Introduction

School counselors in most cases concentrate on students performing below average or those are most likely to perform poorly in their studies. Unluckily, counselors and educators often ignore or assume the emotional needs especially of gifted students since such students usually exceed the educational expectations (Wood& Peterson, 2018). This paper will discuss gifted students, with an emphasis on the existing diversity in this group. The paper, in addition, will evaluate the possible challenges and risks that gifted students usually face in schools, and available strategies that school-based counselors may employ when dealing with gifted students. When supporting a student, schools must consider all aspects of diversity, and this includes giftedness(Wood & Peterson, 2018). Other aspects of diversity that influence the identity, academic, and social development of a student include sexual orientation, gender, race, and socioeconomic status. It is therefore important for school counselors when developing treatment plans or evaluating problem cases to take into account how students’ abilities, talents, and skills might be interacting with other diversity aspects in their daily lives. With a detailed understanding of how giftedness affects the mind, counselors can effectively tailor their therapeutic plans to meet the requirement of the student population suitably.

Gifted Students

Gifted students are more the same as non-gifted students in various ways, particularly when responding to life adversity. Irrespective of the past majority have the same issues as well as meet with like storm and stress of teenagers life. According toTrail (2011), teenagers are commonly confronted with the usual psychological issues such as career choices, self-esteem, identity formation, friendship, extreme self-consciousness, dating, and conforming to peer pressure. However, gifted students will also have to cope with other factors such as social expectations of them and the label of being intelligent.  These students have special traits that could result in adverse effects on their lives.  This might cause unanticipated emotional explosion and frustration that could trigger depression episodes, suicidal ideation or even suicide. While counseling gifted children, counselors should use a unique approach that will address all their concerns (Fisher& Kennedy, 2017).

There are various methods of definitions of Giftedness and methods of identifying gifted students. This population of individuals can be referred as gifted or gifted and talented or can be identified as those with high ability, high academic performance, or those who stand out for extraordinary skills or achievements across fields such as music or art.  According to Charman (1994) describe a gifted individual as a person who exhibits an extraordinary intellectual ability and capable of outstanding accomplishment and performance. According to Peterson (2015), gifted people are individuals with remarkably high ability, regardless of academic performance. Based on Peterson description, the framework for giftedness definition need to include both people who have the outstanding achievement and those with the potential to do so.

Gifted students are people with certain features, cognitive traits, and abilities, which include grasping complex scientific and mathematical concepts with ease as well as show creativity, originality, and innovation in their works (Fisher & Kennedy, 2017).  Gifted students are usually divergent thinkers and can look at issues from a broad point of view. They also have the ability to concentrate for a long time especially when doing activities they are interested in and set an extremely high standard for themselves, while often get motivated especially when faced with new ideas (Fisher & Kennedy, 2017). The gifted students in addition process information in a unique way, as well as questioned concepts, theories and abstract ideas that may not have direct or simple answers.  However, their positive qualities matched negative attributes such as excessive self-criticism, confused identity formation, anxiety, and perfectionism. These negative traits can generate interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts inside and outside their environment of learning(Fisher & Kennedy, 2017). Besides, they often experience high or all-consuming response, which may disrupt other work or concern areas. Hence, to facilitate the learning process of gifted students, educators, parents, as well as counselors, should understand both academic as well as non-academic needs of these students and be cognizant of even the smallest affective, behavioral, and cognitive differences that might surface out of the ordinary (Piragasam, 2017).

