Young gifted children can become passionately interested in social justice. It makes sense that children who are astutely aware their own differences could and would become interested in the well-being of others. It seems that preschool programs have been slow to recognize the value of service-learning to their students, but Freeman and King…

Empathy is the ability to understand and feel for the situation of another human being and is shaped by seeing others react when distressed; by imitating what they see, children develop a repertoire of empathic responses. When children see other people in pain, their brains become active in the same regions that process the experience of pain…

The term "twice-exceptional (2E)" is representative of a diverse group of individuals who have a wide range of gifts, talents, and accompanying disabilities. These children have the characteristics of gifted students along with the characteristics of children with disabilities. The gifted characteristics can mask the disability, or the disability…

Discovering that a child is gifted can be both exhilarating and daunting. Parents watch in amazement and awe as their 3-year-old reads a first-grade-level book flawlessly, or they might listen to their preschool child's distress over seeing a homeless person on the street. Parents observe as their 6-year-old dismantles a broken CD player and…

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than half of marriages have ended in divorce since the mid-1970s. Nonetheless, schools and community organizations continue to be inclined to act as if nontraditional/neo-traditional families are an anomaly. Despite the reality of new family structures, popular television, movies, and books continue to…

Talent Development Centers are just one of many tools every family, teacher, and gifted advocate should have in their tool box. To understand the importance of Talent Development Centers, it is essential to also understand the Academic Talent Search Program. Talent Search participants who obtain scores comparable to college-bound high school…

Successfully navigating the road from elementary to high school only means that planning for college is the next route on the destination to post-secondary education. With the most elite colleges' acceptance rates hovering around 5-8 percent, it's never too early for parents to start educating themselves and their child about college planning.…

The rapid growth of the Talent Search movement from its early roots with the work of Julian C. Stanley's Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) unquestionably resulted from strong partnerships with schools. In this article, the authors share some of the early obstacles that had to be overcome in order for partnerships to be established,…

How can parents and teachers foster individual abilities and facilitate foundational supports so children will flourish? There is no fast or flawless formula. However, readers can use these F words to flesh out, fill in, fine-tune, or formulate a particular framework of factors they might want to think about in relation to supporting and…

Talent Searches offer an opportunity for gifted children to experience learning on prestigious college campuses around the nation, and as importantly, an opportunity to form relationships with like-minded, similar-age peers. Few opportunities open doors for intellectual, social, and emotional growth in gifted children as efficiently as…

Experience and research repeatedly illustrate the need for and value of parent advocates--as parents know their child best. Parents need to be prepared to take a positive, proactive, and focused role with teachers and administrators in their child's school to find the best programming for their child. Academic acceleration should be considered as…

Researchers, parents, counselors, and teachers share a common desire to ensure personal growth and academic development for children. At a very foundational level, they desire health and happiness for all children, as well as an education with quality schools and good teachers. They want all children to be in programs that appropriately address…

The author was pondering the parent perspective of acceleration, and she realized that people are always hearing "ifs" and "buts" when discussing this topic. There are many "if" and "but" questions. In this article, the author focuses on the following four: (1) "If" my child is complaining of being bored in class, does that mean he or she needs to…

Acceleration is one tool for providing high-ability students the opportunity to learn something new every day. Some people talk about acceleration as taking a student out of step. In actuality, what one is doing is putting a student in step with the right curriculum. Whole-grade acceleration, also called grade-skipping, usually happens between…

Divorce is often a contentious process with multiple issues to decide, especially in cases in which there are children involved. Divorce raises several legal issues when considering the well-being of children, including those who are gifted. In this article, the authors discuss these issues which include school choice, child support, and custody…