My daughter is 5th grade currently but we have a similar description to yours and certainly I can see myself writing exactly what you wrote 2 years from now. While we found a counselor that was helpful when it comes to anxiety, it was not someone who understood how the gifted component impacted the behaviors.
But, many are not. Raising my hand as the "under the radar" underachiever. I can count on one hand the nights I actually studied. If someone had recognized my divergency as actual thought instead of wrong answers, it may have been different. I want so much more for the gifted children out there. Thanks for writing such a specific and accessible article highlighting a subset of gifted that are mostly overlooked. I appreciate your spotlight!
Thank you, Atlas. I appreciate your willingness to share your personal experience - it fits with what so many others go through, and adds emphasis to what is a glaring hole in the educational experience for so many students. Really appreciate this broader view of the underachiever Gail. I look forward to the upcoming posts and finding more strategies to help me work with this population. Thank you for this article.
What suggestions do you have when the school's gifted test does not identify the child as gifted? They give the Cogat here and she did well but not high enough. She entered kindergarten early and has been expressing her boredom since 1st grade she's now in 4th grade. I wish more teachers would read articles like this one. My son had a difficult time meeting teacher's expectations because they were put out with him. He would give the bare minimum, but they would never add to the curriculum to challenge him.
He hates writing, but could be an excellent writer if they would set challenges for him. I am praying that next year will be the year the teachers take him to task and make the work according to his ability.
He will be in 5th grade. I'm glad to know that I am not the only parent out there. Katie, You are certainly not the only parent struggling with this. Hopefully your son will have some teachers who will be willing to challenge him. I was like this in high school, hell if I'm being honest with my self I'm still like this, hard to admit, but I give up a lot when doing a lot of things. I'll get all inspired and I will stop for no particular reason and lose interest.
I think it's partially habit for doing it so long and it stems from a complex family history I don't really care to start ranting about. But essentially, if you have a kid like this, I think it is more than just them being bored, I think it has a lot to do with their self esteem as well.
Not just self esteem about them being good enough intellectually but possibly socially as well. In my case, family life really sucked and long story short at 17 i moved in with my friend's family. That is where a lot of things changed for me. His family was always encouraging and pushing me and not just saying get better grades or else but saying, hey what do you need, why are you getting bad grades, and it was out of genuine concern rather than just me getting better grades.
I can't really explain why I tried harder for them more than I did my own parents, maybe I respected them more I don't know, but I do know that there was a day that I saw my friend's dad was visibly sad that I was giving up on myself and that hurt knowing that I let someone else down and I really started trying. That year I made up 4 failed classes and passed all my current classes.
It was a super emotional year but I'm glad I had it with them, I would be much worse off had I not lived with them that year. I still have major problems that I need to work on, but it is like a terrible habit and its hard to get rid of, you can revert to it so easily. I think one of the problems is that everything feels pointless, so I would figure out some way to make sure that they know and not just through telling them, but through example that their efforts are not in vein and that they are not pointless, and maybe that will help them.
Also let them know, by showing them, that you are there to help with whatever they are dealing with and that you care not because you are obligated to but because you actually care.
I don't know how you do it, but that's what you got to get through to them, that there are people who actually actively care and that their efforts are not pointless. Those were the biggest factors for me. Anonymous, Thank you for your poignant, heartfelt description of what you went through.
You point out so clearly how much children - all children - need emotional support and encouragement to reach their potential. In my years of working with gifted learners, I have come to believe that one of the pervasive causes of underachievement is fear.
I invite you to consider that gifted children labour under the weight of incredible expectation. Typically, the academic expectations from parents and teachers are immense and unceasing.
The current NAGC position is an example of this, as performance and output are their benchmarks and eminence is their goal. Comparisons to people such as Einstein, Mozart and Hawking are common and set a pretty high bar.
Perfectionism and the Imposter Syndrome compound these fears and can be debilitating. For many of the gifted I have worked with, there is no space between gifted and stupid, so falling short in any way makes them believe they are not gifted but stupid.
There is a tremendous desire to avoid others, and themselves, from forming that conclusion. The best way to gain some control of that inevitability is to avoid producing anything that can be evaluated and judged as falling short of gifted - ergo, stupid.
