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Social/Emotional Development: Underachievement

• Printed Materials: Books

  A Love for Learning: Motivation and the Gifted Child

  Dr. Carol Strip Whitney presents concepts and techniques to counteract many de-motivating factors gifted children are susceptible to. These factors can lead to depression and academic underachievement. Whitney, along with help from Gretchen Hirsch, offers helpful advice to help spark the motivation in your gifted child or student.

  A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children

  Four experts (Webb, Gore, Amend, DeVries) in the field of gifted and talented provide practical guidance in the areas of: Characteristics of gifted children; Peer relations; Sibling issues; Motivation & underachievement; Discipline issues; Intensity & stress; Depression & unhappiness; Educational planning; Parenting concerns; Finding professional help; and much, much more! Click here to read a review of this book.

  Bright Minds, Poor Grades: Understanding and Motivating your Underachieving Child

  Clinical psychologist Michael D. Whitley presents a proven ten-step program to motivate underachieving children. For any parent who has ever been told, "your child isn't performing up to his or her potential," this book has the answer.

  Bust Your BUTS: Tips for Teens Who Procrastinate

  This book is for teens who struggle with procrastination. There are hundreds of tips in this book to help them get rid of some “buts” that are common to procrastinators: "I have too much to do", "I don’t feel well", "I might do badly", etc. “Bust Your BUTS” helps teens be productive, use time better, and become more successful. This book is a worthy companion to Dr. Joanne Foster‘s popular "Not Now Maybe Later: Helping Children Overcome Procrastination."

  Cheating, Dishonesty, and Manipulation: Why Bright Kids Do It

  In this book, Maupin discusses solutions and strategies to build honesty and confidence and to provide appropriate challenges and healthy outlets for creativity so that children can become self-sufficient, life-long learners who no longer feel a need to resort to cheating, dishonesty, or manipulation.

  Doing Poorly on Purpose: Strategies to Reverse Underachievement and Respect Student Dignity

  There is no such thing as a “classic underachiever.” Students (and their reasons for underachieving) are influenced by a wide range of factors, including self-image, self-concept, social-emotional relationships, and the amount of dignity teachers afford their students. Smart, underachieving students need the reassurance that they are capable, valuable, and worth listening to despite their low academic performance. Helping “smart” students achieve when they don’t want to is not an easy task, but teachers can reengage and inspire students using veteran educator Jim Delisle’s insights and practical advice on these topics: autonomy, access, advocacy, alternatives, aspirations and approachable educators.

  Dreamers, Discoverers & Dynamos: How to Help the Child Who Is Bright, Bored and Having Problems in School (Formerly Titled 'The Edison Trait')

  Written by psychologist Lucy Jo Palladino, this book offers advice for parents struggling to raise children who are clearly bright, but also maddeningly unfocused. The author calls such children "Edison-trait" who exhibit divergent thinking, focusing on many ideas simultaneously.

  Empowering Underachievers: New Strategies to Guide Kids (8-18) to Personal Excellence

  Peter A. Spevak and Maryann Karinch provide techniques on constructively engaging and empowering your child by giving him/her choices instead of ultimatums. The theory behind the techniques: understanding the underachiever’s behavior on an emotional level.

  Failing Our Brightest Kids: The Global Challenge of Educating High-Ability Students

  In this book, the argument is made that the United States has done too little to focus on educating students to achieve at high levels. The authors identify two core problems: First, compared to other countries, the United States does not produce enough high achievers. Second, students from disadvantaged backgrounds are severely underrepresented among those high achievers.

  Get Off My Brain: A Survival Guide for Lazy Students (Bored, Frustrated and Otherwise Sick of School)

  A humorous and irreverent guide to how "lazy" (i.e. "bored, frustrated, and otherwise sick of school") students can survive the tedium of school, and maybe even have fun doing it. A guide for teens who are bored and frustrated at school, and need motivational skills.

  Gifted Underachiever: Education in a Competitive and Globalizing World

  When gifted children lose motivation to learn at school or show any suboptimal performance corresponding to their competences, we call them underachievers. In this book, experts in gifted education from different countries share the newest research about this important topic. From the definitions to the practical solutions, the diverse information and guides within this book will help the readers to understand the situation of gifted children in regular education systems.

