Living With Live Wires

Lets look a little further into how gifted kids are wired for creativity.

Psychomotor overexcitabilities (OE) is a surplus of energy or the expression of emotional tension “through general hyperactivity” Manifestations include excess physical energy, workaholism, nervous habits (such as tics and nail biting), rapid speech, love of movement, impulsivity, and pressure for action.

Rapid speech – one recommendation by Daniels and Piechowski is to use IQ sheets. These are photocopied sheets with an I for Interesting Ideas on one side and a Q for Questions on the other. Thus, intense ideas and urgent questions have a waiting place – or parking lot – to be saved for later exploration at a more opportune time.

Sensual OE includes responsiveness of the senses, aesthetic appreciation, sensuality, and enjoyment of being the center of attention.

Imaginational OE is the capacity to visualize events very well; inventiveness; creativity, fantasy; and poetic, dramatic, or artistic abilities.

Intellectual OE includes probing questions, analytical thinking, reflectiveness, problem solving, and interest in abstraction and theory. This OE appears to be most closely associated with intellectual giftedness, but gifted individuals have repeatedly been found to be high in emotional OE as well.

Emotional OE involves intense connectedness with others; the ability to experience things deeply; fears of death, embarrassment, and guilt; and emotional responsiveness.

Piechowski suggested that the OEs or “original equipment” are basic components of giftedness shared by many types of gifted and creative individual. 

The overexcitabilities may be regarded as the actual psychological potential of the creative person.

Piechowski stated, “The OEs contribute significantly to the creator’s drive, vivid sensory experience, relentless searching, power to envision possibilities, and the intensity and complexity of feeling involved in creative expression.”

Piechowski and Colangelo (1984) emphasized that the OEs are not specific domains of talent or prodigious achievement. “Rather, they represent the kind of endowment that feeds, nourishes, enriches, empowers, and amplifies talent.”

This is telling us that the overexcitabilities of gifted children are the actual source of energy, intensity and emotions that power the creative process for these kids. It is the OEs that will enable them to actualize their creatively.

This is a key point to keep in mind when the gifted children in your classroom show their overexciteabilities in disruptive ways. It is easy to get irritated and frustrated, but with practice, it gets easier to redirect children from an empathetic stance. It is imperative to find ways to guide the OE of children in ways that will help them realize their potential.