Search Database

Social/Emotional Development: Peer Relations

• Developmental: Adolescence

  Parenting Gifted Adolescents

  This article provides parents numerous guidelines on their adoloescents' peer relationships, life skills, social behavior and more.

  The Gifted Teen Survival Guide: Smart, Sharp, and Ready for (Almost) Anything (Revised & Updated 4th Edition)

  BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) – This comprehensive text is a necessary toolkit that encourages and empowers gifted teens to take charge and make the most of who they are. The authors collected an unprecedented wealth of information about gifted students from caring adults who have nurtured them, research findings and input from gifted teens themselves coupled with guidance on how to apply this information in daily life.

• Parenting: Tips for Parents

  Tips for Parents: Building the Confidence and Skills Needed to Battle Peer Pressure

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Kara McGoey, who provides strategies on coping with peer pressure.

  Tips for Parents: Bullying - How to Support Your Child

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Kara McGoey, who provides advice on the prevention of bullying, as well as tips on how to handle the subject.

  Tips For Parents: Connections Among The Gifted - Helping GT Children Make and Keep Friends

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Christine Fonseca, who provides advice on helping gifted students understand social dynamics.

  Tips for Parents: Finding the Extroverted Side of You – Introverted Children

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Christine Fonseca, who provides information for parents of introverts to help even the most introverted among us find their voice and share their talents with the world.

  Tips for Parents: Friendship Issues of the Gifted and Talented Elementary School Child

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Dr. Fred Frankel, who provides a number of strategies to help gifted students avoid bullying and develop friendships.
  

  Tips for Parents: Friendships of Gifted Elementary School Children

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Dr. Fred Frankel, who explores issues that gifted and talented children have in regards to making and keeping friendships and in getting along with peers.

  Tips for Parents: Friendships, Teasing, Bullying and the Gifted Child

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Dr. Fred Frankel, who offers insight on how children develop friendships and the differences in how boys and girls intereact with their friends.

  Tips for Parents: From School to Homeschool at Three Stages

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Suki Wessling, who addresses many of the concerns parents often have about transitioning their students from school to homeschool.

  Tips for Parents: Gifted Children and Friendships

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Annette Sheely, who shares her observations and tips about helping gifted and profoundly gifted children make and keep friendships.

  Tips for Parents: Gifted Children’s Friendships

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Miraca Gross, who provides a must-read on how parents can help facilitate productive friendships for their gifted children and prevent them from becoming "loners." Gross stresses the importance of understanding the difference in a child's emotional and social development (compared to their age-peers) and how crucial this is to how parents cope with their child's upbringing.

  Tips for Parents: Gifted Kids and Groupwork

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Stephen Balzac, who takes a look at the process of groupwork and how it applies to gifted students.

  Tips for Parents: GROWING UP GIFTED - Issues, Concerns, and the Importance of Self-Esteem

  This Tips for Parents article is from two 2010 seminars hosted by Judy Galbraith titled “GROWING UP GIFTED - Issues, Concerns, and the Importance of Self-Esteem."

  Tips for Parents: Guiding your Student to Fit in While Continuing to Stand Out

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Susan Paynter, who describes how to tap into gifted kids’ interests and analytical skills to support their social minds.

  Tips for Parents: Helping Gifted Children Handle Cooperation and Competition

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Eileen Kennedy-Moore, PhD. She highlights some of the key challenges that gifted children face related to cooperation and competition, and she offers practical ways that parents can help.

  Tips for Parents: How Gifted Children Impact the Family

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Sylvia Rimm. She discusses that every child influences other children in the family, but because gifted children often attract so much attention and require extra resources, they can cause some special pressures for siblings, parents and even other relatives.

  Tips for Parents: How to Effectively Deal with Bullying at School: Skills Training for Students and Parents

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Tom Letson, M.A. L.P.C. He offers these Frequently Asked Questions to help parents deal with situations in which their child may be bullied.

  Tips for Parents: How to Make and Keep Friends - Promoting Pro-Social Behavior

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Kara McGoey, who discusses promoting pro-social behavior among profoundly gifted children. Five themes are described along with specific strategies for promoting pro-social behavior.

  Tips for Parents: Leadership Skills for Gifted Kids

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Stephen R. Balzac of 7 Steps Ahead. He highlights a number of helpful tips on leadership and decision-making.

  Tips for Parents: Parenting the Gifted Child

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Dr. Edward Amend, who provides a number of ideas on how to foster relationships, improve discipline and increase motivation for your gifted child.

  Tips for Parents: Peer Relations

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Dr. Deirdre Lovecky, who provides an excellent starting point for parents or professionals gathering data about peer relations.

  Tips for Parents: Social and Emotional Development in Gifted Children

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Dr. Nadia Webb. She discussed the social/emotional issues that parents of gifted children deal with regularly.

  Tips for Parents: The Role of Friendships in Life Challenges for Gifted and Talented Children

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Dr. Fred Frankel, director of the UCLA Children's Friendship program, who discusses the important role of friendships for gifted and talented children.

  Tips for Parents: What to do About Bullying

  This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Tom Letson, MA LPC NCC, a full-time New Jersey public school counselor and author of the internationally recognized bully reporting and information website, Bullystoppers.com. Find answers to such topics as deaing with your child's school, when/if to involve the police and when to involve the other parent when bullying is happening to your child.

