Supporting gifted students starts with understanding their unique blend of strengths and challenges. While their exceptional academic ability might give the impression that they are “easy” to teach, the reality is far more complex. Gifted students often grapple with unexpected traits that can hinder their success or well-being. In addition, these unexpected traits can result in the underidentification of cognitively gifted students. For educators and parents, recognizing these less obvious characteristics of gifted students—like anxiety, perfectionism, or difficulty connecting with peers—is crucial. By identifying these unexpected traits of gifted students, we can create environments that nurture their potential while addressing their academic, emotional, and social needs. 

As our school’s gifted facilitator, I am acutely aware of the unexpected struggles these students can face and the unexpected behaviors that can accompany them. Here are the unexpected traits of gifted students to be aware of and ways to help these students thrive both in and out of the classroom.

Perception of Gifted Students

Giftedness often presents itself in multifaceted ways. Oftentimes, truly gifted students present very differently than those who are high achieving. This can make it difficult for parents and educators to identify students as gifted when some of these behaviors and traits are present.

The bios of “Emma” and “Noah” below will showcase two unique perceptions of giftedness. By exploring both perspectives, we’ll learn how to identify different types of gifted students, ensuring they receive the support they need to thrive.

Typically Identified Gifted Student Emma

Emma is the kind of student teachers notice right away. She’s the first to raise her hand to answer complex questions, easily connecting ideas from previous lessons. Her enthusiasm for learning seems endless. When introduced to new material, she dives in excitedly, often finishing assignments far ahead of her classmates. She thrives in situations where she’s encouraged to explore advanced topics, and she regularly volunteers for leadership roles in group projects. Emma’s ability to absorb information quickly means she rarely needs to practice skills multiple times. This leaves her extra time to seek out challenges on her own, and her teachers are impressed with how she always seems one step ahead. Her passion for learning inspires her peers, creating a ripple effect of curiosity in the classroom. She is a leader in the classroom and community and well-regarded among teachers, students, and parents.

Frequently Unidentified Gifted Student Noah

Noah is a bright student. He has a deep understanding of most concepts, often asking deep questions that stump even his teachers. But when it’s time for review work or repetitive practice, Noah begins to tune out. He’ll fidget in his seat, complain that the assignment is “boring,” or leave work unfinished. His frustration shows most during group activities, and he becomes impatient when classmates take longer to grasp a concept he’s already mastered. Sometimes, he interrupts the teacher with questions like, “Why are we still doing this?” He often needs breaks or support because of his behavior. Though his intellect is obvious, Noah’s teachers worry that his reluctance to engage in routine tasks, as well as his difficulty working with others, may hold him back. They see his potential but struggle to help him channel his talent in a way that fosters collaboration and resilience.

As you can see, Emma’s story highlights her eagerness to engage, natural leadership, and passion for discovery. Meanwhile, Noah’s experience reveals potential challenges, like impatience with slower-paced tasks, frustration with peers, and reluctance to engage in routine work. Because of these traits, students like Noah are often overlooked when it comes to gifted identification.

Unexpected Traits of Gifted Students

Just like all of your other students, each gifted student is unique. While some gifted students strongly exhibit many “typical” characteristics of gifted students like Emma, others may only display one or two. This diversity is what makes getting to know each student on a personal level so essential. Understanding these traits helps educators (and parents!) support gifted students not just in their academic achievements but also in their personal growth and emotional well-being.

Here are some of the more common unexpected traits attributed to gifted students and ways to help them.

Asynchronous Development

Academic and Social Emotional Growth isn’t always linear! Gifted students are often described as precocious, but while gifted students may excel academically, their emotional, social, or physical development may not advance at the same rate. This can lead to situations where their intellectual capabilities outpace their emotional maturity or social skills. I often have parents exasperated that their wildly intelligent child lacks executive functioning skills. I usually encourage parents by telling them that this is VERY typical of gifted students! I often have to remind myself that even though I just finished an adult-level conversation with a student, they are still only 5 years old and their maturity will likely reflect that.

Some real-life examples of asynchronous development in gifted students:

• A student can debate advanced topics but struggles with self-regulation when disappointed. 
• It may be easy for a student to hyper-focus on their latest 2,000-piece Lego set, but they haven’t remembered to turn in their homework for a week. 
• A third grader may read high school-level books and discuss them in depth with adults but becomes frustrated and throws a tantrum when losing a game or being asked to do a task they find boring. 
• A fourth grader may tell complex and imaginative stories but struggles to write legibly due to underdeveloped fine motor skills.
• A fifth grader converses with adults about politics and global issues and equity and justice but becomes uncomfortable and awkward when trying to join peer discussions. 
• A nine-year-old can solve complex math equations but hasn’t learned to tie his shoes. 
• A five-year-old devours books and documentaries about boats and can name every type of boat from different wars, but melts down when plans change. 

Recognizing a student’s whole developmental picture and offering tailored support across domains can help bridge the gap. Yardsticks (affiliate link) is an excellent book to remind you of some of the developmentally appropriate milestones students should be hitting by age, rather than by intellect.

