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A long time coming, Rachel and I suit up to dive into, climb on and around and into the complexities of “Gifted,” poking at it gently with a big ‘ol stick. (… you know, one of those good campfire-tending-type sticks; the kind you’d find on a hike and keep with you for awhile bc it’s kind of like a wizard staff.)

What is a gifted? What does this word, this designation, mean? Is giftedness a neurotype? And what’s a neurotype anyways? Why don’t people seem to understand the difference between neurodivergence and neurodiversity? How is giftedness related to intelligence? What do our individual (and collective) understanding/s of intelligence look like? What foundations are those understandings built upon?

Turns out, this one is (at least) a two-parter, folks! This is just the beginning.

In this episode, our first portion, we create a frame; expect a co-exploration of different core characteristics, associations, contexts, implications, and a bunch of “non-dual both/ands” related to both the term and its lived reality.

And what is this reality, exactly? We know that the most agreed-upon definition is one centering “asynchronous development” (Columbus Group), but here, on Existential Tetherball, we’ll go ahead and further define “gifted” as a term we use to designate/describe outlier human intelligence.

How do we understand, recognize, and support this particular shape/form of outlier intelligence? Dimensional and varied yet also, something with its own shape and form?

In this episode, Rachel and I discuss the following (and more than the following):

-the hullabaloo in the gifted community/industry at present, and why we need to go beyond “is giftedness a form of neurodivergence,” together

-the core characteristics and complexities of giftedness, as well as how and when do we recognize, categorize/”type,” and socialize/support?

-how societal perceptions and educational systems shape our understanding of both intelligence and giftedness

-themes of ecological intelligence, full body intelligence, intelligence as a dynamic process rather than a static trait while acknowledging unseen differences in human intelligence as a very real thing (neurodiversity)

-what influences gifted inner experience and expression through a lifespan (how is giftedness nurtured and supported)?

Takeaways for days:

• Giftedness is complex and nuanced – nature, nurture, environment in reciprocity and interplay through the lifespan
• Intelligence as a dynamic, ecological process within each human, full-body and not just brain
• Why understanding intelligence, neurodiversity, and neurodivergence clearly is crucial in understanding giftedness
• Giftedness at the self-referential/meta level and then in unique expression; part II will dive into the frameworks and schema we use to integrate identification into functional, lived reality