The parallel to this thinking is also the reality for many that performance is either perfect or a failure. The risk of this judgement is increased as the performance of gifted kids is more scrutinized, not only by others but by themselves. Gifted persons tend to be more aware and critical of themselves. They are also less able to regulate the need to perform at the level of perfection.
Another factor contributing to their fear is the inevitable transition from the celebrated, spontaneous examples of their innate childhood curiosity to the high level of expectation that becomes their reality once they start school. Their motivation shifts from an internal locus of control wherein curiosity, discovery and the acquisition of new knowledge and skills are sources of intense pleasure to the external locus of control where their motivation is to please parents, teachers and others, and where the possibility of failure becomes their shadows.
Many gifted persons are also proponents of the idea that intelligence is fixed, so you either are or you are not. Entity vs Incremental Theory, Dweck, Those who believe this are not able to see that failure is something to be learned from in order to grow, avoid the opportunities to fail in order to avoid the inevitable conclusion that failure leads to - not gifted and therefore stupid.
In their younger years, many gifted kids are able to read, creatively solve problems, work with numbers and think abstractly.
Progress in school comes easily. As they age and are faced with work of increasing difficulty, progress does not come as easily. The increased level of challenge can lead many to believe that they are not as smart as they once thought they were. Again, not gifted but stupid.
The role of fear in a gifted person's life can be immense. Expectations can be paralyzing. The resulting sense of not being in control of many of the factors determining one's status as gifted or not gifted - a success or a failure - can lead to the extreme reluctance to do anything at all that offers the possibility of judgement. The only way to gain some control over this process is to refuse to produce.
The result is underachievement. Hal, Thank you for your thorough and detailed comments about fear-based factors related to underachievement. I completely agree that fear of failure, in particular, underlie avoidance for many gifted people. Your last paragraph highlights this dilemma so clearly. I think that the extent to which fear contributes to the limitations and resulting underachievement relate to the child's temperament, the family dynamics, and the school environment, as not all gifted children succumb to this.
What is clear, though, is that the pressure to perform and succeed at all costs is so detrimental, and robs them of the intrinsic joy of learning that once existed when they were young.
Thank you so much for your comments. Consider executive brain function as a possible problem. YouTube: drcharlesparker I schooled my own doctor with Dr. Again, think: Brain function, not superficial, outward appearances. Absolutely agree that some of the distractions with learning for some gifted students are a function of ADHD, twice exceptional issues, or executive function problems. However, there are a range of reasons for underachievement and all of them are not due to brain function.
Sometimes, there are social issues or merely boredom with an inadequate education. Our challenge as parents, educators, health practitioners or therapists is to identify the reason. Thanks for your feedback. Underachievers under-the-radar I am speechless.
I can't even write, thats how shocked I am. The fourth type It is The causes of underachieving are incredibly diverse. My suggestion is if you want to discover why a gifted child is underachieving, the most productive thing to do is develop a relationship with him or her, and watch and listen. Hal, Exactly. All are different and unique - you have to get to know each of them.
Thank you for your feedback. What about anxiety as it relates to underachievement? I personally never knew how to say that I felt unable to live up to my potential. And my underperformance was ignored because I had a high GPA. I felt immense guilt around not being more self-disciplined. And the guilt was accompanied by feeling inferior to others because they all seemed not to be struggling. Anonymous, The anxiety you mention is common for many who are underachievers, since they know that they are not achieving what is possible, and feel guilty about it.
Unfortunately, when they are permitted to coast through school, this cycle continues. Thank you for your comments. So what can we do? I have a 12 year old who has always been gifted. Today we got a report from the gifted teacher that his efforts are so bad that they may kick him out. What do we do?!! Amy, This is not your fault! Don't blame yourself just because you have ADD. The school needs to accommodate his needs. If you live in a state where you have legal rights, you can insist that the school met his needs, even if there is no room in the classroom, or now, if his behavior is a problem.
They can call in the school psychologist to help with his behavior, but his academic needs should be addressed. Even if there are no safeguards in your state, you can ask to meet with the gifted supervisor or school psychologist to help with this.
