Green Flags and Red Flags: How to Read Struggle in Gifted Learners

One of the hardest parts of supporting gifted learners is knowing what to do with their struggle.

And, often, when we see struggle, we assume something is wrong...that they don't understand. But, what if struggle is actually a sign that learners are thinking differently or deeper.

The trouble is, we often treat all struggle the same. We see frustration, perfectionism, emotional reactions, or avoidance and assume it means something is wrong with the learner. But for many gifted students, that isn’t true. Very often, their struggle is telling us something about the learning environment, not their ability.

I wonder what might happen if we were able to recognize struggle red flags and green flags.

Green Flag Struggle

Green-flag struggle is what it looks like when a learner is doing real, deep thinking.

It often shows up as:

• Wanting to get things just right

• Feeling frustrated when ideas don’t come together yet

• Needing more time

• Asking big, sometimes messy questions

• Being emotionally invested in the work

These are the learners who care.

They have high internal standards. They are trying to make sense of something that feels complex, not just complete something and move on. Their struggle isn’t about not being able to do the work. It’s about wanting the work to mean something. When we see this kind of struggle, the response isn’t to make things easier.

It’s to make the learning deeper:

• More room to explore

• More opportunities to revise

• More ways to show their thinking

Red Flag Struggle

Red-flag struggle feels different.

It looks more like:

• Shutting down

• Chronic anxiety

• Avoiding tasks altogether

• Emotional outbursts that don’t seem connected to the work

• A sense that the student doesn’t feel safe, capable, or seen

This isn’t a learner stretching into complexity. This is a learner who can’t find a way in. Red flags usually point to a mismatch between the learner and the environment:

• Expectations that aren’t clear

• Tasks that only reward one way of being smart

• A classroom that doesn’t leave room for how this learner thinks

This is where we need to intervene...not by lowering expectations, but by changing the design so the learner can actually access the learning.

Why This Matters for Gifted Learners

Gifted learners are especially easy to misread. Because their green-flag struggle, their intensity, their perfectionism, their emotional reactions, can look like something is wrong. So, we step in and try to smooth everything out. We simplify. We reduce challenge. We try to make it easier.

And sometimes, without meaning to, we take away the very thing that was engaging their thinking. when we don’t tell the difference between green flags and red flags, we end up designing the wrong kind of support.

A Question That Helps

The next time a gifted learner is struggling, try pausing and asking:

Is this student struggling because they are thinking deeply…
or because they don’t have a way to think at all?

If a learner is:

• Engaged but frustrated

• Invested but stuck

• Wanting to do better

That’s usually a green flag.

If a learner is:

• Disconnected

• Overwhelmed

• Afraid to try

That’s usually a red flag.

Both matter. But they call for very different responses.

Struggle Isn’t the Enemy

Struggle is information. When we learn to read it carefully, it tells us what kind of learning a learner needs next. And for gifted learners in particular, that shift, from fixing the child to listening to the signal, makes all the difference. It doesn’t make learning easier. It makes it more responsive. And that’s where real growth starts.