Gifted Children and Their Personality Types

How They Do or Don’t Fit Into School

Both gifted child and parent personalities matter hugely for how they see the school years. If the parents’ expectations fit those of their child, things go a lot better no matter what the schools do.

When I wrote “Smart Kids, Personality Types & How They Adapt or Not to School” in 2004 I was still learning how personality styles might affect the educational outcomes of different gifted children. Twenty years later, I have a much clearer picture to share with readers.

Why Did I Look Into This?

Personality typing has been used for years in various personal and career counseling situations because it helps people understand their own motivations and needs compared to those of others with whom they live and work. When we fit an environment, be it work, play, our families, or school, things tend to go better.

As a private consultant and specialist in high intelligence, my primary interest was in gifted children. It was later that my interest in their parents grew. I read in my early studies of gifted children that altruism and empathy were more prevalent and more developed in highly intelligent children. Many researchers wrote that some children, especially intellectually gifted children and adolescents, manifest both…