Exploring learning and behavior problems of gifted children in Indonesia: A content analysis study

Although gifted children have talents and positive traits in academic area that already been supported, little empirical evidence addresses the need of support for gifted children in non-academic areas in Indonesian context. To fill this void, this study conducted a content analysis of two books about gifted children based on parents’ narratives to explore the need for support for social-emotional problems. “Menyongsong Pagi” and “Menyiangi Petang” are the two books which describe how thirteen gifted children grew up and face obstacle in their learning. Drawing on the theory of positive disintegration and Bronfenbrenner’s theory of ecological development, this study analyzed the two books to describe the uniqueness of gifted students in terms of emotion, intellectual and psychomotor still mostly seen as problems by their teachers and friends which lead to various educational issues. The implication of this study calls for the comprehensive support from teachers and schools’ leader to support gifted children both in academic and non-academic areas.


Introduction
The most common concept in defining giftedness is seen from high cognitive abilities (Worrell et al., 2019). This view has shifted over the years. In 1922, Terman's research emphasized that giftedness was identified by an IQ above 120. Furthermore, Sternberg (1986) examined the gifted as a combination of three intelligences, analytical, creative, and functional intelligence to solve everyday problems. The study of multiple intelligences (Gardner, 2011) also colored the area of giftedness in individuals which included seven areas (linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, special, interpersonal, and interpersonal. The giftedness of the study saw gifted individuals have above average potential average in one area or in various areas. In recent developments, giftedness is not only seen as an extraordinary potential in individuals, but also an emphasis on support that maximizes the actualization of that potential. Renzulli (2011) emphasizes three things that need to be supported to maximize the potential of the gifted, namely: task commitment, creativity, and above-average abilities. These three things then became the basis of enrichment programs for gifted children (J. S Renzulli, 1976). The development of gifted studies and gifted education in the international world has not been fully seen in Indonesia because studies in this field are still very minimal. In a review conducted by Setiawan and Septiarti (2019) it can be seen that the source of the study (gifted in Indonesia is mostly based on news in the mass media because research on the gifted in Indonesia is still very limited. Research on the gifted in Indonesia is currently still dominated in the academic area. One of them was carried out by oleh Syafril and colleagues (2020) which focused on the characteristics of gifted students at the high school level based on the views of teachers, students, and school administrators. In this study, it was found that the academic characteristics of the gifted include a) being active and creative, b) easy and fast in processing information, c) having a high curiosity, and d) prefer a challenging learning process. Syafril and colleagues (2020) found that gifted students in madrasah schools in Lampung had not fully received adequate support. This situation has not changed much from the development of the gifted which was conveyed by Semiawan (2004) that the gifted is synonymous with high learning achievement compared to other friends in the same class so that it is necessary to provide accelerated class services. Furthermore, more studies are needed to explore both academic and non-academic needs of gifted students. The decline in services for gifted students is also increasingly visible since the abolition of accelerated services in 2015 (Solopos, 2014). This is of course contrary to the 2003 National Education System Law, article 32 paragraph 1, which states that gifted children or special talents need access of special services to support their talents.
The lack of support for gifted children can have a negative impact on various things, including frustration, decreased interest in learning, and underachievement of potential (Reis & Mccoach, 2000). Warne and colleagues (2013) confirm this by finding that gifted students with various backgrounds tend to be unidentified because of low achievement scores and this implies low learning opportunities for them. Limited services for gifted children are also found in developing countries. Research in Turkey that focused on the services of gifted children from the perspective of parents found that there were obstacles in terms of teacher understanding that was still minimal, negative public perceptions of the impact of gifted education services that would lead to the formation of elite classes, and policies that focused on students with special needs (Eris et al., 2009). In general, the situation in Indonesia is not much different from these findings. Teachers' understanding is still limited regarding the identification of the gifted and educational services for the gifted so that the potential and needs of gifted children have not been met in general (Suhendri et al., 2020). From the situation of services in schools that are still minimal, the needs of gifted children in this study are explored based on the narratives of parents who tell stories in books. This study adds more insight of the uniqueness gifted students. Parents' experience becomes a reference in fulfilling support for gifted children (i.e, Morawska & Sanders, 2008) and the variety of uniqueness of gifted children which is easily understood in the overexcitability framework is best explained by parents (Tieso, 2007).
Currently in Indonesia there are references that discuss the experience of raising gifted children through the perspective of parents. The two books with the title: "Menyongsong Pagi" and "Menyiangi Petang" are data sources to understand the support needs of gifted children from perspective of the uniqueness of gifted children and how the environment responds to this uniqueness based on parents' experiences. The uniqueness of gifted children is explored from the perspective of Disintegrative Positive Theory and environmental responses are examined with the theory of ecological systems (Bronfenbrenner, 1992). An understanding of these two focuses can be the basis for identifying of the needs of support services for the gifted because of their psychological social vulnerability (Bain et al., 2006;Rinn, 2018;Shechtman & Silektor, 2012).
Positive Disintegrative Theory (PDT) has been widely used in understanding gifted children (i.e., mostly misdiagnosis with ADHD, Rinn & Reynolds, 2012) also link overexcitability (OE) in PDT with perfectionism in the gifted. Quantitatively, Tieso (2007) and Alias and colleagues (2013) investigated for OE patterns in gifted children from the perspective of parents and gifted individuals to understand the affective characteristics of gifted children. Meanwhile, Tucker and Hafenstein (1997) examined OE in a case study approach to understanding gifted children. This study fills the gaps of lack of previous studies which focus on deeper understanding of uniqueness of gifted students in terms of OE based on parents' narratives in order to provide suitable support for gifted student.

