How Giftedness Can Feed OCD

I have hopped around the blog world long enough to question why some early readers will pick up and read just about any book on the shelf, they either like it or they get engrossed and can’t put it down. I know Sunshine is very picky over what she will read and many times questioned if she really enjoyed reading. We have watched as Sunshine has played out characters in her books or even in a simple cartoon. We learned the hard way to not buy her anything that is a character figure or stuffed animal representing a book or cartoon, because it over takes every aspect of her day, and is so real like that one would think something is truly wrong with this child.

When I met with the psychologist he explained that a highly intelligent child such as Sunshine will become so much apart of the books she reads or the cartoons she watches that she can truly taste the foods in the book, smell the smells, and feel the textures all with in their minds. The book or cartoon absorbs them right into that world. That now opened a whole new understanding for me as to why some book titles attract Sunshine while some seem so disgusting to her that she appears as though she will get ill. It also explained why some books, one or two pages through Sunshine would beg and run from while others she wanted read over and over again.

The other night in our chapter book reading quest we chose a Little House on the Prairie Book, these books have been a hit and miss with Sunshine, but she pulled out On the Banks of Plum Creek and brought it to me. As we began to read the first chapter really drew her in, she was very curious as to what this door was in the ground. As we continued on into the second chapter and got to the description of the dugout, the house in the ground, her disposition changed. I could actually see where it seemed as though Sunshine was smelling that dirt house, and then when we got to the part that said the roof was made of hay, she took the book, closed it and announced, “That is quite enough of this book, put it away now!” Could you imagine having OCD and just having the thought of living in a primitive house made of dirt, sod and hay. Oh my goodness Sunshine’s OCD was running away with her.

This new information that I learned in one visit from the psychologist has now opened up a whole new understanding for me. I use to be so confused over why Sunshine protested over some books but preferred other books even though they might be on the same subject. While I want to assist her in making choices of what she reads, I also now know that I must step back and allow her to have so much more control over the books she picks out. This also put a whole new definition on the term “I am so absorbed in the book and can’t put it down.” There truly can be a time when one is pulled in and becomes too absorbed in a book and it isn’t always in a pleasant manner. 

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