June Research Roundup
Each month, Gifted Child Quarterly (GCQ) publishes research that advances our understanding of gifted education, but finding the time to read and translate that research into practice can be a challenge.
This Research Roundup brings together all recent GCQ articles, paired with plain-language summaries that make the findings clear, relevant, and actionable for educators, leaders, and advocates.
Whether you’re looking to stay current on the latest research or quickly grasp key takeaways, this roundup is your starting point.
Sensory Sensitivity: Implications From the Fields of Medicine and Psychology for a Gifted Population
Anne N. Rinn
Exploring Sensory Sensitivity from Outside the Field of Gifted Education
Most people have similar responses to everyday experiences, such as what you see, what you smell, and what you hear. But some people have responses that are stronger or weaker than others, and different ways of processing sensory information from the environment. Some people are so bothered by sensory input, or their lack of response to it, for example, that significant issues can arise with school, their job, and personal and family life. For example, some people have such issues with smells, lights, and sounds that daily life becomes difficult. This article explores research on sensory sensitivity from the fields of medicine and psychology to enhance understanding of gifted people with sensory sensitivity. Within each field of study, theories and ways of measuring sensory sensitivity are discussed. There are many implications for both research and practice.
Sports Science and Gifted Education: Similarities and Differences
Jae Yup Jung and Adrian W. Chew
1. Purpose of the Study
This study looked at how sports science understands and supports people who have high potential or perform at a high level. We wanted to see if these ideas may help schools better support gifted students.
2. Background
Sports science and gifted education both focus on people who have high potential or high performance. However, these two fields do not usually work together. They also use different ways to understand and support high potential and high performance. By learning from sports science, schools may find better ways to help gifted students in the future.
3. Method
We searched for studies in sports science on high potential and high performance. Using two research databases, we found 44 useful journal articles written in English. We looked at the main ideas in these studies, and then compared how sports science and gifted education understand and support people with high potential or high performance.
4. Results and Conclusions
We found that the two fields are similar in some ways but different in others. We suggest creating new ways to understand giftedness that focus on the whole person and support growth over a long time. We also recommend improving how schools identify gifted students, create learning environments, and use technology.
Matthieu Johnson-Constantin, Juliette Francois-Sevigny, Catherine Cimon-Paquet, Mathieu Pilon
Some children experience the world around them in a much more intense way than others. This is especially true for children who are intellectually gifted, have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or both. These children may notice more details in their surroundings or become easily overwhelmed by sounds, lights, textures, or emotions. While previous studies have looked at how giftedness and ADHD separately affect how children react to sensory information, this study is one of the first to explore how having both traits together influences sensory sensitivity. In this research, 159 parents from Quebec, Canada, answered questions about their children’s behavior. The study included 209 children between the ages of 6 and 16. Some were gifted, some had ADHD, some had both, and some had neither. Parents completed questionnaires about how their children respond to everyday sensory experiences—like noises, touch, movement, and emotional situations. The results showed that children with both giftedness and ADHD were more sensitive to sensory information overall. Interestingly, they also had lower levels of “sensory registration,” meaning they noticed more sensory details around them and had a harder time filtering out unimportant information. This can lead to sensory overload, making it difficult for them to focus, stay calm, or feel comfortable in busy or noisy places. Understanding how these children experience the world can help parents, teachers, and professionals better support their needs. Sensory-friendly environments—such as quiet classrooms or calm home spaces—may help them feel more at ease, focus better, and thrive both emotionally and academically.
Career Paths of European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO) Medalists
Tolga Yuret
Girls are underrepresented in elite mathematical competitions such as the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). To help address this, the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO) was launched in 2012 as a girls-only alternative. However, there is a lack of studies analyzing whether EGMO has achieved its objective of motivating girls to pursue careers in science. In this study, we examine the academic and professional trajectories of EGMO medalists. We compare their outcomes with those of male IMO participants, matching individuals by country and cohort. We found that EGMO medalists were less likely to major in mathematics, attain a PhD, or publish research. When we looked only at EGMO medalists who also participated in the IMO, the differences in outcomes disappeared.
Gifted Underachievement Redefined and Reconceptualized
David Yun Dai and Ophelie Allyssa Desmet
Many gifted students don’t perform as well in school as their abilities suggest they could. Traditionally, this “gifted underachievement” has been defined by comparing IQ scores to grades, identifying students whose achievement falls below what their test scores predict. Our paper challenges this outdated approach. We propose a new way of understanding gifted underachievement that recognizes it’s not just about test scores versus grades, but about complex interactions between students and their learning environments. We describe four main patterns of underachievement: (1) Internal Barriers, where personal factors like perfectionism or anxiety hold students back; (2) External Barriers, where environmental factors like lack of opportunities or stereotypes create obstacles; (3) Lack of Synergistic Play, where students initially engage but then experience a downward spiral of motivation; and (4) Mismatch, where there’s a fundamental disconnect between how a student learns and what education provides. This new approach helps educators better identify why a particular student might be underachieving and create targeted interventions rather than applying one-size-fits-all solutions. By considering underachievement as situated in specific contexts rather than as a fixed condition, we can help more gifted students fulfill their potential.
Gifted Without Borders: A Systematic Literature Review of Gifted Education for Mobile Populations
Burcin Hasanbasoglu and Sema Tan
This research focuses on the experiences of gifted students who move from one place to another. To better understand how moving affects these students, we explore the findings of the existing research on the gifted students from mobile populations. We began with the expectation that this group of students might be overlooked or become invisible and that their needs might not be fully addressed. Thus, we hoped to find out how schools and educators welcome these students and respond to their unique needs. The highly globalized world has witnessed an increasing number of people on the move in the past decade due to reasons like wars, improved living conditions, or security. Within this huge population are gifted children who might face the loss of their gifted identity and educational support in the new environment. This issue matters because the number of mobile people continues to rise, which requires us to delve deeper into how to better identify and serve the gifted students in this population to ensure equitable and inclusive education systems. To explore this issue, we reviewed the literature, which helped us find 20 peer-reviewed articles on gifted education and mobility. We found that mobile gifted students might struggle with academic, educational, and socioemotional difficulties if they are not identified and academically supported during the transition period. We also found that culturally responsive practices and parental involvement help these students better adapt to the new education system. The findings of this research seem to be important since they underline the essential role of more inclusive policies, academic and social–emotional support systems, and parental involvement. Educators and policymakers need to revisit their policies and systems in light of these findings because mobility has become the new normal and giftedness must be noticed and supported across all borders.
