What Gifted Education Teaches Us About Every Child’s Mental Health
Picture a student who always finishes her assignments early, asks big questions, and lights up when she learns something new. Now picture that same student a few years later—quiet, anxious, maybe even underperforming. What happened?
A new study from the University of the Basque Country may hold some answers. Researchers Leire Aperribai and colleagues examined what happens when schools nurture not only the brains of gifted students but their hearts—tracking how self-esteem, motivation, and creativity evolve when children are challenged in the right ways.
Their findings should make every parent, teacher, and school psychologist stop and think: even the most capable kids can struggle if their emotional needs aren’t part of the lesson plan.
Beyond IQ: The Emotional Side of High Ability
For decades, “gifted education” has focused on fast-tracking advanced learners through more challenging math problems or accelerated reading lists. However, as this study highlights, intelligence is not static—it’s dynamic, shaped by environment, motivation, and emotional support.
Gifted students, the researchers note, aren’t simply “smarter.” They’re different learners: curious, sensitive, and often deeply reflective. They can grasp complex ideas more quickly—but they also feel failure more acutely. Without the right support, that same depth of thinking can turn inward, feeding perfectionism, anxiety, or a drop in self-esteem.
That’s why programs like Sakonduz, the Basque Country’s enrichment initiative, aim to do more than boost test scores. They help gifted students explore creativity, think critically, and develop the confidence to take intellectual risks.
What the Study Found (and Why It Matters)
The research compared students in the Sakonduz enrichment program to similar peers who didn’t participate. Over a school year, both groups were measured on:
- Self-esteem (how positively students viewed themselves)
- Learning approach (deep vs. surface motivation)
- Creativity (ability to generate new ideas)
- Academic achievement (grades)
Here’s what stood out:
✅ Self-esteem stayed strong for program participants—but dropped for others. While the control group’s confidence declined, students in Sakonduz maintained high self-esteem. Even if the program didn’t skyrocket grades, it protected emotional health—a quiet but powerful outcome.
⚖️ Grades didn’t budge much—but motivation did. Students in the program kept their intrinsic motivation (they still wanted to learn deeply) but used fewer deep strategies, possibly because the program’s pilot structure didn’t fully integrate classroom teachers or long-term feedback loops.
💡 Creativity was stable, not soaring—but that’s not failure. Developing creativity takes time. The study suggests longer, more immersive programs—where teachers and schools are fully engaged—are needed to see measurable creative growth.
In short: when schools look beyond scores to include psychological factors, they’re more likely to foster students who love learning, not just perform well on paper.
Why Every School Should Pay Attention
Although this study focused on highly able children, its lessons are applicable across classrooms. Whether a student struggles to meet grade-level expectations or excels beyond them, their self-esteem and motivation drive their capacity to learn.
If teachers only measure achievement, they miss the early warning signs—like declining confidence or disengagement—that predict burnout or underachievement later.
As the authors note, education systems often “forget” to assess emotional and psychological well-being. Yet these are the very foundations of resilience, perseverance, and lifelong curiosity
What Parents and Teachers Can Do
Here’s how you can bring the study’s insights into daily practice:
1. Praise the Process, Not the Product. Swap “You’re so smart” for “I love how you stuck with that challenge.” It teaches kids that effort and curiosity—not perfection—are the keys to growth.
2. Build Reflection Into Learning. Encourage students to talk about how they learn. Do they rush through work? Do they think deeply about what interests them? Reflection helps children adopt more in-depth learning approaches.
3. Watch for Hidden Stress in High Performers. High-achieving students aren’t immune to burnout. Sudden dips in enthusiasm or perfectionism that leads to frustration are red flags for emotional strain.
4. Advocate for Whole-Child Evaluation. Encourage schools to incorporate self-esteem, motivation, and creativity into their assessment frameworks. Academic scores tell one story; psychological indicators tell the whole story.
5. Make Room for Creativity. Let students question, explore, and play with ideas. The CREA test used in this study measured creativity through questions, not answers—reminding us that curiosity itself is a skill worth teaching.
The Bigger Lesson: Schools Are Emotional Ecosystems
The Sakonduz program showed that even modest attention to self-esteem can protect mental well-being in gifted learners. For schools everywhere, that’s a roadmap: academic excellence grows best in emotionally rich soil.
If we want confident, creative, resilient learners, we can’t leave emotional development to chance. It has to be part of the curriculum—measured, nurtured, and celebrated just like reading or math.
Let’s Talk About It
🧠 What’s the biggest mental health challenge you see in schools today?
💬 How can teachers balance academic rigor with emotional support?
❤️ What classroom moments have made you rethink what “success” really means?
Join the conversation. Share your thoughts with our community of educators, parents, and school psychologists who are reimagining what whole-child learning really looks like.
