Gifted Students and Behavior Modification

Abstract

Research in the use of behavior modification with gifted students was conducted through computer searches and a review of the literature. The small number of studies using behavior modification with gifted students was noted. Among the various recommendations and conclusions made by the reviewer were that behavior modifications be used with gifted underachievers, the disadvantaged gifted, the culturally different gifted students, the maladjusted gifted students, and other academically gifted students in order to eliminate their maladaptive behaviors and to develop and strengthen their adaptive behaviors. Further recommendations were that behavior modification be used with greater frequency and at an earlier age with the academically gifted, that it be used to enhance the unique attributes of all the gifted, that it be used to teach research techniques to the gifted to make them more independent of low capability teachers, and that it be used with the culturally different to motivate them intellectually outside their hostile environment.