What is special about gifted children is not their IQ (which is, indeed, higher than average). It is fundamentally how they experience the world.

Imagine that our senses and intellect capture stimuli through a fishnet. In gifted children, the mesh is far wider, allowing through much more of everything (information, sounds, emotions, nuances) with far greater intensity. This metaphor closely mirrors what Polish psychiatrist Kazimierz Dabrowski described in his influential theory of “overexcitabilities” (1964): heightened responses to stimuli across five domains: psychomotor, sensual, intellectual, imaginational, and emotional. Dabrowski’s research has been built upon by many others, and recent studies continue to verify the presence of these intensities among gifted students. Gifted children must navigate all of it, enriching and the overwhelming alike. (Psychology Today)

Seen through this lens, giftedness is no longer the unambiguous privilege it appears to be in popular imagination, like the genius child destined to effortlessly excel at school and in life. A growing body of research frames giftedness as a form of neurodivergence, accompanied by genuine special needs. The Columbus Group (1991) influentially defined giftedness as precisely this: “asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm,” concluding that “the uniqueness of the gifted renders them particularly vulnerable and requires modifications in parenting, teaching and counseling.” (Psy-Ed)

If left without adequate support, gifted children must navigate their intense inner worlds alone, and that’s a burden that can quickly become overwhelming. Anxiety, along with behaviors ranging from perfectionism to avoidance and underachievement, can develop when there is a poor fit between the child’s needs and what the school offers. A 2024 systematic meta-analytic review by Duplenne and colleagues examined 27 studies on anxiety and depression in gifted individuals, confirming these risks are real and documented. A particularly insidious outcome is what researchers describe as social masking or hyperadaptation: some gifted students, feeling misunderstood, resort to hiding their abilities in an attempt to fit in socially: a strategy that may reduce friction in the short term but carries significant long-term consequences for identity and mental health. (Gifted Challenges blog, Asynchronous development)

Parents cannot bear this load alone, nor can individual classroom teachers. Addressing the needs of gifted children requires a systemic commitment, from school leadership downward. The European Schools deserve recognition for having developed policy frameworks that explicitly acknowledge gifted children’s right to educational support. The road ahead lies in implementation: in closing the gap between well-crafted policy and consistent, day-to-day practice in every classroom. That gap, wherever it persists, is where gifted children are most at risk of being quietly lost.