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Independence and Relationship Issues in Intellectually Gifted Adolescents — Part 1
Extremely gifted people differ from each other in many ways.
Adolescence is a difficult time for most people, and social and emotional issues are sometimes additionally exacerbated in the exceptionally or profoundly gifted adolescent when navigating friendship connections, romance, and greater independence in school and home.
Many extremely intelligent young people have difficulty with making friends, feeling attractive to — and understanding — the opposite sex, and also dealing with the powerful adults in their lives. Same-sex friendships and romance have their own aspects of learning and discovery and I hope readers can sort out the overlaps and make use of the information here, too.
In this post, we look at some of the issues of friendship and romance among extremely gifted adolescents and young adults; and two, we touch upon some ways parents, school personnel, and counselors can appropriately guide adolescents toward emotionally healthy friendships, romance, and independence.