Gifted education is not a privilege only for children who behave. Trying to handle everything at once only leads to stress and disappointment, the number one cause of underachiever mentalities. Learn better time-management skills and develop a better organization for yourself, your office and home. Psychologist Leon Seltzer Ph. You is smart. You is important. Moving away from your underachievement requires you to change the way you look at yourself.
One great way to do this is to surround yourself with people you love and things you love. It will help you see the world through a more positive filter. By providing the information below you will receive early-bird invitations to our events, exclusive musings tailored to your interests, and access to our curated mentorship program.
Talented students underachieve for many reasons and in many different circumstances and there is no panacea for how to reverse underachievement in students whose talents may manifest themselves in diverse ways. High potential students with special needs are likely to experience underachievement as efforts to address these needs may focus more on remediation of difficulties and less on development of areas of strength and talent.
In this article, research about twice exceptional talented students who underachieve is summarized and suggestions about interventions are made. Why do so many talented students fail to realize their potential? For years, the underachievement of gifted and talented students has troubled both parents and educators. Too often, students who show great academic potential fail to perform at a level commensurate with their abilities. Still others may underachieve in response to inappropriate educational conditions or environments.
Characteristics of Diverse Gifted Students Attempting to define any overarching psychological constructs that describe high potential underachieving students is virtually impossible, as they constitute a very diverse population.
Instead of summarizing the negative characteristics commonly ascribed to underachievers, we shift the focus to the positive attributes of students with talents. They note that these basic elements of giftedness are similar across cultures and exceptionalities though each is not displayed by every student. A listing of these attributes may be found in Table 1. Each of these common characteristics may be manifested in different ways in different students, and educators should be especially careful in attempting to identify these characteristics in students with special needs or exceptionalities or from diverse backgrounds i.
Defining Gifted Underachievement Defining gifted underachievement should be a fairly straightforward task. Unfortunately, just as there is no universally agreed upon definition of gifted and talented learners, no universal definition of gifted underachievement currently exists.
Students identified as gifted and talented learners are not a homogeneous group. For a thorough review of issues surrounding the definition and identification of underachievement in gifted students, see Reis and McCoach Causes of Underachievement in Gifted Students Determining why some high ability students demonstrate low levels of achievement is difficult because underachievement occurs for many different reasons.
We believe that in the vast majority of cases, the underachievement of bright students occurs for one of three basic reasons. Each of these causes for underachievement may require a different intervention. Therefore, educators should attempt to isolate the reason for students behaviors before attempting to reverse the underachievement. The ramifications of mismatching the causes and treatments of underachievement can be quite serious, as we illustrate in this article. Sara is a fifth grade student who has recently experienced learning problems in school for the first time.
Her teacher and the reading specialist referred her for assessment because of an obvious discrepancy between her verbal skills and her reading and writing skills. A battery of tests indicated an IQ score of ; however, large discrepancy existed between verbal and performance areas. Sara has poor decoding skills, below the second grade level, but manages to read at or slightly below grade level. As her textbooks have become more challenging, her reading has become more labored.
Her parents are surprised at her sudden decline in school. She always seemed so smart, and they never noticed a discrepancy between her verbal skills and her reading and writing skills until this year. They indicate that Sara was born prematurely by seven weeks. Further assessment indicates that she is a very bright student who has significant learning disabilities in reading, information processing, and auditory processing areas.
If she had not been identified as learning disabled, she may have been labeled as an underachiever. Sean is a third grader who seems bored and disinterested in all academics most of the time in school. His teacher reports that he rarely finishes his seatwork, daydreams often, and is in danger of not learning basic information required by the district and state curriculum standards.
Sean and his father, who also has an extremely high energy level, frequently build intricate rockets together. Sean can sit quietly for hours when he is engaged in challenging work of his own selection. Sean tested at the 99 th percentile in general aptitude but his work in school is often below average. Is Sean failing school, or is the school failing Sean? A study of high ability students with learning disabilities who were successful in higher education found that many experienced periods of underachievement in elementary and high school Reis et al.
Some high ability students have learning or emotional problems that affect underachievement. In this article, we review various disabilities and disorders that may cause gifted children to underachieve in school.
