Daniel Goleman is a leading advocate for the soft skills necessary for success. He is most widely known for his work on Emotional Intelligence – the concept that a high IQ is not the only factor that helps determine the success a person will get in their life. Related to that is the idea of the Marshmallow Test. The idea is that someone who can forgo the immediate reward of eating a single marshmallow now to get two later, will do better in their life.
The first link is to an article written by Goleman. The second is a video that shows by TEDx Talks on the topic. The third is a similar video by CBS News with Katie Couric.
http://www.danielgoleman.info/free-wont-the-marshmallow-test-revisited/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voF8B-Jr0mA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPZ5R9EA968
The Indiana Department of Education has put together a well done document that helps explain why gifted students sometimes have problems with social skills. Starting on page six, the document explains how gifted students may be different than non-gifted students. The document continues by showing how schools and parents can help in this area.
SENG has quite a few articles on related to social skills. The first three are links to landing pages with multiple articles posted on the site related to emotional and social needs. The others are specific articles that I reviewed which I think will be helpful to people interested in gifted education.
http://sengifted.org/resources/articles-emotional-needs/
http://sengifted.org/resources/articles-social-needs/
http://sengifted.org/resources/articles-well-being-gifted/
EverydayFamily posted this article back in 2013. It provides some good tips on how parents can teach social skills to their kids. While I found some of the tips to be pretty basic and probably what parents have heard before, a few of them were new to me and made some sense.
http://www.everydayfamily.com/blog/6-tips-for-teaching-social-skills-to-gifted-kids/
This article is the first in a series of articles around having a gifted high school student who also has a disability. This can be a serious concern for parents and the author provides some solid advice for getting through the college decision process.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/five-knows-every-high-school-graduate-disability-must-adam-rabasca
This article does not specifically deal with gifted students, but it does discuss ways to work better with sensitive children – a trait often accompanied with gifted students. Dr. McNamara provides five things that people who are working with sensitive kids should know.
http://macnamara.ca/portfolio/what-sensitive-kids-would-like-you-to-know-about-them/
Being gifted isn’t just about how it affects kids in the classroom.
https://www.bustle.com/p/how-being-a-gifted-kid-affects-you-as-adult-32168
I’ve met Christa Tinari, from the Peace Praxis Center years ago. While this article does not deal specifically with gifted students, it’s a great piece on emotional control.
Gifts for Learning
http://giftsforlearning.com/wp/category/social-emotional-needs/
http://www.psy-ed.com/wpblog/emotional-complexity-gifted-child/