Types of Gifted Children

Gifted students are usually described as an indistinguishable group. It is critical to note that relationships, community, personality, environment, past education experiences, as well as their personal development,  affect gifted students. There is a theoretical paradigm to help offer acumen into the different behaviors the gifted students exhibit as they attempt to manage their image (Trail, 2011). The commonly recognized type of gifted students are “successful” and are identified by the school programs(Piragasam, 2017). The next type is “challenging” gifted kids who are divergently gifted and are rarely identified in schools. The third type is known as an “underground” gifted student, and they tend to hide their giftedness in an effort to fit better with their peers. Such form of behaviors are always displayed in the middle school; peer groups importance is key to the identity formation and development of the adolescent. The fourth type is known as “dropouts” usually feel that they have been rejected, angry and that the school as neglected their needs(Piragasam, 2017). They may become defensive, withdrawn, or defensive. The “doubled” gifted types are usually ignored. These gifted students are twice brilliant having traits of learning disabilities as well as gifted capabilities. Identifying these gifted students is not an easy task as their strengths often match their weakness and their learning challenges and difficulties cover by their strengths(Piragasam, 2017). The last type of gifted student is “autonomous Learner” who usually utilize the system in developing new opportunities. This structure usually assists school counselors to note that it takes a detailed process to identify all gifted students and learning type of gifted students can help offer a structure to understand as well as describe the diverse needs that these gifted students may need in school.

Counseling of Gifted Children

While there are numerous techniques and methods of counseling, there are few particular modalities created for counseling gifted students. Due to their incomparable nature because of their giftedness, it is illogical to believe that traditional methods of counseling would be effective when dealing with this student population(YazarSoyadı, 2016).  During the process of counseling a gifted student, a counselor should look into several factors. During the assessment, it is imperative that the counselor make a clear-cut difference as to the root cause of the student’s problem. That is if the problem is an implication due to giftedness, or symptomatic of a psychiatric ruckus, or a complex mishmash of variables. One main factor why this distinction is important is that a misdiagnosis or mislabel might be detrimental to the student (Piragasam, 2017).

Many psychiatric symptoms, as well as diagnostic classifications, resemble giftedness features. The following are certain usually observed psychiatric and diagnostic  classes that due to their connection with giftedness, school counselors should take into account  carefully while assessing as well as diagnosing their patients: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD); Somatic Disorder; Anxiety Disorder; Autism; Pervasive Development Disorder; Dysthemia/Depression; Borderline Personality Disorder; and any other psychiatric diagnostic class that is nonconforming in nature(Trail, 2011).

Actually, counseling methods for gifted students are more the same as approaches for ordinary students. Nevertheless, some adjustment and modification are necessary due to the nature of these students (Trail, 2011).  It implies that a trained counselor already holdsthe primary knowledge and skills needed to work effectively with gifted students, but there is require they adjust their approach and perspective just a little bit to deliver maximum for this population(YazarSoyadı, 2016). Competent school counselors of gifted students hold skills in three practical areas: consultation skills, counseling and therapy skills, as well as, teach techniques to manage stress and aid in social support network creation(YazarSoyadı, 2016).In addition, counselors serving gifted students are expected to teach the various methods of managing stress and assist build a social support network. Other resources proved to help this group of people include progressive relaxation of the muscle, meditation, mindfulness, as well as guided imagery (Piragasam, 2017).

For basics, counselors should have knowledge about CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), and SFDT (Solution-focused Brief Therapy).  Cognitive behavioral therapy is usually a counseling method, which is evidence, based and created on the premise that behaviors and feelings are primarily determined by a person’s thought that is cognitively mediated.  Solution-focused brief therapy is a counseling technique that is strength based and focuses mainly on solutions as a method of re-conceptualizing as well as solving problems of students (YazarSoyadı, 2016).  Counseling method, which is a solution, centered works to expand students’ perception about a problem and solutions through the uncovering of any clues of flexibility and variation in the student language.

Academic Anxiety and Perfectionism

Based on the premise that giftedness is identified through extraordinary ability or accomplishment, gifted students usually spend fairly more energy and time in their ability areas those non-gifted students. This might be noticeable as perfectionism or the desire to endeavor toward perfection (Fisher & Kennedy, 2017). Perfectionism is common with gifted people. However, research has concentrated on these areas in relation to gifted students. Perfectionism can be dysfunctional or healthy even though most of the studies have focused on dysfunctional perfectionism(YazarSoyadı, 2016).Dysfunctional perfectionism is a situation that a gifted student is marred with fear of imperfection, anxiety as well as a desire to become perfect. A fine line exit between striving to attain utmost excellence and feeling self-defeated by the incapacity to achieve unrealistic perfections expectations.  When this line is crossed, tendencies of perfectionists become disabling. In a learning environment, perfectionism can cause underachievement or anxiety (Fisher & Kennedy, 2017).