Theoretical Framework
The Positive Theory of Disintegration (PTD) forms the theoretical framework to guide data collection. In this theory, overexcitabilities help to understand individual psychic experiences which are manifested in a person's personal development. The different psychic characteristics of Piechowski (1979) shows that there are five overexcitability (OE) identified by Dabrowski, among others.
Psychomotor Overexcitability. There are basically two kinds of psychomotor overexcitability manifestations, namely surplus energy and nervousness. Sensual Overexcitability. Sensual overcitability is shown in increasing the experience of sensual pleasure and finding a place to channel inner tension. Intellectual Overexcitability. The manifestation of intellectual overexcitability is related to the intensity and acceleration of thought activity. It is expressed by curiosity, asking 'why', concentration, and problem solving. Imaginational Overexcitability. Imaginational overexcitability is indicated by distraction, lack of focus, and daydreaming. This happens as a consequence of the free play of the imagination. Emotional Overexcitability. Emotional overexcitability is a manifestation of the most overexcitability among other overexcitability. Includes expressions with certain and easily recognizable characteristics that include concern for others, shame, fear and anxiety, intense feelings, difficulty adapting in new environments. Other things can be somatic expression, extreme feelings, inhibition, strong affective memory, concern with death, anxiety, fear, feelings of guilt, and depression and suicidal ideation (Piechowski, 1991).
In the development of the use of OE in gifted research, it has also received objections (De Bondt et al., 2021;Grant, 2021;Vuyk et al., 2016) from various parties. This study refers to PTD by seeing that in gifted children there is a gap between what develops biologically in themselves and social reality which causes internal conflict and leads to disintegration. The PTD sees the uniqueness of each gifted individual in responding to the environment and this study uses the PTD framework in understanding how gifted children respond to their environment in the Indonesian context based on parents' narratives.
Ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1992) presents a multilevel circle in the environment that interacts with each other in child development. In the smallest circle there are individuals and their uniqueness as a variable that determines how they interact with the environment around them. The environment closest to the child (microsystem) is the family that influences or is influenced by the child. For example, gifted children who can read from an early age without being taught can encourage families to provide a variety of reading books or otherwise cover up their children's abilities for fear of being seen as showing off their children's abilities. This reciprocal interaction between families and gifted children can trigger situations that put pressure on both parents and gifted children because they do not understand the needs of gifted children and their unique developmental patterns.
At the next level, there is a mesosystem that affects the relationship between children and their families. At this level, peers and schools can influence the development of gifted children because children interact directly at this level. For example: gifted children who often dominate in learning can be bullied by friends and difficult to make friends in class so that it affects learning achievement so gifted students perform below their potential (underachiever).

