- Dealing with emotional issues including anxiety and depression. Also to support confidence and self esteem issues associated with “feeling different”.
- School concerns such as building relationships with school staff, learning about gifted services and programs, and contacts in and out of school.
- Parenting behavior in responding to a child who resists, argues, or is not acting appropriately or maturely, including learning discipline strategies.
- Guiding peer relationships by finding ways to help the child integrate with age mates who have different interests as well as with their intellectual peers.
- Motivating the child to achieve their potential by guiding them into action (making better grades, practicing music, reading novels, developing a passion for learning, completing homework, overcoming underachievement, etc.).
- Learning to cope with the negative opinions of others about “giftedness”, gifted services, acceleration limitations, false beliefs, etc.
- Cognitive and learning concerns about acquiring information and getting assistance with home or extracurricular activities and developing the child’s specific talents or extensive knowledge in key subjects.
- Advocating for the child in order to obtain appropriate services and programs, particularly educational, that the child needs to progress.
- Finding stimulating and engaging activities for several children in an already busy day.
- Identification and definition of giftedness by obtaining a proper assessment so the child will get proper educational services to further develop their strengths.
The above themes associated with concerns of parents of gifted and talented children were reported by Morawska and Sanders in Gifted Child Quarterly 2009, 53(3) 163-173.
Additional concerns of importance listed less frequently were as follows:
- Asynchronous development, including the frustration that results.
- Balancing the needs of the gifted child and those of other family members.
- Sibling relationships.
- Teenage years, including building independence and self-help skills.
Although not reported directly by Morawska and Sanders (2009) but indirectly alluded to is the growing number of twice-exceptional gifted children (2-e) and the resulting frustration from poor executive functioning and other characteristics of their handicaps/disorders. The most recent estimate of 2-e children is 20-25% of gifted children according to professionals in the field. Parenting these children can result in a great deal of stress and frustration.