I have worked with gifted and talented children since 1965 and have spent a great deal of time consulting with parents and school staff members. Parents of gifted children have a surprisingly large number of questions and concerns about their child. Many parents want to know about assessment such as tests used, what areas should be assessed, of what value are the results, and how will the findings help meet the child’s needs.
The needs of gifted children are far greater and more comprehensive than most parents realize until they learn more about their child. As parents learn more about gifted and talented children and each gifted child learns more about themselves, they would like to master many skills. Among the skills to learn include pursuing knowledge and achievement, having a command of social interaction and personal skills, and being able to live up to their potential.
Although many parents are aware their child might be gifted, there are several reasons to pursue an assessment. It makes a difference how gifted your child is since acceleration options, teaching techniques, curriculum adjustments, and outside learning opportunities depend on the findings. Because I use a wide variety of assessments, I would be able to provide a comprehensive analysis of a child’s strengths and weaknesses. With knowledge of assets and weak areas, parents can tailor their expectations, plans, and goals for their child’s needs. Based on assessment results, I will often be able to provide long and short term educational and/or follow up recommendations, resources, and catalogs of materials. Most parents find the assessments valuable, regardless of whether their child attends a public, private, parochial, preschool, or home school setting.
Over the years I have learned how to help parents who are concerned about the following problems relating to their gifted child:
- Dealing with behavioral or emotional issues
- Deciding on services and programs to meet the child’s needs
- Responding to school staff who do not encourage acceleration
- Building positive relations with school staff
- Exploring options for gifted services
- Locating contacts and programs outside of school
- Implementing effective discipline strategies
- Guiding improved peer and sibling relationships
- Teaching skills in organizing, planning ahead, persevering, managing time, completing assignments, and self regulating behavior
- Motivating the child to work up to their full potential
- Coping with others’ negative opinions about giftedness
- Assisting with home or extracurricular learning activities
- Advocating to seek needed services, materials, and programs
- Obtaining important information to make proper decisions for the child
- Effectively communicating with staff during school conferences
- Supporting the gifted child with issues of self esteem associated with feeling “different”
- Managing uneven development of abilities such as high reading skills and lower fine motor skills which can result in frustration for the gifted child
- Balancing the needs of the gifted child and those of other family members as they compete for attention
- Building independence and self help skills as the child becomes older
- Coping with emotions and adjustments associated with the child’s giftedness and behavior
- Coping with frustration when the school excludes the gifted child from needed services
- Adjusting to the child’s different learning styles, specific learning differences, or a “poor educational fit”
- Dealing with bullying
All of the above problems are issues that may be solved successfully. Parents do not need to “go it alone” since there is help available. Although others can be supportive, you would benefit from professional help to work through the complex realities of having a gifted child. I have many years of experience working with issues my own children presented as well as the hundreds of parents who discussed the concerns that are listed above. The emphasis will be on praise and positive reinforcement and there will be a wide range of strategies employed. Since each child and family is unique, the focus will be tailored to each individual’s needs.