Concomitant Characteristics of the Gifted

Patrick was consistently the first to raise his hand in class and he always had the correct answer. The problem was, he never gave anyone else a chance to contribute. Can we show Patrick other ways to demonstrate his knowledge? Should he be moved to a class that is more challenging?

Both at home and at school, Joslin had a terrible time moving from one activity to another. She would get so “into” whatever she was doing that she hated it when her parents or teacher would ask her to switch to something else. Would it help to give her advanced notice of when to expect a change, with several reminders?

Seneca was curious about everything, so he had lots of questions. The problem was that he had so many questions that it was annoying and often intimidating to others. Can we give Seneca projects that require a lot of idea generation? Should he be taught skills for finding his own answers rather than asking everyone else?

Every behavioral characteristic has its positive and negative side. This includes characteristics that gifted children tend to have. These two-sided attributes are known as concomitant characteristics.

While we should not excuse bad behavior, we can help direct kids to positive outcomes. We also can learn to be more tolerant ourselves by understanding that the seemingly irritating behavior of someone else may also have a positive side.

Some examples are:

Characteristic	Positive Aspect	Negative Aspect
Verbal proficiency	Good at articulating	Dominates the conversation
Accelerated pace of learning	Can move through material quickly	Gets frustrated with the pace of learning
Ability to concentrate and persist	Is able to focus on a task and learn in depth	Resists interruption
Seeks order	Likes to plan ahead and keep everything neat	Difficulty with spontaneity
Sense of humor	Entertaining and resilient	Uses humor in inappropriate ways that distract or offend
Heightened self-awareness; feels different	Realizes the potential of being unique	Feels isolated and self-consciousness
High expectations	Sets high standards	Critical of self and/or others when high expectations are not met
Self-confident, leader	Able to influence others	Perceived as bossy
Huge store of facts and long memory	Learns quickly	Becomes bored and impatient with others
Creative	Innovative thinker	Disruptive
Many interests	Has many possibilities in life	Has difficulty choosing between interests
Goal oriented	Gets tasks done	Viewed as stubborn and inflexible
Deep thinker	Conceptualizes on a greater level	Hates deadlines
Perfectionist	Does everything well	Avoids tasks for fear of not doing them perfectly