The Gifted and Time Management:
Gifted children benefit from early intervention when it comes to time management
Jul 27, 2006
Cause and Effect
A quality of many gifted children is ease in identifying cause and effect relationships. This ability makes it possible for gifted students to quickly connect the dots when studying history or science, or recall and apply, without the encouragement of the teacher, mathematical formulas learned in previous classes to solve new equations. A drawback, however, are the conclusions gifted students may draw with regards to time management.
Procrastination
As quickly as a gifted child makes the connection between genetic coding and the factors leading to his eye color, he can see that the "B" he earned on a project completed in an emotional frenzy the night before its due date is a worthwhile compromise to the "A" that might have been earned by budgeting his time over the three weeks since the project was first assigned. Gifted children learn quickly what they are capable of and how to work their capabilities to their perceived best advantages.
Time Management
Give your gifted child an appreciation for time management early on. Use "teachable moments" to demonstrate the stress and anxiety that procrastination causes and the effect that it has on the whole family. During the school year, review handouts and assignment sheets with your child daily and ask open ended questions and make open-ended statements such as, "explain this assignment to me in your own words," or, "what can I do to help you plan your project?" Encourage your gifted child to map the project on a calendar starting on the due date and working backward assigning small parts of the project to be completed by specific dates. Gifted children tend to enjoy the process of planning and are quite good at breaking a large task into manageable parts. Once the calendar is complete, post it in a busy area of the house where you and your child are likely to see it on a daily basis. Then, ask non-threatening questions like, "are we on track to have the summary completed by Thursday?" Verbal cues such as these will help your gifted child fully grasp the concept of time and his ability to control his own actions within it.
Introducing time management strategies into a gifted child's routine early on improves the quality and quantity of her work while reducing stress and anxiety for the entire family.
