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For Parents: Books

  • Parenting: Parenting Strategies

    Book Lists for Gifted and Avid Readers: Davidson Weekly Roundup - September 4, 2020
    A weekly roundup of gifted education topics and resources.
    Parental involvement in the academic and social lives of academically talented elementary school students
    This book chapter is about a study that was done on parental involvement with academically talented students in grades 3-6. The study clearly shows that these parents are very involved in both the academic and social lives of their students. Authored by Nicholas Colangelo, Susan Assouline, I-chun Chen, and Tsung-Hsun Tsai.
    Parents: What You Can Do!
    From Genius Denied:
    If you are the parent of a gifted child, realize that your child is exceptional and is likely to have different needs than other students. Parenting a gifted child can be extra challenging because the child’s developmental trajectories vary from the norm. The more gifted the child is, the greater the variance from the norm, and the more the parents will have to adapt their parenting strategies.

  • Support Materials: Book Reviews

    A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - Authors Dr. James Webb, Janet Gore, Dr. Edward Amend and Arlene De Vries offer insightful ideas and techniques parents will find useful in day-to-day living with their gifted child(ren). "What should we look for in a School?" Does my gifted child have a learning disability?" And, "When and how should a professional's help be sought out?” are just some of the tough questions covered in this book.
    Anxiety-Free Kids: An Interactive Guide for Parents and Children
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - A review of Anxiety-Free Kids: An Interactive Guide for Parents and Children by Dr. Bonnie Zucker.
    Bright Kids Who Can't Keep Up: Help Your Child Overcome Slow Processing Speed and Succeed in a Fast-Paced World
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - This book review gives a brief view of what the reader can learn from authors Drs. Ellen Braaten and Brian Willoughby in their book, Bright Kids Who Can't Keep Up.
    Coping for Capable Kids: Strategies for Parents, Teachers, and Students
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - This book review covers the content in both the adult and student editions of Coping for Capable Kids, by authors LeoNora M. Cohen, Ph.D. and Erica Frydenberg, Ph.D. The authors define giftedness and discuss its aspects at length.
    Developing Math Talent: A Comprehensive Guide to Math Education for Gifted Students in Elementary and Middle School
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - This article offers a book review of the first edition of Developing Mathematical Talent. It describes the main topics in each of the book chapters. The reviewer highly recommends this book as a resource for both parents and educators, and points out that although the book focuses on one academic area, the information is applicable to working with students in various academic domains.
    Encouraging Your Child’s Science Talent: The Involved Parents’ Guide
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - This book review tells how author Michael Matthews provides parents with a basic foundation of science to help them better understand their child's interest in his book, Encouraging Your Child’s Science Talent: The Involved Parents’ Guide.
    Encouraging Your Child's Writing Talent: The Involved Parents' Guide
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - This book review gives a concise view of what the reader can learn from author Nancy Peterson in her book, Encouraging Your Child's Writing Talent: The Involved Parents' Guide.
    Good Friends Are Hard to Find: Help Your Child Find, Make, and Keep Friends
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - This book review states how Good Friends Are Hard to Find: Help Your Child Find, Make, and Keep Friends is a great reference guide for your child in helping them deal with the struggles of making and keeping friends. As of 2010, this book is out of print, but the author has published an updated and revised edition with Jossey-Bass that has been re-titled, Friends Forever: How Parents Can Help Their Kids Make and Keep Good Friends, which is available on Kindle.
    How to Parent So Children Will Learn
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - In this book review, it is stated that Dr. Rimm's book How to Parent So Children Will Learn gives practical, compassionate, no-nonsense advice for raising happy, secure, and productive children, from preschool to college.
    Infinity & Zebra Stripes: Life with Gifted Children
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - This is a book review of Wendy Skinner's book Infinity & Zebra Stripes: Life with Gifted Children.
    Letting Go: A Parents' Guide to Understanding the College Years
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - A review of Letting Go: A Parents' Guide to Understanding the College Years by Karen Levin Coburn and Madge Lawrence Treeger.
    Losing Our Minds: Gifted Children Left Behind
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - Losing Our Minds is a welcome addition to the literature on understanding and supporting bright young people, who are too often overlooked and therefore not provided with opportunities for appropriate learning environments. In addition to the compelling narrative punctuated with case studies, the book focuses on solutions to identified problems.
    Parenting Gifted Children 101: An Introduction to Gifted Kids and Their Needs

    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) – Tracy Ford Inman, Ed.D., and Jana Kirchner, Ph.D., write from the perspective of their experience as educators and parents of gifted children. Inman and Kirchner provide a practical foundation for the basics of parenting gifted children in their book Parenting Gifted Children 101: An Introduction to Gifted Kids and Their Needs. Using both research excerpts and first-hand testimonials, they provide not only the reassurance of others experience but also the resources to delve deeper into the subject of parenting gifted children.