• Social/Emotional: General

  Helping Adolescents Adjust to Giftedness

  This article discusses challenges to adjustment and coping strategies. The adjustment section discusses ownership, dissonance, taking risks, competing expectations, and more.

  When it comes to bullying, there are no boundaries

  American policymakers have been urgently seeking solutions to school bullying and violence in recent years, but the issue had been receiving attention in many other countries long before it hit the U.S. spotlight. This article by Marianne D. Hurst discusses how "nations try various strategies to eradicate such behavior in schools."

• Social/Emotional: LGBTQ

  Gifted LGBTQ Social-Emotional Issues

  This article takes a look at gifted LGBTQ (G/LGBTQ) students and the social/emotional implications that gifted educators must now consider.

• Social/Emotional: Peer Relations

  12 Tips for Making and Keeping Friends

  Judy Galbraith and Jim Delisle provide a number of tips on making and keeping friends in this excerpt from The Gifted Teen Survival Guide.

  A Social Story

  An essay written by a Davidson Young Scholar (www.DavidsonGifted.org/YoungScholars).

  Aspects of Personality and Peer Relations of Extremely Talented Adolescents

  This article by Susan Dauber and Camilla Benbow compares 340 extremely mathematically or verbally talented 13-year-olds to 111 modestly gifted students. They found no differences in group activity participation or personality traits. They rated their peer perceptions as well -- the modestly gifted exceeded the extremely gifted in being considered athletic, popular and in social standing.

  Bullying and Gifted Learners

  This article describes the unique challenges gifted students face related to bullying.

  Cyberbullying and Sexting: Technology Abuses of the 21st Century

  Bullying, and being bullied, has a long history
  in schools. How does giftedness relate to bullying and being bullied? The Internet and other technology-related devices are particularly suited to nonviolent types of bullying such as name-calling.

  Friendship patterns in highly intelligent children

  This article provides a summation of previously performed research studies as well as one recently performed empirical study about how well highly intelligent children make friends. Highly intelligent children, as shown by previous research, show satisfactory social adjustment. The minority who are not socially well-adjusted is about twice that of moderately intelligent children. The empirical study found similar results. Also ideas are provided to help highly intelligent children adjust better socially. Authored by Paul Janos, Kristi Marwood and Nancy Robinson.

  Highly gifted children and peer relationships

  This article by Deirdre Lovecky reviews the research on highly gifted children and peer relationships. The author highlights possible issues with peers for highly gifted children. She also discusses strategies for developing successful peer relationships.

  Musings: Gifted children and the gift of friendship

  In this article, Dr. Miraca Gross explains the different kinds of friendships and relationships between average ability children and gifted children. She covers what gifted children expect from friends compared to what children of average ability expect. Also discussed is how these different expectations sometimes cause disappointment for gifted children.

  Play partner or sure shelter: What gifted children look for in friendship

  This article by Miraca Gross explores the five stages children go through in developing their expectations of friendships. She identifies them as: play partner; people to chat to; help & encouragement; intimacy/empathy; and sure shelter. Gifted children tend to reach the final stage of friendship expectations years ahead of average ability children, thus causing social isolation and the need for a true friend.

  Recommended Readings on Friendship

  This article by the Davidson Institute for Talent Development suggests recommended readings on the topic of friendship that include articles and books. The introduction touches on the fact that most gifted people are well-adjusted in terms of friendship, despite the common misconception otherwise. The articles and books recommended here can help one to better understand the nature of friendship and its relation to giftedness.

  Social Adjustment and Peer Pressures for Gifted Children

  This article by Sylvia Rimm addresses the social issues that gifted young people face on a regular basis. It gives situational examples and offers suggestions to parents on how to deal with issues that may arise. Peer pressures are discussed as well as strategies for parents on helping their children to chose the "right" peer group.

  Social and emotional issues faced by gifted girls in elementary and secondary school

  This article by Sally Reis discusses some of the factors that are involved in the social and emotional development of gifted girls. Issues that are faced are explored and factors that help and hinder healthy development are explained. Most of the challenges also are applicable to boys, but are examined with considerations for gender.

  Teasing and gifted children

  This article by Patricia Schuler discusses the problem of teasing in relation to gifted students. It offers parents suggestions on how to talk to children about this issue and on how to help work through and solve this problem. The tips focus on giving children the skills to deal with teasing themselves.

• Support Materials: Book Reviews

  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.

  Quiet Kids: Help Your Introverted Child Succeed in an Extroverted World

  BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - This book review gives a concise view of what the reader can learn from author Christine Fonseca in her book, Quiet Kids: Help Your Introverted Child Succeed in an Extroverted World.

• Support Materials: Interviews

  Interview with Christine Fonseca about Introverted Gifted Students

  The following Q&A about introverted, gifted students was written by Christine Fonseca, an award-winning author, parenting and life coach, speaker, consultant and school psychologist. She discusses temperament and how these traits present themselves in school and classroom settings, and how temperament impacts peer relations.
  

  Interview with Jim Delisle on Gifted Students and Peer Relations

  In this article, Jim Delisle provides information on the peer relations of gifted students, the differences between an “agemate” and a “peer”, and resources on forming social relationships.

• Talent Development: Advocacy

  Families and Schools: Partnership and Collaboration

  This article takes a look at the interpersonal, emotional, and intellectual benefits that can result from a close connection between the home and the school.