Methods
The researchers employed the content analysis method by using a coding list that refers to the characteristics of OE (De Bondt et al., 2021). Ary, Jacobs, and Sorensen (2010) stated that content analisys has a purpose to indentify certain characteristics of the material (written or visual) and this study aims to analyze the uniqueness of gifted children stated by parents in the two books and describe the interaction between this uniqueness and the environment.
Parents' narratives about their experiences in accompanying gifted children contained in the book Menyongsong Pagi (book #1) and the book Menyiangi Petang (book #2) became the data sources in this study. Book #1 was published in 2019 and book #2 was published in 2016. The authors of the two books are parents of gifted students and generally similar for both books. Some of the authors shared experience accompanying the same gifted child in both books within a period of 3 years. Every gifted child in this book has received a gifted diagnosis from a psychologist and shows rapid development from an early age. Detailed information about the twelve gifted children in this study is as follows. A thematic analysis was conducted based on identified themes for OE of gifted students for each gifted students in the two books. The matrix display was created for detailed analysis to mapping out OE of gifted student and compare with other gifted students (Miles et al., 2014). Categorization and themes were developed based on the coding results. The precoding list (Corbin & Strauss, 2014) was developed based on the literature and theoretical framework regarding overexcitability in gifted children and used as a reference for coding the two books. Triangulation of sources is done by checking in both books on parental statements regarding the uniqueness of gifted children.

Results and Discussion
After analyzing the book Menyongsong Pagi (Book #1) and the book Menyiangi Petang (Book #2), it was found that the uniqueness (overexcitability) in terms of emotion, intellectual and psychomotor in gifted children was stated by the parents of gifted children. This uniqueness is seen as a problem because there is disharmony with environmental factors at the microsystem (family) and mesosystem (peers and school) levels. The pattern of disharmony between the uniqueness of gifted children and the environment is described to explore alternative solutions that can be served as guidelines for teachers and parents in assisting the potential development of gifted children. The unique pattern of gifted children in the review of positive disintegrative theory specifically uses those that require emotional strengthening support, including:

Emotional overexcitability
The feelings that exist in gifted children in this study show an excessive level of intensity compared to their peers. The form of emotional overexcitability in this study was found in three forms, namely: fear and anxiety, excessive emotional intensity, and difficulty adapting to a new environment. Fear and anxiety are found in gifted children from an early age like the story in Deva and Koko.
"But as time went on, more and more Deva's fears and anxieties began to be unreasonable in my opinion…She was very afraid of strong winds, then followed by other fears such as Christmas trees, clowns, loud noises, fire, aliens, UFOs ." (book #2, pages 77-78). "Koko is starting to worry too much... worried that her generation of skin cells will peel off and fall off at school or on the streets, she's worried that many parts of it will be scattered everywhere." (book #1, page 153).
The sources of anxiety above are varied and even unreasonable. This excessive anxiety inhibits gifted children in daily activities. The emotional intensity of the gifted children was also expressed by the parents of Ikaru and Mike.
"He [Ikaru] is very good at reading the faces of the people around him." (book #1, page 130). "I told him many times that it was just a joke. It's just tempting. But still he took it seriously. Ikaru is also very easy to get teary-eyed, pitiful, moved, and then cry." (book #1, page 130). "Mike often cries because he is offended by a friend's words, which are sometimes just trivial words but become a big problem for Mike." (book #2, page 64).
Ikaru and Mike's condition shows that they are able to understand the implicit meaning of speech so that in responding it seems excessive to those around them. In addition to emotional responses that seem excessive, the intensity of emotion in gifted children is also often considered as an unstable emotional state and not as their unique ability to interpret and deeply appreciate conditions in the environment as part of their above average cognitive abilities. This excessive emotional intensity if not understood by peers can trigger interaction problems. For example, Jenaka is considered a crybaby by his friends based on the following statements from his parents: "Apart from having a very strong memory and emotional ups and downs, Gama is also a perfectionist, ...just like when he found a book that was misprinted, he immediately complained and asked me to correct the book's scribbles." (Gama, book #1, page 112). "On the other hand, Ikaru has a perfectionist nature which often makes it difficult for us…for example, mixed food can cause him not to eat. The wrong bread is cut not according to its purpose will also prevent it from eating. Wet or slightly soiled clothes must be changed immediately." (book #1, page 128).
Emotional overexcitability in gifted children in this study leads to excessive emotional reactions and this often causes them to be different and vulnerable to being seen as unstable individuals by parents and friends. In this case, gifted children need support to recognize their emotional reactions to the things around them and practice responding to them naturally.