Studies have focused on dysfunctional perfectionism with a population of gifted students may not be necessarily a world phenomenon. For instance, in their studies of gifted Chinese students, Fong and Yuen (2014) revealed that there was a higher likelihood of positive perfectionism than negative perfectionism. Based on their observation, perfectionism traits is more adaptive in China than in Europe, and that is why the expectation of gifted Chinese student more positive than in western nations(YazarSoyadı, 2016).  When perfectionism is a counseling intervention target then schools counselors should work towards assisting gifted students to cope with or reduce negative aspects, but the main objective should not be geared toward eliminating perfectionism. Based on this study found, and other many findings of the potential effect of perfectionism, ubiquity within the gifted student’s population as well as possible cultural diversity in presentation, school counselors need to be wary especially in understanding perceived perfectionism (Piragasam, 2017).

The two key concerns regarding perfectionism especially for the gifted students: emotional turmoil and under-accomplishment. Even though under-accomplishment may be asynchronous with giftedness concept, perfectionism concept can provide detailed analysis and information of some of the under-accomplishment among the gifted student population. perfectionism may cause gifted students to fail to submit the work if not perfect and only submit if it is perfect which might translate to late submission or assignment or complete failure to submit the work because it did not meet the expectation of the student, and this may make them get poor grades just fail by default. Based on emotional stress, perfectionism may stir depression and worthlessness feelings when gifted students fail to conform to the unrealistic expectation they have set. This can result in several implications for school counselors such as being able to identify perfectionism among gifted students and create effective coping intervention or methods for this population (Wood & Peterson, 2018).

Perfectionism counseling strategies

When outlining interventions for a negative perfectionism, it is effective to use strategies, interventions, and structures developed for anxiety. As with an intervention in a diverse population, no perfectionism of two gifted students or academic anxiety can be driven by the same school of thought,or manifest the same; thus, interventions should start with taking time to learn more about the student as an individual (Wood & Peterson, 2018).

Based on CBT outlook, perfectionism is a mode of thinking about individual self or mode of thinking in relation to the bigger work. This is attributed to failure panic. Mistakes are always there and in most case a key part in the process of learning. However, for the perfectionist students, this point of view may have maladaptive or extremely negative reactions since they perceive failure as directly showing their value as an individual(Piragasam, 2017).  Aspects of perfectionist form of thinking include dichotomous thinking, concentrating on challenges and goals instead of savoring success, and transforming desires into demands. Cognitive models can be used to evaluate these thoughts with thoughts useful to these students being strengthened where unhelpful or distorted thoughts are modified. CBT can aid to restructure the dichotomous thinking(Wood & Peterson, 2018).  A solution-focused method can help to address perfectionism by reducing dichotomous thinking. Other counseling methods for dealing with anxiety related perfectionism include skill building, relaxation strategies, as well as guiding students through imaginary or real failures insecure way (Piragasam, 2017).

Other Academic Anxiety

Besides and outside perfectionism, gifted students may be anxious especially when faced with academic errands such as exams, assignments, to the extent that the anxiety is much overwhelming that is dramatically interferes with the performance of these students. Being anxious while attempting to complete an academic assignment is a harmful form of taxes working memory and multi-tasking. Anxious thoughts are associated with attention diversion and hence degrading the performance of the student, a feature that is common among gifted students

Expressive writing can help improve an anxious student performance since it reduces the academically related worries during the task.  Besides, writing about performance qualms may free up working memory resources to assist these students better differentiate, understand and identify their emotional experience, which can result in using a more effective emotion management techniques during exams(Piragasam, 2017). Other methods of counseling designed for anxiety can also effectively support gifted students through performance anxiety. Methods centered on relaxation such as progressive muscle relaxation, or meditation may be useful particularly when students learn these skills and the way to implement self-relaxation when anxious

Asynchronous Development

Gifted students face many different challenges such as asynchronous development, that is the only developed in some areas, not in all areas. Gifted students may exhibit advanced skills in mathematics, verbal activities while having developing skills in emotional and social development. This can lead to anxiety, stress, as well as social challenges.

