Gifted Homeschoolers Forum

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Behavioral Management of Gifted Children:
A Neuropsychological Approach

By Paul Beljan

Working Memory – the ability to hold two or more points of thought in mind simultaneously and use that information to generate novel solutions or behaviors. A child with a working memory deficit is unable to plan ahead or take into account the consequences that will result from his/her actions. The child is impulsive, or stimulus bound – attracted to or distracted by (bound by) extraneous stimuli in the environment.
Inhibition – the ability to stop when you should (behavioral brakes). A child with disinhibition appears to be willful and have too much energy. It appears that the child won’t behave when, in fact, the child can’t behave appropriately because of an inability to inhibit behavior.
Planning and Organization – abilities that are the direct result of a functioning working memory and inhibition system. To understand the role that working memory and inhibition play in planning and organizing consider the following.

Focus/execute is the ability of the brain to modify what it knows and allows us to quickly use old skills in new ways.
Sustain is the ability to pay attention as directed by the frontal executive functioning system.
Shift is the ability to use cues from the environment to appropriately direct one’s concept formation/problem solving efforts.
Encode is the ability to place information into memory for later recall.