Understanding your High Potential
Do you recognise yourself in very fast thinking, intense curiosity, a distinctive emotional sensitivity or a sense of feeling different? “High Potential” encompasses several different forms of functioning. Understanding the distinctions helps you choose the most relevant way to explore your own profile.
Video in French. The article below is available in English.
HIP, HEP and Domain-Specific Giftedness: the main distinctions explained in a video.
Giftedness, High Potential, HP, intellectual precocity, “ zebra ”… No single term captures every aspect perfectly. These words are often used in similar ways, although intellectual precocity is mainly used in French for children and teenagers, while giftedness in adults is used when discussing adulthood.
It is often more helpful to understand what kind of functioning characterises you: cognitive, emotional, markedly uneven, or exceptionally high in one specific ability. This understanding gives meaning to screening or assessment results.
Here are the key distinctions used on this website to help you understand different profiles.
HEP concerns emotional abilities: perceiving emotions in yourself and others, using that information to understand a situation, reasoning intuitively and adapting your relationships.
HIP concerns cognitive abilities: logical reasoning, knowledge, working memory, processing speed and visual-spatial skills. IQ is central to its assessment, with a very high level typically around or above 130.
Sometimes it is not overall cognitive functioning that reaches an exceptional level, but one particular cognitive ability: processing speed, reasoning, memory or visual-spatial skills. This is referred to as “Domain-Specific Giftedness”.
Creativity can also reach an exceptional level. Research into High Creative Potential is still developing, but creative intelligence is a valuable dimension to consider when trying to understand certain atypical profiles.
You do not need to know in advance which label fits you. Simply start with the question you are asking yourself today.
Your main questions concern your thinking, mental speed, reasoning or cognitive abilities.
Take the HIP screening test →Your questions mainly concern empathy, sensitivity, intuition, emotions and relationships.
Take the HEP screening test →Early curiosity, advanced reasoning, feeling different or rapid learning: screening helps determine whether a WISC-V or WPPSI-IV assessment would be useful.
Screening for gifted children →HIP, HEP, ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder can share some characteristics. Start by choosing the screening test that is closest to your question.
View all screening tests →Beyond the definitions, here are some ways to explore the questions that matter most to you.
Branching thought, high sensitivity, empathy, perfectionism, creativity and feeling different…
Read the article →Understand what distinguishes High Intellectual Potential from a primarily emotional profile.
Read the article →When one idea leads to several others and thinking becomes expansive and associative.
Read the article →Some characteristics may look similar. Understanding the differences and overlaps helps clarify which possibility is worth exploring.
Read the article →Some profiles are discreet and socially well adapted, and can go unrecognised for a long time.
Read the article →Why some highly capable people minimise their achievements and constantly question their legitimacy.
Read the article →No. On this website, HIP mainly refers to cognitive functioning, whereas HEP refers to emotional abilities and functioning. One person can naturally have characteristics in several domains.
IQ is central to assessing HIP, but interpreting an assessment involves more than one number. The pattern of index scores, how consistent they are, and the clinical context must also be considered.
This is the term I use when one particular cognitive ability reaches an exceptional level, even if the overall cognitive profile is not uniformly at the same level.
Screening is useful when you want an initial personalised opinion before undertaking a full assessment. If your question is already well defined and you would like an in-depth exploration, you can also schedule an assessment directly.
A screening test can provide an initial personalised opinion and help you decide what to do next. If you would like to go straight to a more in-depth exploration, you can also schedule an assessment.
Explore the possibility of High Emotional Potential!
20 characteristics of gifted adults!
Are you highly sensitive?