Intellectual overexcitabilities
The form of intellectual overexcitability in gifted children in this study looks at the advantages as independent learners and the speed of children in processing information. As independent learners, the behavioral display of gifted children in this study emerged as stubborn behavior. This was conveyed by the parents of Erlan, Andi, and Celin as follows: "At his age, banning and giving him instructions was absolutely impossible for us to do, he moved and did everything of his own free will, without being prevented." (Erlan, book #1, page 64). "Andi has shown a stubborn attitude, difficult to tell and can't keep quiet." (Andi, book #1, page 137). "But Celin is not a child who can be managed or commanded. He seems to have a world of his own…" (book #2, page 121).
The ability of gifted children as fast learners in this study was implicitly obtained from the parents' exposure to Gama, Doni and Ikaru who stated that children were bored at school. This indirectly reflects that teachers at the Kindergarten and Elementary School levels seem to still have not accommodated the needs of gifted children as fast learners so that gifted children are prone to boredom in learning that is not challenging and even has an impact on boredom and tantrums.
"Gama gets bored and breaks down in doing school assignments because she can already with the material given." (Book #1, p. 92) "Starting in 3rd grade, Doni started complaining that he didn't like homework.. He even had a chance to make the class excited with tantrums because his teacher forced him to copy the correct answers from the blackboard for answers to math problems." (book #1, page 296). "Ikaru is often bored in class and always goes to the bathroom and doesn't come back to class." (book #1, p. 127) Based on the parents' statements above, behavioral problems that arise in gifted children are caused by the boredom of children in learning materials that are less challenging because they have mastered the material.

Psychomotor overexcitabilities
The form of psychomotor overexcitability in gifted children in this study was seen from excess energy, uncontrolled movements, and impulsive behaviour. Excess energy is expressed by parents from Danish and Ananda. The uncontrolled movement of gifted children was stated by parents of Ananda and Mike. "Ananda is really clumsy. Ordinary roads often fall him. It's so easy to fall, it can be likened to blowing in the wind. Ananda likes to crash on the road." (Ananda, # Book 1, p. 211) "The other problem Marco has is with his motor skills. He is not good at tying shoes, buttoning pants or shirts, and cutting. Not infrequently Mike looks frustrated when he has to do these activities". (Mike, #Book 2, p.64) The third overexcitability found in this study is impulsive behavior. This was stated by Andi's parents as follows: "When he was in second and third grade, Andi became more aggressive and impulsive. He often does things without considering the risks. When his friend was already injured he only knew that what he was doing was risky." (Andi, book #1, page 140).
Based on the parental expression above, impulsive behavior appears in gifted children. Impulsive behavior in gifted children tends not to care about the impact of the behavior they have done. The various uniqueness of gifted children stated by parents in this study indicate that lack of understanding about gifted leads to disharmony in the interaction between gifted children and the environment (friends and teachers).

Disharmony between overexcitabilities of gifted children and the environment
The uniqueness of gifted children found in parents' narrative seems not been fully understood by their friends and schools. This has an impact on the problems that arise in gifted children, including bullying, underachievers, difficulties in social interaction, and psychological disorders.

Bullying
The dominant of gifted children in the classrooms in this this study often causes them to be bullied and ostracized in a school environment that does not understand gifted children. This situation can be seen in the statements of Wira and Alva's parents: "Wira was bullied by her friends because Wira was talkative, dominated the lessons, pretended to be mature, was too old-schooled, and had an age difference (Book #2, p. 161) Alva was ostracized by his friends because he was considered strange, until Alva was not invited to play by his male friends because Alva was too dominant in class." (Book #2, The appearance and academic behaviour of gifted children in this study did not seem to be accepted by their peers so that they were vulnerable to being bullied. In this situation, welcoming school environment need is still far from reality and support from teachers and school leaders.

