psicólogos Con Los Niños: El Juego Y El Dibujo Para Conseguir Que Se Expresen”, 2023)