Dabrowski's Imaginational Overexcitability of Gifted Children

The imaginational overexcitability is one of Dabrowski's supersensitivities common in gifted children. It is characterized by a rich, vivid, and active imagination. Children who have this overexcitability have unusual visualization abilities. They may have elaborate dreams, which are often in color. Their vivid imaginations can often lead to vivid nightmares

It can be difficult for those children with the imaginational overexcitability to express their thoughts verbally because they often think in images, and when they do express their thoughts, they do so in so much detail that their point is often lost. In fact, it may seem as though they don't have a point, but are simply describing what they see and think for the sake of describing it. These children enjoy poetry and drama, not just reading and watching it, but also writing and participating in it.

Young children display this overexcitability with their creation of imaginary playmates. Gifted children are more likely than other children to have imaginary playmates and they tend to have more of them. Rather than one playmate, they may create whole families of imaginary people.