Counseling Asynchronous Gifted Students: A 30-Year Perspective

Abstract

Disguised as cunningly as espionage agents, gifted students pass for normal. They play the game and avert exposure. The rules are “never reveal anything that will make readers stand out, " “act like everybody else, " and “do not draw attention to themself.” School counselors must deal with the increasing mental health concerns of all students, including the gifted. Students experienced trauma during the COVID-19 pandemic and witnessed police brutality that reignited the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 that will affect them for decades. A cross-cultural study of the social experience of gifted students confirmed the universality of Coleman’s Stigma of Giftedness Paradigm. Gifted children and adolescents were interviewed in the United Kingdom, South Korea, Ireland, France, and culturally diverse schools in the United States. Child-centered, rather than achievement-oriented, the construct of asynchrony has a strong theoretical foundation, deeply rooted in the field of psychology. © 2021 by Taylor & Francis Group.