Underachiever
Some parents in this study also stated that there was a tendency for some gifted children to cover their abilities and lead to underachievers. The parents of Gama and Deva stated this thus: "If in front of strangers he always hides that he has more abilities than other children his age… There was an incident when asked by people, he pretended he couldn't read, write, and count. Even though when he was at home, he was very chatty and at length." (Gama, book #1, page 98).
Several other parents stated that gifted children withdraw from challenges because they do not want to fail and are perfectionists. This can be seen in the narratives of Doni and Deva's parents as follows.
"There is a concern that if he can't win it will be a disappointment for him. So, rather than experiencing disappointment, it's better not to go along with it." (Doni, book #1, pages 319-320). "Despite having the potential and broad knowledge of many things, Deva never wanted to take part in any competitions. The impression I got was that he didn't want to take part in any competitions. The impression I got was that he wasn't ready to lose." (Deva, book #2, page 81).
Withdrawal behavior in gifted children to cover their abilities and avoid challenges was found in gifted children in this study that might be happen due to either lack of confidence or unsafe learning environment.

Social interaction difficulty
Wira and Alva have difficulty interacting socially based on parental statements. Difficulty in social interaction in the form of difficulty adapting to the surrounding environment, being considered strange by his friends, being ostracized, and having difficulty finding friends. The following are the expressions of parents regarding the difficulties of social interaction in gifted children.
"But his 2nd grade elementary school friends then stayed away from Wira, thinking Wira was not cool, pretentious, and so on because according to his friends, Wira was weird." (Wira, book #1, page 160). "But the suspicion deepened when Alva started asking to change schools, and several reports from her friends that Alva was often ostracized by her friends because she was considered strange, often aloof and daydreaming." (Alva, book #1, page 269).
Based on the parents' expression above, the difficulties in social interaction of gifted children can be seen from situations where their friends perceive the uniqueness of gifted children as strange and gifted children have not been able to adapt to the environment, so they are then shunned/isolated by their friends, or have difficulty find friends.

Tendency to Psychological Disorder
With the various problems faced by gifted children in an environment that does not fully understand and support their potential, there is a vulnerability to psychological disorders. This was stated by Alva's parent who stated that the problem was a psychological disorder. Psychological disorders that arise in the form of stress, trauma, and depression.
"But on the other hand, analysis of other aspects shows that Alva is experiencing what psychologists call chronic stress and trauma." (Alva, book #1, page 270).
The trigger for these psychological disorders is mostly due to trauma or many other problems that cannot be solved by gifted children which can be made possible by environmental responses that do not understand and support them.

