Week 8

Parenting, Family Dynamics, and Advocating

The last topics we will discuss in this course are those of parenting, family dynamics, and advocacy. These are all interrelated concepts, and you may see overlap as we discuss them. We will begin with parenting and the family.

Raising a gifted child presents parents with unique challenges. As gifted children grow, parents are apt to have some difficulty and/or confusion regarding the asynchronous development of their gifted child. They may struggle with what to do when they see perfectionism that prevents the child from being successful, or a lack of motivation in school. They may even not understand what giftedness is (if they are not gifted adults and have no other gifted children), and be at a loss as to how to support their children.

There are many good resources for parents to utilize, both in print and on the Internet. As teachers, we may find ourselves having to explain what gifted means to a wide variety of populations, from other teachers to parents. It is essential that you have both a good understanding of giftedness, and a good amount of resources to provide to the parents (and others) of gifted students in your class(es), so they can more fully understand their gifted child(-ren).