Based on the way asynchronous development can affect a student, a school counselor has a number of ways to offer support. In the case, a gifted student is experiencing anxiety because of learning or trying to understand concepts beyond their emotional maturity level, the use of psychoeducation to help these students learn various coping strategies is important. Self-talk, as well as other calming techniques, is also useful (Piragasam, 2017).

Group counseling interventions, designed to meet the needs of gifted students can assist deal with the social changes linked to giftedness. The role of counselor should go beyond the ordinary skills they use for counseling. Working with gifted students require unique and slightly different preparedness. Counselors can achieve this level of preparedness by knowing their own giftedness. A school counselor requires a clear concept about his own identity as a gifted individual, deficits, and attributes alike (Piragasam, 2017). They should also have solid theoretical bases as well as knowledge about the traits of gifted children. Counselors also need to be cognizant of the available resources for gifted kids: parent organizations, bibliographies, educational opportunities, and support groups. They should also be creative and critical thinkers especially in how they deal with gifted students counseling.  Traditional counseling approaches are not effective for gifted people.

Conclusion

Gifted students represent a challenging and exciting population for individuals offering mental health as well as support services in the school environment. The needs, abilities challenges, and experiences of such students are always diverse (Song, 2014). However, studies on gifted students offer counselors with technical know-how, and direction of factors to take into account and ideas about various counseling methods and models that might effectively meet the needs of this population. Besides, counselors need to be aware that giftedness is among the students’ aspects. It more or less the same as other factors shaping the personality of that student, but should be considered when key decisions are being made on various ways to support the students during a time of dire need (Song, 2014).

Counseling gifted students, as well as their families, is quite challenging but a rewarding function for any counselor. Gifted students have huge variability in both their cognitive capacity as well as their effective development.  While there are common themes and aspects to the social-emotional problems confronting gifted students, a larger difference exists among these students(Song, 2014). The role of school counselors is to assist students to recognize their identity, make a decision as well as develop and improve their potential. Gifted students require help and nurturing counselors can offer. It will be a good thing for counselors to always use their expertise and skills with talented and gifted students in their schools.

References

Wood, S. M., & Peterson, J. S. (2018). Counseling gifted students in schools: A guide for school counselors. New York, NY Springer Publishing Company, LLC.

Trail, B. A. (2011). Twice-exceptional gifted children: Understanding, teaching, and counseling gifted students. Waco, Tex: Prufrock Press.

Fisher, E. S., & Kennedy, K. S. (2017). Counseling special populations in schools. New York, NY Oxford University Press

Fong, R., & Yuen, M. (2014). Perfectionism and Chinese Gifted Learners. Roeper Review, 36(2), 81-91. doi: 10.1080/02783193.2014.884202

Piragasam, G. (2017). Counselling Practices in Fostering Potentials among Gifted Students. SainsHumanika, 9(1-5). doi: 10.11113/sh.v9n1-5.1173

Song, K. (2014). Domain Thoughts in Gifted Students and Gifted Students with Learning Disabilities. Journal Of Gifted/Talented Education, 24(5), 851-876. doi: 10.9722/jgte.2014.24.5.851

YazarSoyadı, A. (2016). Counseling and Guidance for Malaysian Gifted Students: A Conceptual Framework. Journal For The Education Of Gifted Young Scientists, 4(1), 21-21. doi: 10.17478/jegys.2016115332

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