Guidance and Counseling of Gifted and Talented Children and Adolescents

About Guidance and Counseling of Gifted and Talented Children and Adolescents:

The gifted and talented have unique counseling and guidance needs, as do most special populations of children and adolescents. Counseling issues that have been particularly applicable to academically talented students are several. Among them are anger, boredom, creativity, delinquency, depression, dropping out of school, gender related issues, issues that come along with having a very high IQ, introversion, intuition, meeting the expectations of others, motivation, overexcitabilities or intensities, peer relations, perfectionism, overachievement, resilience, self concept/self esteem, stress, sexual identity, and underachievement. Common guidance issues that should be addressed: academic planning, acceleration, career development, finding mentors, multipotentiality, learning styles, testing, program articulation, vocational guidance, volunteerism and service, and gender issues underlying all of the above. This booklet includes a long-term and short-term individual plan to address these needs. The author is a distinguished scholar in the field of the education of the gifted and talented.