Can you recommend some resources to motivate an underachieving gifted student?
Dear Dr. Courtright,
Information you’ve shared in the past about traits of gifted students was right on point for my son, who is in the 8th grade and in the TIP program. It was also highly aligned to struggles my husband and I have had with positive and negative traits. I desperately need some resources and more information that can help us accentuate the positive and reduce the negative. Do you have anything you can recommend? One of our biggest struggles with him is around sliding school grades because of incomplete or missing homework. He can usually ace the test, but the homework brings his average down. He just doesn’t want to do it or do it well because it’s “boring.” I recognize these as gifted student traits, and we are less concerned about the grades themselves than the pattern being created that will not serve him well in life and when grades really matter for college entrance and scholarships. Do you have any suggestions?
T.J.
Dear T.J.,
Regarding your questions about resources and suggestions, I’m not certain about the degree of the severity of the problem. So if I offer a resource that’s over the top, please accept my apology in advance. One of the researchers/writers in gifted education who has produced much about gifted students who don’t do well in school is Dr. Sylvia Rimm. Her book, Why Bright Kids Get Poor Grades offers strategies she has used with families (notice it’s not just youngsters, it’s the parents as well who receive guidance/advice on strategies) to address the student’s underachievement. Carolyn Coil has also produced a book titled Motivating Underachievers, but that has been developed more for teachers with classroom/instructional strategies rather than the parent perspective.
In a more scholarly vein (which may not be what you want or need) Drs. Sally Reis and Betsy McCoach of the University of Connecticut prepared a monograph about underachievement that is housed on the Davidson School website (http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10094.aspx).
Of these resources, I believe that Rimm’s work would be most helpful.
On the web, Hoagies’ Gifted Page has gathered information from a variety of sources, some of which are more helpful than others. Hoagies’ is a site developed by parents for parents. There is a page specifically designated for the topic of underachievement (http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/underachievement.htm), and you may find some of the resources there helpful.
My last thought I have to offer is to quiz him regarding where he wants to go and what he wants to do (if, that is, he has an idea of what that may be…).
Often, young people don’t see the connections we adults perceive as obvious – if he wants to go to Duke or a similarly selective university, helping him to understand how stringent the requirements for admission are, and where he currently stands in relation to those requirements, may lead to the proverbial light bulb “switching on.” If he can be led to see the connection between what he wants, and what you and the school expect from him, he may rally to the call.
Sincerely,
Rick Courtright
Gifted Education Specialist
Duke TIP
Anonymous says
I have a 13 year old son who is about to finish 7th grade. (Also in TIP). About half way through the year, we saw his grades dropping and he just didn’t care too much about school for a bit. (This was also the time we found out his “friends” had been bullying him…pretty badly.) We nipped the bullying in the bud after someone sent him to the e.r. shortly before he won the school spelling bee. He has ADHD, and is on medicine and a modified diet for that. The school has never been told of his ADHD and they don’t see the behaviors because he just learned early on to keep it in and run wide open at home when he needed to. (Fine with me.) The thing that turned him around this year, though, was a trick from my Mom. His favorite class was the one he had the worst grade in…mostly because he would always forget to bring home his agenda to be filled out and then signed by me. So, my Mom told him that for every day he brought it home, he would get 50 cents, and a bonus at the end of the week if he remembered every day that week. I kid you not…that’s all it took!! He brought it home EVERY DAY until they stopped needing them at school. It cost her a couple dollars a week, and he was thrilled for the instant gratification and to have motivation to bring it home that did not involve listening to Mom (me) nagging him. Oh, and we put a sign on the door going out just as another reminder. Sometimes all it takes is shaking things up slightly and a little instant gratification. (By the end of the year, he had all A’s and one B.) Hope this helps someone. 🙂
MaryAnn says
you might want to look at ADD. Students with HIgh IQ’s seem to have ADD many times and just only focus on things they like and forget easily as they are distracted easily.
I have the same problem with my 13 yr old and I have to stay on top of her for every task she needs to do at home, not just homework. My adult children have always had the same issue, and both have good careers and did well in school, but my son did his work in 5 minutes and was bored and did not really care to do homework, but did catch on that he needed to do work to pass. It took a lot of hounding. lol.
Pat says
My nephew is highly gifted but his public school has a rigid program that really does not put him in communication with other students at his same level and he has in 7th grade become more and more isolated from others because they neither think or talk to each other at the same level. “Giftedness” runs in our family and I was in a University program in the 1950s and 60s that put students from all over the area in contact with each other and with scientists – removing the isolation among those who are very very different and advanced in thinking and performance. I led a happy life in regular school only because I had those contacts weekly with others like me..I am a successful author and scientist partly because I had that support. My nephew has not been provided with such opportunities. Do you know of any programs available to students currently? Even a summer camp with similarly gifted students would benefit him.
Nicole says
We have a third grader with precisely this issue, although we never struggled with our older 2 (both older children in Duke TIP). The older two seem self-motivated, and incredibly interested in getting things done and done well – even though their personalities are very different from each other. We have encountered perfectionist tendencies with the first, and high emotional sensitivities with the second. We could address both of those pretty readily, and they both have flourished. Our third is presenting an entirely different set of challenges for us, although his current test scores (the few we have) are even higher than his brothers’ were when they were his age. Even though he skipped a grade in math, his homework is so easy at this age that the fact that he can’t get it finished without a parent hovering nearby, and he can’t be bothered to hand it in, is so frustrating. We are just starting to look for resources to nip this trait in the bud, so I very much appreciate this post!
Anonymous says
I’m right with you! This is exactly what’s going on in my home with my eighth grader. We’ve enrolled him in a Soccer Program and he loves it but… schoolwork still lacking, so much that we were summoned to a Teacher Conference last month. I too will be following
Etv says
Mine too
Jennifer says
Wow T.J., you are experiencing EXACTLY what my son is doing! My son is so bright, in the Duke TIP program, does amazing on assignments & tests in school, however just doesn’t seem to complete anything that the teachers assign to do outside of school (homework AND projects)! I don’t have an answer, however I will be following this article to learn what we can do! Hang in there, I know precisely what you are going through!