I’m continuing to read more about giftedness and am still learning a lot. It’s like we’ve found the answer to a great mystery:) If this stuff is boring to you, don’t read any further! I’m now reading “Living with Intensity: Understanding the Sensitivity, Excitability, and Emotional Development of Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Adults.” The last book I read briefly covered the characteristics of gifted kids and mostly focused on educational concerns. This new book focuses a great deal on the characteristics of those who are gifted or to use the technical term: “overexcitabilities.” The categories of overexcitabilities include: psychomotor, sensual, intellectual, imaginational, and emotional. Some of what is covered in this book, I had learned in the last book I read. But a few new things have jumped out at me. Ever since we had Ethan, and now Ian too, I’ve wondered why does everyone elses children sleep so much better than mine? Neither of our boys have required the amount of sleep as most kids and both gave up their naps way before most kids do and I have learned that this is a common characteristic of gifted kids. Finally an answer! Ethan’s psychmotor activity has always been a mystery to me and I mostly blamed it on his gender. When he reads books to me, he is in constant motion and while the motion is distracting to me, he is able to stay on task and read. The book pointed out that with gifted kids, they often need to move to stay focused on their task. This at least helps me to not be so annoyed when he’s climbing all over the couch while we are reading a book. Overall, since I’ve been reading on this subject and talking to professionals about it, it has significantly helped me in my interactions and patience level with Ethan. I’m finding myself being more prepared with ways to keep him stimulated during the day and I can better understand his various sensitivities. One way to look at these kids is to relate it to television channels. Most people are born with just basic tv, ten channels or so. But gifted kids are born with satellite tv, with more channels to choose from than they know what to do with. This can overwhelm them and they can freeze and not be able to make decisions. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll have more of this to share as time goes on. The problem for me is not only is it interesting because of Ethan but also because all psychological research is fascinating to me:)