Many teens experience a time when keeping up with school work is difficult. Some adolescents are able to get through this time with minimal assistance from their parents or teachers. However, when the difficulties last longer than a single grading period or are linked to a long-term pattern of poor school performance, parents and teachers may need…

Each year, many teachers face the problem of where to place children who do not fit into the rest of the class. Retention is an option that is frequently considered for these children. Children considered for retention often have poor academic skills, are small in stature or the youngest in the grade, have moved or been absent frequently, do…

Two national studies have recently confirmed that specific kinds of educational experiences provided for children by both parents and teachers, from preschool through high school, can make a significant difference in their reading ability as young adults. Both studies analyzed data gathered from 3,959 high school students in 24 school districts…

Presented in a question-and-answer format, this digest offers guidelines to help gifted students manage stress effectively. The following questions are considered: What is stress? How can a youngster experience stress when nothing bad is happening? Is a gifted student more likely to feel stress than others? What are some stresses on a gifted…

This fact sheet summarizes information on children who have an attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADHD), are gifted, or are both ADHD and gifted. Fourteen diagnostic criteria for ADHD from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders III are listed. A comparison of behaviors associated with ADHD and with giftedness is…

This digest is intended to help parents and teachers understand and cope with underachievement in gifted students. Underachievement is defined and its various components (e.g., content and situation specificity and ties to self-concept development) are explained. Strategies to reverse patterns of underachievement are classified as either…

Parents and teachers share responsibility for creating a working relationship that fosters children's learning. This digest examines the cultural context for parent-teacher relationships, suggests some general strategies for creating a climate in which misunderstandings and disagreements between parents and teachers can be minimized through…

This digest offers guidelines to parents and educators helping gifted adolescents adjust to problems related to their giftedness. Challenges to adjustment are noted in the areas of: ownership (talented adolescents simultaneously "own" and yet question the validity of their abilities); dissonance (between their high standards and their…

This digest describes academic creativity and offers suggestions for its development in gifted students. Creative learning and learning by authority are contrasted and examples of each are given. The naturally creative behavior of young children is noted. Among suggestions offered to teachers are: respect the unusual questions of children; show…

This digest provides students, parents, and educators with guidelines to help gifted students in the college planning process. As learning about oneself and career options is essential to college planning, a 6-year program of guidance activities is outlined for grades 7-12. Learning about colleges is discussed in terms of two steps, the first…

This digest uses a question-and-answer format to summarize basic issues about the inclusion of children who are deaf or hard of hearing in classrooms with normal hearing students. It briefly reviews the history of the inclusion movement and identifies two general positions in the debate: (1) that all students have the right to go to school with…

This digest addresses the special needs of gifted urban minority students in the selection of postsecondary career and educational options. Noted is the frequent lack of family encouragement in this population toward higher education and career achievement. Suggestions are offered for teachers, students, counselors, administrators, and parents.…

This digest is intended to help parents and educators assist with the development of leadership attitudes and skills in gifted youth. The relative lack of interest in leadership despite its designation as a talent area in definitions of giftedness for state and federal policies requiring differentiated programs is listed. Characteristics of gifted…

This brief paper summarizes what is known about sensory integration and sensory integration dysfunction (DSI). It outlines evaluation of DSI, treatment approaches, and implications for parents and teachers, including compensatory strategies for minimizing the impact of DSI on a child's life. Review of origins of sensory integration theory in the…

This digest was adapted from D.W. Russell, D.G. Hayes and L.B. Dockery's book, "My Child is Gifted! Now What Do I Do?". The digest is intended to give parents of gifted students an overview of characteristics of gifted children and terminology used in this field. Several definitions of giftedness are offered including one from a parent…