Social and Emotional development in gifted students

1. My favorite major concept to learn about in this unit was Theory of Positive Disintegration

1.1. The TPD reflects higher levels of thinking. Genes, social interactions, and environmental conditions are all factors that contribute to development

1.2. The 5 levels of development was something that really stuck out to me. Level one described a person who gets satisfaction of their own basic needs. Level two described the idea of multiple values, and the concept of hesitation. Level 3 describes a heirachary of values, along with thinking about choices not just reacting. Level 4, a student is deliberate in their thoughts and makes choices best for their growth. Level 5, a person has multilevels of empathy for others

2. One other major topic that was discussed was career counseling

2.1. When thinking about a career, gifted students need to be taught to pick a career that aligns with their values, and goals. Gifted students need understand that they do not have to make a career choice to please everyone, but instead need to make a choice that is right for them,

2.2. We do not want gifted children to develop a sense of unhealthy perfectionism. These children need to understand mistakes will happen, and how to prioritize their time, otherwise, like Greene stated in the article, it could cause burnout.

3. In the real world this could look like developing service learning projects do make a change that would benefit the world. Here is a website that gives ideas and real life examples of ways kids have create projects that relate to what is going on locally and globally.Service Learning Projects — Children Mending Hearts

4. A major concept studied in this unit was understanding and teaching social/emotional characteristics of gifted children

4.1. teachers need to be trained to understand the minds and characteristics of gifted students so they can be prepared to give them a high quality education.

4.2. As educators, we must work to understand the whole child. We must be train parents, give the gifted students opportunities to be around like minded peers, provide choices, and modify educationally as needed

5. Another concept discussed in this unit was spiritual giftedness and teaching it in schools

5.1. Due to the high level of thinking these students can achieve, gifted students often think about the way they think and there level of connectedness to the world. The concept of spiritual giftedness is a necessary way to help a child with their personal growth, to help better develop the whole child.

5.2. One characteristic that goes along with emotional and spiritual giftedness in sensitivity and compassion, and overall sense of morality. We can encourage and develop these characteristics in children by providing them time to create projects that can have areal benefit to the world.

6. Here is a link to a ted talks that in my opinion helps explain the mind of a student that thinks at a higher level https://youtu.be/4eBmyttcfU4