Common Difficulties Experienced
by Children with High Learning Potential

Children with high learning potential have unique characteristics outlined above that are not widely known. This causes misunderstanding in adults and children alike. Even when there is an element of understanding, certain actions or behaviours of HLP children can be misunderstood, leading to feelings of frustration and a lack of belonging

Find out more about supporting high learning potential children with our advice sheet PA103 Needs of Children with High Learning Potential

Children with high learning potential often suffer from intense emotions which cause them to overreact and behave in a way that is odd at times. Intense emotions combined with advanced understanding and perception can result in extreme anxiety in children with HLP. Similarly, these factors also contribute to concerns about world issues, feelings of unfairness and, sometimes, depression.

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Find out more about the topic with our advice PA601 Social and Emotional Development of Children with High Learning Potential

Find out more about dealing with emotional problems with our advice sheet PA608 Helping High Learning Potential Children Deal with Emotional Problems

Sensitivity to various kinds of sensory stimuli is common among high learning potential children. As many as one-third of HLP children may exhibit sensory processing disorder features, significantly affecting quality of life. Some high learning potential children have sensory processing disorder and some also have dyspraxia.

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Find out more about sensory issues with our fact sheet F05 Sensory Processing Disorder and High Learning Potential

Many children with high learning potential find it hard to develop friendships with their peers. This is often because their cognitive abilities being advanced for their ages means they are functioning at a different social level to children their own age. This is most pronounced as preschoolers but continues throughout childhood. Being in the top 2-5% of the population means there is…TO VIEW THE REST OF THE ARTICLE PLEASE LOG INTO YOUR ACCOUNT

Find out more with our advice sheet PA603 Friendships and High Learning Potential Children

Being Me booklet published in collaboration with Kidscape on supporting children with high potential learners to flourish.

Many children with high learning potential suffer with negative aspects of perfectionism. Perfectionism in HLP children is caused by their advanced perception; they understand what carrying out a task as well as an adult or as well as expected looks like. Their perfectionism is compounded by…TO VIEW THE REST OF THE ARTICLE PLEASE LOG INTO YOUR ACCOUNT

Find out more with our advice sheet PA604 Perfectionism and High Learning Potential Children

Imposter syndrome can be defined as a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success. ‘Imposters’ suffer from chronic self-doubt and a sense of intellectual fraudulence that override any feelings of success or external proof of their competence. Young people and adults with high learning potential are well-known to suffer with this phenomenon.