Discussion
The intellectual overexcitability of gifted children in this study is still widely interpreted as problematic behavior by the environment as stated by Saunders in Diezmann and Walters, (1997) in the following Table 2. The appearance of gifted children as independent learners in this study (e.g., Erlan, Andi, and Celin) is in accordance with table 1 above as they appear as stubborn children from parents perspectives. On the contrary, as learners with high internal motivation (Gottfried & Gottfried, 1996), it is very natural that they have a focus on their own learning interests and seem difficult to be directed to things outside their interests.
When Gama, Doni, Ikaru, and Nugie were described as tend to get bored easily, their lerning environment seemed not provide adequate challenge for gifted students. This situation in general also happens in other countries, such as India (Roy, 2017) and China (Zhang, 2017) as part of a stereotypical believe presents in education research, policies, and practices (Subotnik et al., 2011) that gifted children will do better than peers and do not need specific services. In the context where gifted students had fewer learning opportunities, they might not perform good academic achievements and being underachiever (Reis & McCoach, 2000). Furthermore, this situation might lead to some behavior problems which will disappear when appropriate academic program is provided (Mullet & Rinn, 2015). In addition, Horn (2015) suggests the use of challenging curriculum will enable gifted children to display their reasoning skills which might not be distinguished from academic achievement for the identification process.
Excessive fear of Deva and Koko that appears for no reason was also found by Harrison and Haneghan (2011) who compared level of anxiety between gifted students and peers who found that anxiety levels on gifted was higher than their peers. The speculation for this is might be because their highly intellectual and imagination ability of gifted children that lead to accumulation of thoughts about life which is not balanced with emotional and social skill management (Harrison & Haneghan, 2011). Harrison and Haneghan also suggest adaptation curriculum materials and counselling services to enhance emotion stability and reduce the stress level. The curriculum adaptation enable students to address various issues related to life and the environment that can bridge conflicts in their thinking. Another suggestion is reading biographies of gifted individuals to better understand themselves and feel less alone. Providing counselling services is important to be provided when unstable emotions start to interfere to avoid the accumulation of stress that can lead to depression. Another suggestions from Lamont, (2012) is using some relaxation techniques to reduce the anxiety such as meditation.
There are various reasons why gifted children withdraw from their environment, such as behave and act similar to peers, avoid to be the center of attention. This is in line with the statement of Clasen and Clasen (1995) that peer influence can lead to low learning achievement in gifted children because they do not want to look different and want to be accepted by their friends. Group activity might be a good alternative for teachers as it provide a collaborative learning environment and reducing inferiority (Wangid & Purwanti, 2020).
The link between perfectionism and fear of failure is clearly explained by Mofield and Peters (2015) in relation to emotional overexcitability that can lead to both healthy and unhealthy perfectionism. Unhealthy perfectionism for gifted children encourages them not to try to avoid fear of failure. Anticipating this unhealthy perfectionism, Mofield and Peters (2015) suggest to provide a safe environment for the creative development of gifted children. Specifically, Dweck (2006) sees this unhealthy perfectionist as a fixed mindset that can be directed or developed into a growth mindset where one does not focus on proving one's abilities (gifted) but on improving one's abilities. This is in line with Mofield and Parker Peters (2018) who found that gifted children who have a growth mindset have a perfectionist score that is oriented towards the process of achieving goals, while gifted children with a fixed mindset are identical with concerns about self-evaluation. Gifted children with a fixed mindset are often found to be underachievers (Mofield & Parker Peters, 2019).
In gifted children with unhealthy perfectionists, namely when they avoid challenges, teachers and parents can focus more on seeing mistakes and challenges as learning developments and as a basis for determining further learning goals. However, Mofield and Parker Peters (2019) suggest that giving challenges to gifted children becomes absolutely necessary with organizational assistance on how to achieve them.
The diversity of causes of gifted children masking their abilities needs to be explored more deeply from the internal and external sides (Reis & Mccoach, 2000). From the internal side, it is necessary to explore the mindset of children in interpreting learning and the goals of the learning process. From the external side, it is necessary to explore family dynamics related to parenting patterns at home, the influence of peers and learning at school. For parents and teachers, it is very important to show acceptance of the different emotional intensity of gifted children as their uniqueness and also communicate that it is normal. In addition, teachers and parents also can help gifted children to develop self-awareness and acceptance of their overexcitabilities (Piechowski, 1991).

Conclusion
Analysis of the two books of parent's narratives about their gifted children revealed that gifted children showed their uniqueness (overexcitability) in terms of emotion, intellectual and psychomotor. These findings add deeper understanding of uniqueness of gifted students which mostly are seen as problems when environments (family, peers, and schools) might have a lack of knowledge and acceptance towards gifted children. The implication of this study calls for the comprehensive support from teachers and schools' leader to support gifted children both in academic and non-academic areas. For example, providing counseling services and developing appropriate academic programs. In addition, parents, teachers, and school leaders need to show acceptance, communicate, and support growth mindset to gifted children to show and express that their uniqueness is welcomed and supported.
Even though this study underline how overexcitabilities in gifted children as a diverse and unique evidence but some limitations need to be considered in drawing conclusion. Group of parents who wrote the two books reviewed in this study came from a similar parent organization which mean that they are already exposed by more information about gifted education so their narratives might be different from parents who never access supporting information about gifted. Another limitation is that data source in this study mainly focus on parents' narratives based on their reflection which include of how their gifted children interact with friends and teachers, so further study might consider adding more data from teachers and friends' perspectives to minimize bias.