Gifted students have specific social and emotional needs that must be met in order for students to succeed academically. Dabrowski identifies five areas in which gifted students may become overexcited:
Some common social and emotional issues gifted students face are:
- intellectual (avid curiosity, search for truth, extensive reading)
- pyschomotor (restless, rapid talk, nervous ticks, self-injurious behavior)
- emotional (deep relationships, need for security, heightened sense of responsibility)
- imaginational (divergent thinkers, sense of humor, maladjustment to external reality, vivid daydreams and nightmares)
- sensual (sensory integration disorder, dislike of loneliness, need for physical contact)
Some common social and emotional issues gifted students face are:
- depression
- difficulty with peer relations
- multipotentiality
- twice exceptional (gifts and needs)
- underachievement
- perfectionism
- asynchrony
- hiding giftedness
Cinematherapy allows students to engage with movies that examine specific issues. Some movies even portray gifted people as characters to address the needs of gifted students. Milne and Reis (2000), Herbert and Speirs Neumeister (2001), and Newton (1995) all agree that teachers can effectively use film to help their students understand themselves and cope with being gifted.
Here are some movies featuring gifted or talented people as characters (I have also included some issues/ideas that can be addressed by some of these movies):
Akeelah and the Bee (hiding giftedness, perfectionism, believing in yourself)
August Rush (separated from parents)
Big Hero 6 (loss of family members, not using talents)
Billy Elliot (hiding giftedness)
Brave (divergent thinking)
Bridge to Terabithia (grief)
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (problem solving, originality, creativity, perseverance, hiding giftedness)
Charlotte's Web (problem solving)
Dead Poet Society (hiding giftedness, believing in yourself)
Finding Forrester (fighting stereotypes)
Good Will Hunting (Click here for an article about cinematherapy and Robin Williams)
Hard Problems: The Road to the World's Toughest Math Contest (perseverance)
The Harry Potter Series (believing in yourself, problem solving, loss of family members/friends)
Holes (justice, collaboration, hiding giftedness)
How to Train your Dragon (perseverance, believing in yourself, problem solving)
The Incredibles (problem solving, believing in yourself, hiding giftedness)
Iron Giant (loneliness, difficulty with peer relationships)
Little Man Tate (perfectionism, difficulty with peer relationships, heightened sense of responsibility)
Matilda (avid curiosity, extensive reading, problem solving, bad relationship with parents)
Meet the Robinsons (loss of parents, failure, determination, perseverance, creativity, originality, problem solving, inventing)
The Mighty (difficulty with peer relationships, problem solving)
Rain Man (originality, hiding giftedness)
Searching for Bobby Fischer (overexcitabilitites) *Good movie for parents to watch
Temple Grandin (originality, difficulty with peer relationships, problem solving)
WALL-E (problem solving, inventing)
This list is in no way exhaustive. These are just some of the most common movies that I have seen incorporate characters who are gifted or talented in some area of life. These movies could be used to address different issues that gifted students may face. After watching the movies, teachers should lead guided discussions that allow students to apply the lessons from the movies to their own lives.
References
Karnes, F. & Bean, S. (2009) Methods and Materials for Teaching the Gifted. Waco, Tx: Prufrock Press Inc