Can behavior problems be a sign of giftedness?

Yes, absolutely. Children who are gifted are often mistakenly suspected of having ADHD or other disabilities with behavioral elements.

That may be because along with other gifted characteristics, many gifted children exhibit so-called sensory sensitivities, which can make them seem difficult or uncooperative.

Such kids may become exhausted by classroom noise or be distracted or disturbed by the flicker and buzz of fluorescent light. They may complain about scratchy shirt labels or sock seams and recoil from bright lights, harsh sounds, "bad" smells, or certain food textures. They may also talk rapidly or compulsively, have boundless energy, or display compulsive habits or tics.

Heightened sensitivity combined with heightened intensity is known as overexcitability. Kids with emotional overexcitability experience a more intense range of emotions – whether happy, sad, or angry – than a regular kid. Sensitive kids are more prone to depression, guilt, and physical responses to emotions, such as stomach pains or headaches due to anxiety.

Some gifted kids' brains consume glucose far more quickly than is typical. If their blood sugar levels dip too fast, it can cause sudden, inexplicable meltdowns, poor judgment, or lack of impulse control. (Frequent high-protein, low-sugar snacks can alleviate this problem.)

Very bright children are often unusually strong willed, negotiate like lawyers, use sarcasm to make a point, refuse to suffer fools, or are overly critical. Sometimes, gifted children are disruptive in classrooms because they refuse to do exercises they consider to be busywork. Of course, all of this can be true of any kid, it's just more so for gifted children. Misbehavior in the classroom can sometimes indicate that grade-skipping could be in order.

So how can you tell whether your child's misbehavior is due to giftedness? One sign is if the unwanted behavior is specific to a situation. Maybe your child mucks up only at school. But at home, he's consumed with a project or pastime, often getting lost in the activity and losing track of time, or isn't easily deterred from the task (he doesn’t hear you calling him for dinner because he's engrossed in a book, say).

If that's the case, you may have a gifted kid on your hands. In either case, misbehavior needs to be dealt with and not just tolerated, regardless of the reason for it.

Another way of teasing out giftedness versus straight-up misbehavior is to observe how your child acts in settings where he's engaged in activities he likes with kids who share his interest and abilities. If he's focused, engaged, and cooperative, that may explain why he acts out in situations where he's not stimulated enough.

Why play is important for your preschooler

The basics

Playing is one of the most important things you can do with your child. The time you spend playing together gives your child lots of different ways and times to learn. It also helps your child:

• build confidence
• feel loved, happy and safe
• develop social skills, language and communication
• learn about caring for others and the environment
• develop physical skills
• connect and refine pathways in her brain.

Your child will love playing with you, but sometimes he might prefer to play by himself and won't need so much hands-on play from you. He might just want you to give him ideas and let him know how his play and games are going. Also, the way your child plays will change as he gets older.

Different types of play

Unstructured, free play is the best type of play for young children. This is play that just happens, depending on what takes your child's interest at the time. Free play isn't planned and lets your child use her imagination and move at her own pace.

Examples of unstructured play might be:

• creative play alone or with others – including artistic or musical games
• imaginative games – making cubby houses with boxes or blankets, dressing up, playing make-believe
• exploring new or favourite play spaces – cupboards, backyards, parks, playgrounds and so on.

You can be part of your child's unstructured play or not. Sometimes all you'll need to do is point him in the right direction – towards the jumble of dress-ups and toys on his floor, or to the table with crayons and paper. Sometimes you might need to be a bit more active. For example, 'How about we play dress-ups? What do you want to be today?'

Structured play is different. It's more organised and occurs at a fixed time or in a set space, and is often led by a grown-up.

Examples of structured play include:

• water familiarisation classes for toddlers, or swimming lessons for older children – you might see these as being important lessons for your child, but she might just think they're fun
• storytelling groups for toddlers and preschoolers at the local library
• dance, music or drama classes for children of all ages
• family board or card games
• modified sports for slightly older children, such as Auskick (Australian Rules Football), Futsal (five-a-side soccer) and Netta netball.

How play develops with your child

As your child grows, the way he plays will change – he'll get more creative and experiment more with toys, games and ideas. This might mean he needs more space and time to play.

