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You are right, they do have special needs. Our daughter's friends were in an isolated group and they were not getting the social skills they needed within this group. At the 6th grade level there was a new program started with high academic standards that was filled through a lottery in the entire school district. Many of the "gifted" children enrolled in this program and blended quite successfully with the other children. The common factor was a thirst for learning, not IQ. This school has continually been one of the highest rated schools in the nation. The success is not the IQ of the children but their energy and drive to grow intellectually and culturally. I would love to see more schools such as this available to all children.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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Our daughter, now age 26, was in a full-time gifted program in Washington State. The children in this program had multiple social difficulties associated with their high intelligence. Several of her friends as they became teens tried to commit suicide. There is a higher rate of suicide among gifted teens than other populations.

When our daughter was first identified as "gifted", a term I hate, I was told that there is an old world curse: "May all of your children be gifted." The parents of many "gifted" children are struggling to cope with raising a child with so much intellectual ability who are unable to blend with other children. This is not something to be bragged about but is a serious emotional and social dilemma for children who are otherwise just kids with all of the usual emotional insecurities and needs to belong.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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