How to Identify Gifted Children in an Ever-Evolving Mental Health Society
A Waterbury Times Special Series
ARTICLE ONE: THE QUESTION
By The Waterbury Times|An 8- Part Article Series
Sept 7, 2026
What if the child everyone is trying to fix is actually a child nobody has learned how to understand?
A child stares out the classroom window.
The first assumption might be that the child isn’t paying attention.
That same child interrupts the teacher repeatedly.
The assumption might be that the child is disruptive.
Another child finishes an assignment quickly and becomes restless while classmates continue working.
The assumption might be that the child is impatient or difficult.
A student questions a rule that seems unfair.
The assumption might be defiance.
Another student becomes intensely absorbed in a subject—history, science, art, technology—and can spend hours exploring it.
The assumption might be obsession.
But there is another possibility.
What if some of these behaviors are expressions of giftedness?
That question sits at the center of a new Waterbury Times series examining the characteristics of gifted children through the work and perspective of AbleChild.org and Sheila Matthews, co-founder of the organization.
It is not a question with a simple answer.
And it is not an argument that every child who struggles in school is gifted.
Rather, it is a question about how adults interpret children’s behavior—and what might happen when the first explanation becomes the only explanation.
THE ABLECHILD QUESTION
AbleChild has spent years challenging what it describes as the growing reliance on psychiatric labels in educational settings.
On its parent guide, the organization specifically asks parents to consider whether a child might be “simply creative or gifted and talented,” while directing parents to material comparing characteristics associated with ADHD and gifted children.
The organization’s argument is straightforward:
Before deciding what is wrong with a child, should we first ask what is happening with the child?
AbleChild points to characteristics such as boredom, daydreaming, poor attention to tasks perceived as irrelevant, intensity, questioning rules and high activity levels as behaviors that can appear in gifted children.
That distinction matters because the same outward behavior can have very different explanations.
A child who cannot concentrate on a worksheet may be struggling with attention.
Or the child may already understand the material.
A child who refuses to complete repetitive work may be unmotivated.
Or the child may be searching for something more challenging.
A child who constantly asks questions may be disrupting the classroom.
Or the child may simply be trying to understand something at a depth that the lesson does not require.
The behavior is visible. The reason behind the behavior is not.
THE 12 CHARACTERISTICS
AbleChild’s materials describe gifted children through a collection of characteristics that can sometimes overlap with behaviors adults associate with attention or behavioral problems.
Among them are:
Focused intensity — becoming deeply absorbed in subjects that are interesting while disengaging when work feels too easy.
A need for challenge — resisting repetitive tasks while embracing difficult ones.
Deep passions — developing highly organized interests around particular subjects.
Energy and engagement — becoming particularly energetic when excited or creatively engaged.
Enthusiastic communication — interrupting because ideas are coming faster than the child can contain them.
Quick learning — absorbing new concepts rapidly.
Inquisitiveness — asking unusually deep questions and independently exploring subjects.
Selective motivation — becoming highly motivated by challenge and novelty while resisting rote repetition.
High potential — demonstrating advanced ability even when grades or classroom performance are inconsistent.
Creative thinking — producing original stories, designs, ideas or solutions.
Sensitivity and fairness — questioning rules, authority or situations that appear unjust.
Emotional depth and flow — experiencing emotions intensely and becoming completely absorbed in self-selected interests.
These characteristics do not, by themselves, establish that a child is gifted.
They do, however, raise a question worth examining:
Are we sometimes evaluating the behavior without adequately examining the child?
WHEN THE CLASSROOM BECOMES THE TEST
One of the most provocative ideas in AbleChild’s material is that environment matters.
A child may function one way in a classroom and very differently when presented with something genuinely challenging.
That difference can be important.
AbleChild’s discussion of gifted children notes that some may display behaviors resembling ADHD when they are bored with material designed for their age group. The organization suggests that, in some circumstances, parents might consider whether a more challenging class or educational environment could better meet the child’s needs.
This creates an important distinction:
Is the child incapable of paying attention—or incapable of being interested in material that does not challenge them?
Those are not necessarily the same thing.
And that is precisely where the series will spend the next several weeks.
SHEILA MATTHEWS: THE QUESTION BECOMES PERSONAL
For Sheila Matthews, the issue isn’t simply theoretical.
AbleChild’s own history describes Matthews as one of the organization’s co-founders and traces the organization’s origins to parents who became concerned about the use of psychiatric labels and medication in educational settings.
In AbleChild’s account of its history, Matthews encountered a situation involving her son and a school system that changed the direction of her life.
The organization says Matthews ultimately became concerned that characteristics associated with giftedness could be interpreted as symptoms of disorder.
That experience helped lead to the creation of AbleChild in 2001.
And that personal history provides an important lens for understanding the organization’s work.
Matthews is not approaching this question as a detached observer.
She is approaching it as a parent who believes the consequences of getting the question wrong can be profound.
LOOKING CLOSER
The behavior is not the diagnosis.
One of the central ideas we’ll examine throughout this series is the difference between observing a behavior and understanding its cause.
A child can be distracted and be bored.
A child can be energetic and can be emotional.
A child can question authority and can struggle in school.
None of those observations, standing alone, tells us why.
The challenge for parents and educators is determining what the behavior is communicating.
THIS SERIES WILL ASK
Over the next several articles, The Waterbury Times will examine the 12 characteristics associated with gifted children and the questions AbleChild raises about how those characteristics can be interpreted.
We will look at:
Boredom and attention.
Challenge and motivation.
Creativity and communication.
Questioning authority.
Academic performance.
Emotional intensity.
Perfectionism.
Deep interests and hyperfocus.
And ultimately, the question that may be the most important of all:
Can a child be both gifted and struggling?
The answer may be yes.
Giftedness does not make a child immune from genuine difficulties. And a child displaying behavioral or emotional difficulties should not automatically be presumed gifted.
That is why the purpose of this series is not to replace one label with another.
It is to slow the process down.
To look again.
To ask another question.
And, perhaps most importantly, to remember that behind every behavior is a child.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The central argument presented by AbleChild is not simply that gifted children exist.
Everyone knows they do.
The harder question is whether our systems are always equipped to recognize them.
When a child is bored, intense, curious, emotional, restless, creative or relentlessly inquisitive, adults have choices about how they interpret those behaviors.
One interpretation may focus on what is wrong.
Another may ask what the child needs.
Talented or Troubled?
For the next several weeks, The Waterbury Times will explore that question.
Not to tell parents what conclusion to reach.
But to make sure they know there is a question worth asking.
SOURCE NOTE
This series draws exclusively from materials published by AbleChild.org and interviews/conversations with Sheila Matthews, co-founder of AbleChild. Statements concerning diagnosis, giftedness, education and mental health are presented as the perspectives and claims of those sources and are not intended as individual medical or psychological diagnoses.
Next in the series: Sept 10, 2026
The 12 Characteristics of a Gifted Child: What Are We Really Looking At?
— The Waterbury Times
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