One other important note on asynchronous development. It’s important to remember that gifted kids aren’t necessarily good at everything (and it’s important to empower them with this knowledge, too). Just because a student is a highly gifted reader doesn’t mean they will also be a gifted mathematician. Just because they enjoy writing doesn’t mean they’ll devour books. Oftentimes, gifted students grow up feeling like they have to be good at everything or that everything should come easily to them, and that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Perfectionism

Gifted students frequently set unreasonably high standards for themselves, leading to stress and dissatisfaction with their achievements. This can make completing tasks or starting new projects overwhelming. While their accomplishments may appear extraordinary to others, they may never feel satisfied or content. For these students, less-than-perfect results often feel like failure, which can prevent them from taking pride in their efforts. Perfectionism may cause them to spend excessive time refining their work until it’s “just right.”  

To support these students, guiding them toward celebrating progress and effort over outcomes can make a significant difference in their emotional well-being. This post on How To Combat Perfectionism in Gifted Students is especially helpful.

What to Do When Good Enough Isn’t Good Enough (affiliate link) is also a great book on helping students combat perfectionist tendencies. I also have a great book study on the book ISH which is great for getting students to think about perfections! You can learn more about it HERE.

Fear of Failure

Many gifted students tie their self-worth to their accomplishments. This makes the prospect of failure an overwhelming feeling, causing them to avoid risks, even in areas where they could excel. They may procrastinate, refuse to start a project, or avoid participating in challenging activities where success isn’t guaranteed.

To counter this, adults can normalize failure as a part of learning and celebrate the effort, curiosity, and lessons gained from every experience, successful or not. Offering tasks that allow them to struggle productively is beneficial. Productive struggle equips gifted students with the skills they need to face challenges, fostering both academic and personal growth. It helps them move beyond relying solely on innate abilities, enabling them to thrive in diverse and uncertain situations.

Anxiety

Gifted students often carry the weight of high expectations from parents, teachers, peers, and/or themselves. This pressure to consistently perform at a high level can lead to overwhelming anxiety. These students may worry excessively about grades, feedback, or falling short of expectations. Their heightened sensitivity and ability to imagine worst-case scenarios also amplify this tendency. Anxiety may appear as constant over-preparation, inability to relax, or physical symptoms like stomachaches or difficulty sleeping. Many gifted students are justice-seekers and world-changers. When they start to learn about different aspects of our world, it can be a lot for them to internalize. Be sure to have open lines of communication and discussion so students can process through some of these bigger emotions they may feel.

Offering gifted students tools like mindfulness exercises, supportive conversations, and reassurance that mistakes are part of growth can help them manage anxiety and focus more on learning than on fear of failure.

Overthinking

Gifted students tend to analyze every situation deeply. While this can be a strength, it can also cause decision paralysis or unnecessary worrying about hypothetical scenarios. These students might struggle to relax or enjoy activities because their thoughts are consumed with analyzing or solving problems. 

Encouraging them to journal, practice mindfulness, or break down decisions into simpler steps can help them find mental clarity and balance.

Impatience 

When gifted students grasp concepts quickly or think at a rapid pace, they may struggle when others cannot keep up with their ideas or pace of learning. This impatience can make collaborative work challenging. It can also lead to frustration with teachers or activities that don’t hold their interest. Impatience often manifests as irritability, interruptions, or disengagement, which can strain all types of social interactions.

Helping these students channel their fast-thinking energy into creative problem-solving can offer them a constructive way to stay engaged while exercising patience. Research also shows that gifted students thrive when working with like-minded peers. Instead of always creating heterogeneous groups of learners, allow gifted students the opportunity to collaborate together and challenge each other’s thinking.

Low Frustration Tolerance

When tasks aren’t challenging or don’t meet their interests, gifted students may lose patience quickly, becoming frustrated or bored to the point of acting out. On the other hand, when they face tasks outside their comfort zone, they may shut down because they’ve rarely been required to persist through struggles. This low frustration tolerance can create a cycle of avoidance or disengagement in the classroom. 

Offering appropriately challenging tasks, teaching problem-solving strategies, and modeling resilience can help improve their adaptability and stamina.

Perceived Arrogance  

Being advanced or knowledgeable in certain areas can unintentionally make gifted students come across as arrogant. They may correct others’ mistakes, dominate discussions, or unintentionally belittle peers with less expertise in a topic. They may not realize that sharing facts or debating topics is intimidating, and not engaging, to others. While their intent is often enthusiasm rather than arrogance, this behavior can alienate them socially. 

Teaching empathy, active listening skills, and awareness of how their words and actions affect others can help repair and strengthen these relationships. Don’t be afraid to talk to your students about what it means to be gifted. One of my favorite phrases to use is, “You may be better AT some things, but you are not better THAN anyone.”

Poor Peer Relationships 

Gifted students often feel out of sync with peers who don’t share their intellectual interests or abilities. Their advanced vocabulary, unique humor, or intense focus on certain topics can unintentionally create social gaps. This disconnect may make them feel isolated or misunderstood, impacting self-esteem. At times, their behavior can come across as aloof or superior, even when unintentional. 

