The emotional characeristics of gifted children: Suggestions for guidance of the gifted children's mental health

영재 아동의 정서적 특성에 관한 임상연구: 정신 건장을 위한 지도

The present study dealt with the emotional characteristics, emotional development of gifted children and emphasized the emotional intelligence as the meta-ability for the development of creativity and intellectual abilities. The emotional vulnerability of gifted children was also hscussed with endogenous and exogeneous problems, internal dyssynchrony, and social context. To find out the real chief problems the gifted children have, the contents of individual counselling with mothers of the gifted in KAGE were categorized based on the Lazarus' BASIC ID and DSM-IV dagnosis. Total 128 cases were analyzed. Among them, 61 cases were from elementary schoolers, however, percentile data showed the most, 34% of infant class aged 30 months - 48 months. Usually, the number of counselling in each person was 1, but 17 cases were done more than 3 times. And, 8 cases had experiences to visit the other counseling center or neuropsychiatric clinic. The categories of chief problems were 10: information about gifted program, behavior, affect, sensation, school and cognitive functions, imagery and self concept, interpersonal relationship, personality, mental illness, and others. Many problems in each category were listed. Finally, the present study suggested the several guidance plan possibly useful in the gifted education center for the purpose of prevention of emotional difficulties and support for the mental health, including professional personnel, child counselling, emotional education, and parent counseling & education.