Newborns and babies 
For babies, the best toy is you. You might like to try using the following to play with your little one:

• music, songs, bells or containers filled with different objects – these objects can help develop hearing and movement
• objects of different sizes, colours and shapes – these can encourage reaching and grasping
• sturdy furniture, balls, toys or boxes – these can get your child crawling, standing and walking.

Toddlers 
Your toddler might enjoy:

• a range of big and light things such as cardboard boxes, buckets or blow-up balls – these can encourage running, building, pushing or dragging movements
• chalk, rope, music or containers – these can encourage jumping, kicking, stomping, stepping and running
• hoops, boxes, large rocks, or pillows – these can be used for climbing, balancing, twisting, swaying or rolling
• hills, tunnels or nooks – these can encourage physical activities like crawling and exploring.

If you put on some favourite music while your toddler plays, she can also experiment with different sounds and rhythms. 

Preschoolers 
Here are some ideas to get your preschooler's mind and body going:

• old milk containers, wooden spoons, empty pot plant containers, sticks, scrunched-up paper, plastic buckets, saucepans and old clothes – your child can use these for imaginative, unstructured play
• favourite CDs or pots and pans – your child can use these for a dance concert or to make up music
• balls and frisbees – these can encourage practice in kicking, throwing or rolling.

When encouraging your child to kick or throw, try to get him to use one side of his body, then the other.

School-age children 
Your school-age child can have fun with:

• furniture, linen, washing baskets, tents and boxes that can be used for building
• her imagination alone, as she pretends to be a favourite superhero
• home-made obstacle courses that get her moving in different ways, directions and speeds.

If your child's interested, you could think about getting him into some sports or team activities designed for young children. Other possibilities include after-school or holiday art and craft activities.

If your child doesn't want to play

There might be times when your child doesn't want to play – for example, she could be tired or bored by doing the same activity for too long. This is normal and usually nothing to worry about.

But sometimes a lack of play – or a lack of interest in play – can be a sign of a more serious developmental disorder. Consider speaking with your GP if:

• your baby doesn't seem to get into interactive play (such as peek-a-boo)
• your toddler has only a narrow interest in toys, or doesn't use toys in a functional way (for example, is only interested in spinning the wheels of a toy car instead of driving it around the room like other children the same age)
• your preschooler isn't interested in playing with other children, or playing pretend games.

Keep your toddler's body clock in mind at bedtime, study suggests

Putting toddlers to bed at a time that's out of sync with their internal body clock could lead to sleep problems, according to a small new study.

Researchers analyzed the sleep of 14 toddlers, aged 30 to 36 months, for six nights. They found differences in when children's levels of melatonin -- a hormone that affects sleep -- started to increase in the evening. Rising levels of melatonin indicate the start of night to the body's biological clock, the researchers said.

On average, the toddlers' melatonin levels began to rise at about 7:40 p.m., about a half-hour before parents put them to bed. The children typically fell asleep about 30 minutes after being put to bed.

Several toddlers, however, were put to bed before their melatonin levels began to rise. These kids took 40 to 60 minutes to fall asleep, according to the researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

"For these toddlers, lying in bed awake for such a long time can lead to the association of bed with arousal, not sleep," study leader Monique LeBourgeois, an assistant professor in the integrative physiology department, said in a university news release. "This type of response may increase children's lifelong risk for insomnia."

The study was published in the December issue of the journal Mind, Brain, and Education.

"There is relatively little research out there on how the physiology of toddlers may contribute to the emergence of sleep problems," LeBourgeois said. "Sleeping at the wrong 'biological clock' time leads to sleep difficulties like insomnia in adults."

LeBourgeois said about 25 percent of toddlers and preschoolers have difficulty settling down at bedtime. This leads to problems such as trouble falling asleep, resisting going to bed, tantrums, calling out from bed, or repeatedly getting out of bed for a glass of water or to go to the bathroom.

"It's not practical to assess melatonin levels in every child," LeBourgeois said. "But if your child is resisting bedtime or having problems falling asleep, it is likely he or she is not physiologically ready for sleep at that time."