Addressing this requires fostering connections through shared interests and encouraging participation in clubs or groups tailored to their abilities, which can help them form meaningful relationships with like-minded individuals. 

Tendency to Isolate 

Feeling “different” from peers, gifted students may choose to withdraw into their own world of books, hobbies, or thoughts, making it harder to develop social skills. While this self-sufficiency can produce incredible creativity or focus, it also limits opportunities to build connections. 

Supporting these students means balancing their need for solitude with structured opportunities to engage socially, helping them find respect for both personal time and collaboration.

Over-Sensitivity  

Emotional intensity is common in gifted students. They might feel every failure, subtle critique, or even positive attention more deeply than others. This over-sensitivity can cause emotional outbursts, withdrawal, or feelings of rejection, often leaving the student and those around them walking on eggshells. 

Teaching emotional regulation skills, such as identifying feelings or coping mechanisms, can help these students channel their sensitivity into positive outlets like art, writing, or advocacy.

Self-Criticism

Gifted students are often their own harshest critics. They might dwell on small mistakes, compare themselves unfavorably to others, or dismiss compliments. Over time, this relentless self-criticism can contribute to feelings of inadequacy, even when their achievements are objectively impressive. 

Encouraging these students to shift focus to their strengths and equipping them with tools like positive self-talk or tracking accomplishments can offer relief from these inner battles.

Difficulty with Authority  

Gifted students often question rules, directions, or authority figures, not out of defiance but because they naturally seek understanding and logic. They may challenge classroom norms, ask countless “why” questions, or debate with adults if instructions seem inconsistent or unfair. While this drive to understand is a strength, it can sometimes come across as argumentative or disrespectful. 

Balance is key. Providing explanations for rules while fostering open dialogue can help these students satisfy their curiosity without fostering conflict.

Burnout

The combination of internal drive, perfectionism, and external expectations can be exhausting for gifted students. These prolonged periods of striving for excellence may result in mental, emotional, or physical burnout. Symptoms like lack of motivation, declining grades, or withdrawal can signal burnout. 

Encouraging balance, promoting downtime, and fostering a mindset that values rest as well as productivity can help gifted learners recharge and maintain sustainable growth.

Disorganization or Perceived Laziness

Gifted students often have minds that are buzzing with ideas, bouncing quickly between topics and concepts that excite them. However, this intense focus on their areas of interest can leave less engaging, everyday executive functioning tasks (like organizing their materials or completing routine assignments) feeling unimportant. This can result in messy desks, missed deadlines, or incomplete work, which might make them appear disorganized or even lazy. They may even earn poor grades.

The reality is that their advanced thinking can sometimes make it difficult for them to prioritize or stay focused on mundane responsibilities. They’re not lazy; rather, their energy is channeled into what they find intellectually stimulating. Unfortunately, this perception can lead to frustration for both the student and those around them, especially when their potential seems at odds with their productivity. 

Supporting them with strategies for managing time and breaking tasks into smaller steps can help them bring structure to both their academic and personal life.

Gifted Education Resources That Can Help

You can address SO MANY of these traits for all students through your morning meeting. Visit this post to learn more about how I make morning meeting work in upper elementary.

My Moving Mountains Book Companions are another way to implement specific lessons that resonate with kids and have a lasting impact on their mental health. The Moving Mountains Curriculum is a full year of lessons focused on critical character-building skills using one of my favorite things ever – picture books! 

Whether you’re a seasoned educator or new to the concept of differentiation and trying to juggle it all, this gifted education post will equip you with the tools you need to create an inclusive and enriching learning environment for all students. The gifted enrichment binder is a game changer!

This 5 Tips for Gifted Learners post is another great read about the strategies and tools I use while working with gifted learners in the general education classroom.

Finally, you can browse all of my posts about gifted learners here.

Slocumb-Payne Teacher Perception Inventory 

Struggling to identify students in your school because of some of these unexpected behaviors? The Slocumb-Payne Teacher Perception inventory uses both “positive” and “negative” perceptions to identify students. This scale is designed to obtain a teacher’s perception of a student within the context of a classroom or school. Because each classroom is as unique as the teacher conducting that classroom, one teacher’s perception of a student may vary considerably from that of another. This is why it’s important to survey all teachers who work with a student.

The Slocumb-Payne inventory is designed to identify more students, especially those who are underrepresented in gifted education, by allowing teachers to rate both positive and negative attributes. Sometimes, only gifted students who are high performers and teacher-pleasers are identified; this inventory helps identify gifted students who show some of the more unexpected gifted traits.

For example, both of these descriptions measure the same attribute of giftedness. However, one description presents the attribute negatively whereas the other focuses on the positive side:

• Finds it hard to wait for others; unwilling to do detail work; shows reluctance to do some assignments because he/she already “knows” content or skill
• Learns at a faster rate than his/her peer group; absorbs more with less practice; able to accelerate his/her learning; displays eagerness to do work

Depending on the teacher’s perception of the student, gifted students may not be identified based on only the positive description. However, the same teacher may be more inclined to rate the attribute based on the “negative” description.