  Giftedness, Conflict, and Underachievement

  This text's research is included in every book and research paper concerning "Twice-Exceptional," "Gifted/Learning Disabled," or underserved gifted populations that has followed. It is a must have for all researchers, parents, and or teachers who are concerned about or deal with highly able students that have mitigating problems.
  

  How Children Fail

  First published in the 1960s, this book has been updated numerous times to reflect the latest insight on the factors that can cause children to fail. Author John Holt concludes that students learn strategies for appearing to know content, rather than the content itself. Parents of gifted children may find this book helpful as underachievement is a common issue in the gifted community.

  How to Do Homework Without Throwing Up (Laugh & Learn)

  "DO NOT read this book if you love doing HOMEWORK!" This book has funny comments, cartoons and suggestions to cope with the not always funny subject of doing homework. It contains valuable homework skills and good ideas.

  Motivating Gifted Students (The Practical Strategies Series in Gifted Education)

  Although gifted students are not normally considered at risk for academic failure, the seeming lack of motivation of many academically gifted students is a continuing area of concern and frustration for many teachers, parents, and counselors. Authors Del Siegle, Ph.D. and Betsy McCoach, Ph.D. explore crucial issues such as why some students who seem capable of outstanding performance fail to realize their potential and what causes some gifted students to be more motivated than others.

  Not Now Maybe Later: Helping Children Overcome Procrastination

  This book is written for parents and teachers as a guide to understanding procrastination, primarily in children, and to provide tips for helping children develop skills to improve their productivity. Procrastination relates to many important aspects of life, including success and failure, school-related and other activities, an individual’s thoughts and feelings, and motivation.

  Parents' Guide to Raising a Gifted Child

  James Alvino details a practical, informative primer for raising and educating our gifted children from preschool to adolescence. Strategies are provided for determining whether a child is gifted as well as ways to nurture a child's gifts and talents, and explains how gifted children can become bored, socially aggressive, and even underachieving if not appropriately challenged.

  Reversing Underachievement Among Gifted Black Students

  This book provides excellent insight into the reasons some gifted black students are not identified as such by the processes currently in place. It also provides reasons some black parents may not wish their child to be included in gifted programs. It discusses black culture and dialect. A very good book for educators who are concerned about minorities being underrepresented in our school's gifted programs.
  

  Smart Parenting for Smart Kids: Nurturing Your Child's True Potential

  This book explains the reasons behind a number of struggles related to perfectionism, effort, and more, and offers parents do-able strategies to help children cope with feelings, embrace learning, and build satisfying relationships. Drawing from research as well as the authors’ clinical experience, it focuses on the essential skills children need to make the most of their abilities and become capable, confident, and caring people.

  Talented Teenagers: The Roots of Success & Failure

  The result of an extensive five-year study, this pioneering book examines a group of gifted teenagers in an effort to understand the loss of motivation and diminution of talent that takes place during this troublesome period. Click here to read a review of this book.

  The Boredom Solution: Understanding and Dealing with Boredom

  In this book, Linda Deal explores the subject of boredom and supplies parents and teachers with important information that will allow them to understand why children complain about being bored and develop strategies to counter it. Learn about the "hows" and "whys" of boredom and make your classroom a more dynamic learning environment for all children.

  The Myth of Laziness

  The Myth of Laziness, by Dr. Mel Levine, discusses neurodevelopmental dysfunctions that can cause "output failure" (commonly referred to as laziness) and shows parents how to nurture their children's strengths and improve their classroom productivity. It focuses on how correcting these problems in childhood will help children live a fulfilling and productive adult life. Parents who are told their gifted child is lazy or not living up to his/her potential can learn more about what laziness actually is, what causes it, and how to overcome it to avoid future problems, including in adulthood.

  The Social and Emotional Development of Gifted Children: What Do We Know? (2nd ed.)