    Parenting Gifted Kids: Tips for Raising Happy and Successful Children
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - Dr. Delisle gives parents tools and strategies for understanding their children’s overexcitabilities, building meaning in their lives and working with the school systems that fail them.
    Raisin' brains: Surviving my smart family
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - Karen Isaacson's popular book, Raisin' Brains discusses many issues of parenting gifted children in a way that makes the reader feel like the author is talking directly to them. This is a must read for parents of highly intelligent young people and an invaluable resource for professionals in the field.
    Raising a Gifted Child: A Parenting Success Handbook
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - A review of Carol Fertig’s book Raising a Gifted Child: A Parenting Success Handbook. This book offers a large menu of strategies, resources, organizations, tips, and suggestions for parents to find optimal learning opportunities for their gifted kids, covering the gamut of talent areas, including academics, the arts, technology, creativity, music, and thinking skills.
    Stand Up for Your Gifted Child: How to Make the Most of Kids' Strengths at School and at Home
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - Stand Up for Your Gifted Child is a practical guide that can help parents become powerful advocates for their child at school - and at home. Written by Joan Franklin Smutny, the book discusses: what giftedness is (and isn't), how to recognize your child's gifts, how to understand his or her school problems, and how to find out your district's policy on gifted education. You'll explore various options for your child's education and learn how to communicate effectively with the school and district, connect with other parents, and provide enrichment at home. Parents will discover their rights - and the benefits of taking a stand. Real-life examples show how any parent, in any situation, can advocate for his or her child.
    The Difficult Child
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - The Difficult Child describes a parenting program developed by the author, Stanley Turecki, M.D., and his colleagues. The program is an outcome of Turecki's work with thousands of families who struggle with raising difficult children, and is based on the groundbreaking New York Longitudinal Study, which defined nine temperamental traits. The Difficult Child is a self-help book for the parents of children with difficult temperaments.
    The Gifted Kids' Survival Guide: For Ages 10 and Under
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - The Gifted Kids’ Survival Guide: For Ages 10 and Under by Judy Galbraith is a book that can easily be read from cover to cover in one sitting. It is also a resource parents can lead their children to time and again to help them learn to handle difficult situations
    The Social and Emotional Needs of Gifted Individuals (Chapt. 7 in Once Upon a Mind: The Stories and Scholars of Gifted Education)
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - This is a review of Chapter 7 of Jim Delisle's book Once Upon a Mind: The Stories and Scholars of Gifted Education. This chapter focuses on the social and emotional needs of gifted young people. The author wraps up the chapter with suggestions for meeting the emotional needs of the profoundly gifted population.
    The young gifted child: Potential and promise, an anthology
    BOOK REVIEW (Patricia A. Haensly) - The intent of The young gifted child: Potential and promise, an anthology is to "offer a framework of understanding for the many adults who cherish these gifted children as students, patients, friends, sons and daughters. The volume is divided into six parts that include an introduction to the subject area and a summary of each chapter within that section. It is designed to serve as a catalyst for discussion on many levels with many kinds of target populations: teachers, parents, counselors, graduate and undergraduate students, researchers, nursery school directors, day-care administrators, health care practitioners. The reader will naturally choose those chapters most applicable to his or her involvement with gifted young children."
    Up From Underachievement: How teachers, students, and parents can work together to promote student success
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - Written by Diane Heacox, this book has a step-by-step process for students, parents, and teachers to work together towards success in school and break the pattern of underachievement.
    What High Schools Don’t Tell You (And other parents don’t want you to know)
    BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - A review of What High Schools Don’t Tell You (And other parents don’t want you to know) by Elizabeth Wissner-Gross. This book offers a step by step guide to the college admissions process.

  • Talent Development: Strategies & Tools

    Book group discussion questions for Genius Denied: How to stop wasting our brightest young minds
    Laura Vanderkam, co-author of Genius Denied, provides a detailed listing of the various discussion topics for book discussion groups reading Genius Denied. The list is broken down by chapter, providing several questions that correlate with the specified chapter.