What are giftedness, twice-exceptionality and executive functions?

Gifted children are characterized by a combination of high intelligence, creative thinking skills and strong motivation for particular areas of interest. In addition, they often excel in one or more areas. Twice-exceptional children have characteristics of giftedness as well as a learning or developmental need.

Executive functions are mental processes that help you, for example, remember information, adapt to changing situations, or plan and organize.

Sports and physical activity help train executive functions

Sports and physical activity are highly suitable for training executive functions. In team sports, for example, you need several executive functions: you have to remember rules, keep your attention on the game, respond to changing situations and plan ahead.

Challenge, time investment and a positive learning environment are needed

Interventions involving various physical activities have positive effects on the development of executive functions. However, it is important that a movement intervention contains certain effective elements:

  1. Mental challenge: the physical activities should engage executive functions. In addition, they should be sufficiently challenging (not too easy).
  2. Age: some executive functions cannot yet be trained effectively in young children.
  3. Types of physical activities: different types of physical activities engage different types of executive functions.
  4. Time investment and repetition: the greater the time investment and the more repetition there is, the greater the effect of movement interventions.
  5. Awareness process: when children know that they are training certain executive functions in a particular way, the effects are greater.
  6. Positive learning environment: when students’ emotional, social and physical needs are met, the effects may be greater.
  7. Factors that increase transfer effects: this means that skills learned in a particular situation, for example in physical education class, can be applied in a new situation, for example at school. The study describes a number of factors that support this transfer.

There are indications that elements 1, 3 and 6 may be of particular importance for gifted and twice-exceptional students.

Read the full findings in the report ‘Physical activity to promote executive functions in gifted and twice-exceptional children’.