35 Signs You Are a Gifted Adult

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Giftedness is widely under-recognized and under-supported in children, but as individuals age, the conversation around giftedness becomes almost non-existent. Yet giftedness doesn’t end just because school does; it’s a lifelong difference. For that reason, today’s article is specifically focused on the characteristics and needs of gifted adults.

I’m covering:

• Late identification of gifted adults

• Five reasons why we don’t talk about giftedness in adults

And for paid subscribers, I’m including:

• A list of 35 research-backed characteristics and traits of gifted adults

• A gifted adult identification inventory has been researched in several studies, which I often use with clients to help them self-identify

I recently spoke with a prospective career-coaching client whom I’ll call Terry.1 Terry is a teacher of the gifted who is raising three children who are twice-exceptional (gifted and have one or more other cognitive differences). She has almost two decades of experience working with and parenting gifted kids. She understands common gifted concerns, including asynchronous development, perfectionism, and intensity. She knows the techniques to enhance depth and rigor in a gifted classroom.

Yet, despite knowing all this, she candidly shared that reading my Substack was the first time she realized that giftedness was not just an academic difference restricted to childhood, but a lifelong neurobiological difference. Terry now understands that she is, and has always been, 2E. Her specific combination of wiring has continued to impact her long after school ended, well into adulthood—in her relationships, career, and as a parent.

I share this with so much compassion for Terry and other late-identified gifted people. Gifted adulthood is deeply neglected and under-recognized by our society, and gifted people shouldn’t have to believe they are broken, misfits, or oddballs in order to understand themselves or have their needs met. As a former gifted teacher, I believe our education systems are failing our brightest minds when we do not reliably identify or serve gifted children, nor equip them with the tools and knowledge they need for life after school.

I’d love to say Terry’s late-in-life realization is rare, but unfortunately, I hear stories like hers often. If it makes us uncomfortable to talk about gifted kids, then we are altogether silent on the matter of gifted adults. Many gifted adults only learn they are gifted when their child is identified in school, and their child’s needs or experiences start to sound a lot like theirs. Other adults only learn they are gifted because they score in the gifted range on cognitive tests as part of an autism or ADHD evaluation.

Here are five of the primary reasons why we don’t discuss gifted adults:

1. It’s Misunderstood

It’s easy to recognize giftedness in a six-year-old with an incredibly advanced vocabulary. This is because they demonstrate obvious asynchronous development (i.e., discrepancies among their cognitive, linguistic, physical, and social abilities). It’s much harder to see giftedness in a 55-year-old creative thinker who daydreams in her cubicle, yet solves problems at work before others do.

2. The Provider Training Gap

Neuropsychologists licensed to administer cognitive tests are the best-positioned providers to support the identification of intellectually gifted adults. Unfortunately, most are not trained in giftedness beyond a qualifying IQ score, and the vast majority have no experience working with 2E profiles. Even though they’ve likely tested many 2E people, they frequently don’t realize it because they are not trained to do so. As a result, many gifted adults end up being identified without much understanding of giftedness as a distinct neurotype, or way of being in and perceiving the world. Countless other 2E adults are also misdiagnosed, while continuing to go under-identified for giftedness.

3. Giftedness is Seen as an Educational Issue

Gifted programming in elementary school (if you’re lucky to have any at all) is often focused on academic enrichment. Sometimes this is provided for as little as 30 minutes per week, though that is wholly inadequate for a child who is gifted 24/7. When mandated education stops after high school, even this paltry amount of support falls away, as does any chance to support gifted people into adulthood. It’s hard to justify supporting a need we believe no longer exists after 18.

4. Giftedness is Conflated with Achievement

By middle school, academic enrichment is quickly replaced by AP, honors, and advanced-track courses, so giftedness becomes conflated with the ability to do well in school. As children age, the expectation shifts toward success in life, and society’s definition of that success is often quite narrow: eminence, fame, prestige, or money. Unfortunately, there are even some gifted researchers who believe that the entire goal of gifted programming in school should be to cultivate eminent adults.2 As a result, there is a widespread misconception that you are only gifted in adulthood if you are successful. The reality is that if you are a sensitive, intuitive, quick-thinking adult who does not achieve at the levels others expect of you, you are still gifted.

5. Discussing giftedness is seen as elitist

Giftedness is a brain difference, not the product of your life circumstances, opportunities, or performance. Many people feel uncomfortable acknowledging these differences, even though we readily acknowledge talented athletes, artists, and musicians. I’ve often joked that if we simply sent the gifted kids to school each day wearing sports uniforms, perhaps we’d stop losing funding for the gifted programs. But the point of discussing giftedness is to provide support for a population that is vulnerable due to their differences, not to highlight people we deem “special” or “superior.”

All of this is to say that we’re swimming upstream to get giftedness recognized broadly—but particularly in adults. This is why it is important for you to be able to self-identify, to advocate for your needs, and to be able to care for yourself. Unfortunately, there are very few resources for gifted adults, and very few providers trained to work with them effectively. You can find gifted providers here.

What follows are some of the most researched characteristics of gifted adults. You are unlikely to see all of these characteristics in yourself, but most gifted adults identify strongly with many of these.

If you work routinely with gifted adults, as I do, you will also likely be familiar with these attributes in your clients, even if you didn’t realize these traits were related to giftedness.

They include: