Gifted Child Today

Parents and schools often notice the need for addressing advanced mathematical performance in elementary students. Many gifted programs do not offer differentiated or accelerated mathematics as part of their elementary school options. In this report, the efforts of one school system to identify and serve the needs of highly mathematically able elementary students are reported. The process involved a multiple pilot program with increasing levels of involvement across the district over a 3-year period. Initially, a small group of students were allowed modest acceleration at one school. After each of the first 2 years, the identification and acceleration practices were refined. In the 3rd year, the program option was offered to students across the entire district.

Career development serves as a lifelong process requiring constant personal development of skills and knowledge. This article introduces a career development program, Focusing on the Future, designed for high-ability middle and high school students and their parents, and examines responses to open-ended questions related to the perceived benefits and effects of the program. Focusing on the Future is an annual career-related conference held by the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary. The program was designed to help gifted students and their parents engage in career planning and develop specific career plans. This study found different needs for career development for middle and high school students, and recommendations from the responses of participants are provided separately for middle school students, high school students, and their parents.

Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness found throughout North America and other countries. Symptoms range from the physical and cognitive (e.g., severe fatigue; stomach, vision, and balance problems; memory loss; “Lyme fog”) to the social and emotional (e.g., withdrawal, behavior problems, mood swings, anxiety, shame). Gifted and talented students, like all students, are susceptible to the effects of Lyme disease. However, their experiences may be more intense and life altering, depending on the severity of the Lyme disease. In this article, the phenomenological experience of two gifted boys with Lyme disease gives educators, counselors, and parents insight into how this disease impacts the intellectual functioning, social status, and identity of gifted children with this bacterial illness. The author emphasizes the important role that educators, counselors, and parents have in understanding Lyme disease, recognizing the symptoms, and supporting gifted children and their families whose lives are changed by the bite of a tick. They may observe changes in academic performance, a decrease in school attendance, altered social status, an increase in maladaptive perfectionism, and existential depression in those affected gifted children. Potential program modifications, accommodations, and services for this particular group of twice-exceptional students are provided so that educators, counselors, and parents can work collaboratively to promote resiliency at the same time they enact specific strategies for gifted students recovering from Lyme disease.

The gifts and talents of Hispanic young children must be supported in elementary classrooms. High-quality children’s literature and picture book biographies of Hispanics enable educators to address the social and emotional as well as intellectual needs of gifted young Hispanic children. With a search for appropriate literature and sustained efforts in designing lessons that address affective needs, teachers will be better equipped to provide meaningful educational programs for all children.

Oftentimes, when the subject of how to maximize Black students’ talent in gifted and advanced courses and programs is broached, they are treated as a monolithic entity. Too little scholarship explores gender differences among Black males and females. Yet, there is considerable evidence that unsuccessful attainment of academic excellence may be more troublesome for Black males than females at many points along the educational pipeline. School counselors, trained to understand the intended and unintended consequences of ignoring the importance of race and gender, are well equipped to assist in the efforts to increase the academic performance of gifted and talented Black males. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief introduction of the cumulative risks associated with being Black and male in educational settings as well as a discussion of how these risks are associated with mental health and academic performance. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for school counselors.

Gifted education has been criticized for the persistent underrepresentation of Black and Hispanic students. Many explanations have been advanced, including teacher underreferral, test bias and unfairness, and discriminatory policies and procedures (e.g., criteria), to name a few. Themes permeating the aforementioned explanations have been low expectations for Hispanic and Black students, and inadequate preparation among educators and decision makers to be culturally responsive to their issues and needs. In this column, I propose that a great deal of the factors that contribute to and/or exacerbate underrepresentation rest in the painful reality of prejudice and that both intentional and unintentional prejudice must be considered and addressed for progress and equitable change(s) to occur. Two models of prejudice are presented that shed light on different types and degrees of prejudice, with implications for gifted education specifically. This discussion is followed by suggestions grounded in intergroup contact theory.

This column expresses ideas on curriculum, instruction, and assessment that provide assistance to practitioners responsible for planning and implementing programs for the gifted. The article featured here addresses the author’s perspective on the biggest curriculum problems in the field and offers ideas for resolution of those problems. It is written, using a problem-based learning format, to highlight one of the highly effective approaches that gifted educators may use to organize and carry out curriculum for the gifted.