Losing Our Minds: Gifted Children Left Behind

by Deborah L. Ruf

Written for parents and teachers who work with gifted children, this book describes behaviors of children who are measured at the highest ranges of intelligence. The data indicate there are many more of these children than previously thought. Fascinating vignettes from 50 different families and their highly intelligent children are included. Testing, test scores, and interpretations of scores are explained in a new, eye-opening way. Parents and teachers will be able to compare a child's behaviors and developmental milestones to those of children in the five Levels chapters, and thus estimate their child's I.Q. The Levels have implications for educational planning.

Genres: Nonfiction, Education, Parenting

351 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 2005

Reviews

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was totally engrossed in this book, carrying it with me wherever I went and quoting out of it to whomever was around me. The author uses real children as her examples, and gives clear analyses of educational research into the education of gifted children.

One of the sections that was especially interesting to me was the concept of “levels of giftedness.” Once brought up, it seems obvious. There are levels or degrees of mental and physical handicaps – of course there would be levels of giftedness. But I had not given any thought to how great the differences in educational strategies would be for each of the levels of intelligence. For example, the brighter a child is, the more difficult a multiple-choice question becomes. When asked to circle which items could float, one bright child circled a picture of a bed. Asked for his reasoning, he said that cruise ships have beds, and the beds are afloat because they are on the ship. Bright children think in ways outside the obvious.

Two more points: first, if your child tests at the 99th percentile in any subject area, you do not know his ability. You do not know what he could do until you can test beyond what he can do, and you see his top limits. Second, a bright child’s giftedness is almost always asynchronous. He will be off the charts in one or two areas, and normal in others. Some teachers use this fact to say that the child is not truly gifted, when in fact this is a good indicator of giftedness.

Much more excellent information in this book -- I really enjoyed it.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a half dozen books about giftedness in the winter of 2007-2008. This book was one of the most enlightening ones.

I especially appreciated the comparisons of how several children scored on different intelligence tests. There are so many "intelligence" tests/scales; the same child can score up to 50 points apart on different tests (and at different ages). IQ scores should be taken with a grain of salt.

The coverage of the different levels of giftedness is also helpful. Most people can identify moderately gifted kids of socially optimal intelligence. The highly and profoundly gifted kids are harder to identify. They think so far out of the box, they can't figure out which bubble to fill in on a multiple choice test. They spend so much time thinking about the possible exceptions, the test period is over before they finish the test.

[April Helms · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew something about the process of testing a child for giftedness (a friend from college has a daughter who was tested), but I had no idea how much was involved in identifying giftedness, and the levels of giftedness. I found this book insightful for my job in covering education. Ruf interviews several families of gifted children at each level, as well as points out the challenges families could face (not to mention schools- how do you educate a first-grader who is already capable of doing middle school and high school-level academics, for example?) On possible solution is offered: since there are generally 3-4 classrooms per grade level already, sort students by ability within each classroom. I can see the pros and cons with this. Ruf also mentioned something that leads to more questions: the seeming connection between finding gifted students and family wealth. Generally, more students are found in more affluent schools than poorer ones. Is it because wealth has an impact on IQ? Is it because giftedness is going undetected in less wealthy, affluent areas? I suspect the answer is a combination of the two.

[Xavier University Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr. Ruf does an excellent job highlighting the issues associated with placing gifted children in traditional school classrooms. The idea of distinguishing between levels of giftedness is well-supported, but in spite of five chapters of examples, the distinctions between her suggested levels remain unclear. The end of the book presents some helpful ideas for providing opportunities for gifted students to learn at appropriate intellectual levels.

[Maggie Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful. I appreciate that it recognizes different patterns and different needs for different children.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deborah Ruf’s basic premise is that an IQ score isn’t enough. She says that within a narrow band of “gifted” scores (120+ on modern IQ tests), there are 5 different levels of giftedness ranging from 1 to 5. She uses descriptions of actual kids (and quotes from their parents) when defining the levels, to give you practical ideas of what each level means. She also says that the levels aren’t fixed. The kids can move between levels depending on their drive, undiagnosed LDs, etc. Her book doesn’t really address LDs, so it’s not particularly good for anyone that’s twice exceptional. I think it’s best for parents of younger children – many of the examples are preschool developmental milestones. The whole focus is on helping parents know what schooling track will be appropriate for their kid. As a parent of a middle schooler, it seemed that the book would have been helpful to me when my dd was younger.

[Calle Brookes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really found the list of characteristics for each of the five levels of giftedness to be the most helpful. As well as the anecdotal summaries from parents of what their kids were like at different ages.

It helped me understand my daughter a lot better. Especially in the areas of focus and discipline. To see that she's not just tantruming (she's 3) or ignoring us, but is lost in thought and we're startling her! And it explained why she can focus for hours on something she's interested in, rather than it being obsessive behaviors.

I do feel that there was a definite bias on the part of the author towards homeschooling (which is ok with me, as we are definitely homeschooling!) that some non-homeschoolers might not agree with.

I do agree with other reviewers that the book is most helpful for parents of younger gifted children; I found it to be eye-opening.

[Sheridan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is a great book for parents of gifted kids, or even for parents wondering if their child is gifted.

The author divides gifted kids up into different levels and explains their differences. I think the book is also great at explaining the different needs and challenges of gifted children.

The only problem I had with the book is that it really didn't deal with gifted kids with learning challenges (it touched on it BRIEFLY) but if I just looked at her descriptions of when gifted kids learn things, I would never think that my first son was gifted as he was developmentally delayed.

[Kristi Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential if you find yourself with one of those kids who has a mind that is racing ahead of their age. Dr. Ruf is passionate about helping parents create a home and educational world where these sorts of children will be able to thrive, both emotionally and academically. She explains the distinctions of various levels of giftedness and why it is often challenging for local schools to engage them. She is not calling for a mass exodus of these kids from the public schools. Rather, she seeks to help parents and schools learn how to advocate for these minds not to be wasted.

[Susanne]

I really liked this book.....talked about how teachers are forced to teach to the bottom 1/3 of each class. That many, many more children are gifted than are recognized but funding focuses on children who are struggling, not excelling. Makes me want to homeschool:)

[Jen]

More of a "why" and what's important to challenge the advanced students.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been re-published under a new title, "The Five Levels of Gifted," and the newer version is what I am currently reading.

[Glaiza · Rating 2 out of 5]

nice book

[Cara Macaluso · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me realize more about Joey than any other book or educational journal I've read. I've considered reading out to Deobrah Ruf for an analysis of Joey.

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book .... all parents should read !

[Tiffanny Bernsee · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I appreciated the examples of actual experiences, I felt there were a lot to get through.
I did get a lot of information from the book and some ideas to work with at school.

[Lynnea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful to get us really thinking about our children's education.