Who are the gifted and how do they cope?

This chapter examines how highly able young people deal with having talents and how they cope with their particular life experiences. Who are these ‘gifted’ young people who are receiving increasing attention from researchers and educators? They have the capacity to make a significant contribution to the community, but they are often regarded as underachieving and sometimes seen as exhibiting poor social and emotional adjustment. They often have problems and sometimes get bored. Humour or wit (sometimes expressed as cynicism or sarcasm) is often a feature of their rhetoric.