  The Social and Emotional Development of Gifted Children provides a comprehensive summary of the empirical research on the social and emotional development of gifted children by leading authorities in the field. It includes several features that make it the leading text on what we know about the social and emotional development of gifted children. For example, it summarizes the most significant findings from the empirical research on the topic. It also includes noteworthy variations that have been observed across cultural groups or global contexts. Each chapter also provides a short description of the practical applications that can be made from the research. The second edition includes an entirely new section on the psychosocial aspects of talent development, as well as addresses the burgeoning interest and research base regarding gifted performance. The text also includes several new topics that have emerged from the research in the past decade, such as the neuroscience of talent development and motivation for talent development. Click here to read a review of the first edition of this book.

  The Underachieving Gifted Child: Recognizing, Understanding, and Reversing Underachievement

  This book answers numerous questions related to underachievement. Why are some gifted children willing to tackle new challenges whereas others seem insecure or uninterested? Why do some gifted students achieve while others become caught in a cycle of underachievement? This book offers specific strategies to help increase student achievement by improving students’ attitudes in four important areas.

  Understanding Your Gifted Child From the Inside Out: A Guide to the Social and Emotional Lives of Gifted Kids

  This book provides an engaging and encouraging look at raising gifted children today. A follow-up to the best-selling Parenting Gifted Kids: Tips for Raising Happy and Successful Children, this new edition focuses on the social and emotional aspects of giftedness, highlighting new information on the issues of perfectionism, self-advocacy, underachievement, mindfulness, and the impact of technology on gifted kids' relationships. The book also features a section on life beyond college, for those readers whose children are no longer children. Understanding Your Gifted Child From the Inside Out features real-life stories about the lives of gifted children and how they and their parents recognize and enjoy the many intellectual talents and social and emotional insights they possess.

  Up from Underachievement: How Teachers, Students, and Parents Can Work Together to Promote Student Success

  This book by author Diane Heacox provides a step-by-step program proven successful in schools to remedy underachievement, including what to do to break the failure chain. This program works for students of all ages, with all kinds of school problems - from the good student whose grades start slipping, to the seemingly incorrigible underachiever with a history of poor school performance. Click here to read a review of this book.

  When Gifted Kids Don’t Have All The Answers: How to Meet Their Social and Emotional Needs

  In this book, authors Jim Delisle and Judy Galbraith explain what giftedness means, how gifted kids are identified, and how we might improve the identification process. Then they take a close-up look at gifted kids from the inside out—their social and emotional needs. Topics include self-image and self-esteem, perfectionism, multipotential, depression, feelings of “differentness,” and stress. The authors suggest ways to help gifted underachievers and those who are bored in school, and ways to encourage healthy relationships with friends, family and other adults. Click here to read a review of this book (previous 2002 edition).

  When Gifted Students Underachieve: What You Can Do About It (The Practical Strategies Series in Gifted Education)

  Sylvia Rimm, Ph.D., one of the leading experts in the underachievement of gifted students, looks at the various causes of underachievement, discusses the characteristics of gifted underachievers, and provides educators with solid advice on combating underachievement in this population. This guide offers guidance for understanding the pressures students face in school and at home, motivating students for success, adjusting curriculum to engage these students, improving the self-concept of students, and working with parents to reverse the patterns of underperformance.
  

  Why Bright Kids Get Poor Grades: And What You Can Do About It

  Dr. Sylvia Rimm offers help for parents of underachieving children. Drawing on both clinical research and years of experience counseling families, she has developed a “Trifocal Model” to help parents and teachers work together to get students back on track. Previously published in an earlier edition as Underachievement Syndrome: Causes and Cures.

• Printed Materials: Online Documents

  Dealing With the Needs of Underachieving Gifted Students in a Suburban School District: What Works!

  This article looks at who 'underachievers' historically are and what one urban school district is doing to help young people break the cycle of underachievement.

  Some ideas for motivating students

  This article by Robert Harris covers many common tips for motivating children. The author goes a step further by examining motivation as it relates to baseball. The result is a novel look at motivating students.
  

• Printed Materials: Periodicals/Reports & Studies

  Equal Talents, Unequal Opportunities: A Report Card on State Support for Academically Talented Low-Income Students (2nd Edition)

  Released in 2018, this report from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is about the excellence gap and shows that state policies nationwide are failing to effectively support students who have the potential to reach high levels of academic performance, particularly students from low-income backgrounds. The excellence gap refers to the disparity in the percent of lower-income versus higher-income students who reach advanced levels of academic performance. The “gap” appears in elementary school and continues as students move through middle school, high school, college and beyond. This report grades states on 18 simple indicators representing nine distinct state-level policies and nine specific measures of student outcomes. This report is an update to the original 2015 version.

