Do gifted children learn quietness?

Most people familiar with gifted children will have noticed that many of them are introverted. They prefer the riches of their inner worlds to the paucity of the outer world. Yet, how much of this is innate, and how much is learned behaviour?

As a young child, there was a marked discrepancy between me and the children around me. Looking back now, I see a gulf that was unbridgeable. At the time, I had no idea why the children were the way they were. Unsurprisingly, I thought of them as very simple creatures - though it appals me to write that childhood thought here, as an adult. Yet, I think it is important to introduce that thought - for perhaps many parents reading this, here, may have gifted children who are thinking that daily about the other children they meet. What effect does this disparity of mental development have on children?

One effect that could develop over time is the observed "introversion" seen in such children. If the other children don't understand when the gifted child speaks their mind, eventually such a child might very well learn not to speak their mind at all. A conditioned silence would develop which would be very hard to penetrate. Something of this kind happened to me as a child. I became an observer who didn't express the fullness of my thought: for I anticipated that such expression would be unwelcome. Perhaps the same phenomenon is unfolding in Ainan's life.

Did you feel this way as a gifted child? Do you think your gifted child feels this way? Is their reticence a learned behaviour? That is my theory anyway...your thoughts would be welcome.

(If you would like to read more of my gifted children, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and three months, a scientific child prodigy, Fintan, three and Tiarnan, thirteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)