Transition From Gifted Child to Adult Producer

Not all highly gifted children grow up to be creative producers. Personality factors and motivation appear to be among the most important elements of creative achievement. Although there is consistency among researchers regarding the attributes of eminent individuals, less information is available about how these characteristics are acquired or the circumstances that generate them.

Characteristics of creative producers include

• Tolerance or preference for solitude in childhood, which facilitates study and practice within the talent area and also supports the development of a rich internal fantasy life.
• Lack of concern with social conventions and conventional paths to achievement. This lack of concern with conventions encourage risk taking.
• Extraordinary ability to cope with tensions caused by trying to solve major problems and produce novel works. Eminent individuals often thrive on this tension.
• Ability to live and work on the edges of acceptance by critics.
• High energy, with individuals often described as "workaholics."

It’s very interesting that these characteristics can be born not only out of childhoods that are privileged, but out of poverty, isolation, parental death, serious illness, or dysfunctional families. When tragedy occurs in childhood, some individuals are destroyed and others turn that tragedy into positive energy that produces a very creative adult.