• Websites & Other Media: Informational

  A study of achievement and underachievement among gifted, potentially gifted, and average African-American students

  This brief article presents the findings of a study consisting of interviews with mid-Atlantic middle and high school African-American students. A number of conclusions are drawn from the study, including the underrepresentation of these students in gifted programs, difficulty in identification, and the need for partnerships between home-student-school to promote achievement.

  An Overview: Understanding and Assessing Suicide in the Gifted

  This article by Andrew S. Mahoney discusses the topic of suicide and lists out some of the signals of suicide. "When discussing the topic of suicide among the gifted population, one runs into the same divergent, often unexplainable, ambiguity associated with this special population. Though there is no conclusive evidence that the gifted are more prone to suicide than the non-gifted (Delisle, 1986), suicide among the gifted is a serious issue."

  Bright Now Podcast - Center for Talented Youth (CTY)

  Produced by Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY), this podcast is about parenting and educating gifted and talented kids.

  Gifted Underachievement: Oxymoron or Educational Enigma?
  

  This Prufrock Press article describes underachievement in gifted children, distinguishing between the measurement of potential and actual achievement. Author Barbara Hoover Schultz seeks to better understand, recognize and reverse gifted underachievement by reviewing related definitions, characteristics, causes and available interventions. This study proves that there are many different factors for gifted children not realizing their full potential.

  Giftedness and academic underachievement

  This article presents a real-life case study of an underachieving profoundly gifted young man. The therapist leads him to recognize and confront his defenses and discover the depth of his emotional distress regarding his current life disposition.

  Motivation problem or hidden disability?

  This article link by Meredith Warshaw discusses how some disabilities (mostly learning disabilities) can mimic motivation problems. Warshaw has extensive experience working with "twice-exceptional" students. This is not a complete discussion of the subject, but offers a glimpse at how a handful of disabilities can be misinterpreted.

  Motivation: Helping your child through early adolescence

  This article link takes users to a publication on the U.S. Department of Education website, part of a series entitled "My child's academic success." The article is broken into two sections: contributors to low motivation and tips for encouraging motivation. Although not written specifically for the gifted population, this article is applicable and should be useful for parents of highly intelligent young people.

  Overcoming underachievement

  This article discusses identifying and overcoming patterns of underachievement. According to the article, underachievement is a pervasive national problem that results in a tremendous waste of human potential, even among our most able students. Treating all underachievers alike just doesn't work. Specific patterns of underachievement need to be differentially identified and dealt with differently as soon as a problem becomes apparent.

  Solving the mysterious underachievement problem

  Read this complete article by Sylvia Rimm, Ph.D. about when some parents realize that their children's small problems are simply not disappearing. They wonder why their children are not working to their abilities in school. They may have already heard the word "underachiever" from an earlier teacher, but they hoped their children would mature out of the problem. The parents are puzzled, and so are the children's teachers.

  SwopNet Education Databank: Talented & gifted bibliography

  This webpage features a list of resources about underachievers for parents and educators. It consists of articles from gifted publications including Journal for the Education of the Gifted, Roeper Review, The School Counselor and Gifted Child Quarterly.

  Underachieving gifted students

  Early researchers (Raph, Goldberg, and Passow, 1966) and some recent authors (Davis and Rimm, 1989) have defined underachievement in terms of a discrepancy between a child's school performance and some ability index such as an IQ score. These definitions, although seemingly clear and succinct, provide little insight to parents and teachers who wish to address this problem with individual students. A better way to define underachievement is to consider the various components.

• Websites & Other Media: Learning Tools

  Enhance Learning with Technology

  The Enhance Learning with Technology website is a collection of links to help teachers: discover what a useful tool technology can be in the classroom; develop the processes of integrating computers into the learning environment; and locate resources for professional development. Some topics include brain research, differentiating strategies and intrinsic motivation along with tutorials.