In other articles in this journal, some of these areas of exceptionality are covered in greater detail. Interventions that do not address the special needs of these students could do more harm than good. Gifted Students With hearing Disabilities Children with hearing impairments were judged by teachers to exhibit similar characteristics of giftedness to hearing peers, except for academic achievement, which may be delayed for four or five years.
Little research has addressed this area. High Potential Students With Cerebral Palsy Willard-Holt explored the experiences of two talented students with cerebral palsy who were not able to communicate with speech. Using qualitative cross-case methodology, she found that these students demonstrated the following characteristics of giftedness: advanced academic abilities especially math and verbal skills , broad knowledge base, quickness of learning and recall, sense of humor, curiosity, insight, desire for independence, use of intellectual skills to cope with disability, and maturity shown in high motivation, goal orientation, determination, patience, and recognition of their own limitations.
Several educational factors contributed to the development of these characteristics in these students such as willingness of the teachers to accommodate for the disabilities, mainstreaming with non-disabled students, individualization and opportunities for student choice, and hands-on experiences. It is important that we enable seriously disabled students to have the opportunity to show us their strengths and intellectual abilities.
The specific research concerning high ability students with learning disabilities began following the passage of PL , when the expanded emphasis on the education of students with disabilities created an interest in students who were both gifted and also demonstrated learning disabilities. Although the fields of gifted education and special education have collaborated to address the needs of students with gifts and learning disabilities, problems still exist regarding the identification and provision of support services and programs for this population.
Research on high ability students with learning disabilities continues to be difficult because of problems in defining each population, but one thing is certain: high ability students who experience specific learning difficulties often underachieve.
Students who exhibit characteristics of both gifted and learning disabled populations pose quandaries for educators. Because gifted and talented students who are underachieving may suffer from undiagnosed learning disabilities Baum et al. Talented students may experience inattention when they are not appropriately challenged, but they may demonstrate a high energy level in areas of intense interest.
Although similarities exist between the behaviors of gifted students and ADHD students, some of the defining features of ADHD are not usually associated with giftedness.
ADHD children usually show variability in the quality of their performance on specific tasks, whereas gifted students are more consistent with their level of effort and performance especially when they are interested and challenged.
For example, a defining feature of ADHD is that a child has difficulty sustaining attention in most effortful tasks, and they struggle to persist in tasks to completion American Psychiatric Association, In contrast, gifted students may tire easily of boring, repetitive, unchallenging activities; however, they can usually sustain focused attention when they are working on challenging tasks of their own choosing. In addition, to be diagnosed as ADHD, the impulsive, hyperactive, or inattentive behaviors must occur in at least two or more settings such as home and school American Psychiatric Association, Usually, parents of gifted students without ADHD report that their children can concentrate, sustain attention, and behave appropriately for long periods of time at home or during extracurricular activities.
To distinguish whether a gifted student may also have ADHD, the school and home situation and settings must be closely monitored because gifted children typically will not display similar behaviors in all settings i. Giftedness and ADHD may co-occur in the same child. Of course, the doctor should consider the behavioral characteristics associated with giftedness when determining whether behavior patterns stem from ADHD.
Neu conducted a study of talented students with these types of problems and found a variety of issues that characterize their experiences. In a review of the sparse research on this population, Reid and McGuire found that many talented students with behavioral problems drop out of high school, and are not recommended for gifted programs. More research is needed on this population. Students who are experiencing acute psychological distress may experience sudden, severe underachievement.
Students who have a psychological condition may become chronic underachievers. Many serious psychological illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have their onset in early to late adolescence American Psychiatric Association, In one such case, a highly gifted girl who was chronic underachiever received help to try to improve her scholastic success for three years.
It was not until the girl attempted to commit suicide in the middle of ninth grade that anyone considered taking her to a psychologist or a psychiatrist. A psychological assessment revealed that she suffered from bipolar disorder, and as her treatment progressed, her academic performance improved McCoach, in preparation.
It is important for educators to be aware of signs of psychological distress, and to refer students who may be experiencing psychological problems to the school counselor or the school psychologist. The Overexcitability of Gifted Children Some gifted students have been described as having emotional intensity and emotional sensitivity.
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