Keys to Successfully Parenting the Gifted Child

by Deborah Ruf

Keys to Successfully Parenting the Gifted Child shares factors to consider when finding the best overall fit for your bright or gifted child. The book describes what to look for when choosing the best educational options and schools for your child, and also shares ideas on how to effectively and proactively interact with educators and others in your child's life for a healthy social, emotional, and academic balance.

Be sure to click on the "Read with Our Free App" button after you purchase the book because Amazon gives you at least a dozen options for how to read the book. This book does not work on kindle, despite its name. You can download it and read it on your computer, though, if you DON'T try to do it through Kindle. If it still doesn't work, reach out to me directly at my fivelevelsofgifted.com website. I'll make sure you get something that works. I am releasing a print version soon while I wait for my follow-up longitudinal study of The 5 Levels of Gifted Children Grown What They Tell Us to be read by reviewers and become available for pre-order. That book will go live in early July.

69 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 22, 2022

About the author

Deborah L. Ruf earned a Ph.D. in the Psychological Foundations of Education with a focus on Tests & Measurement at the University of Minnesota. She worked as a private consultant and specialist in gifted assessment, test interpretation, and guidance for the gifted for 30 years.

Among her volunteer roles, she served as the National Gifted Children Program Coordinator for American Mensa from 2003 to 2008. She was awarded the Mensa Foundation Intellectual Benefits award in 2007 for her professional work in the field of intelligence.

Having been a parent, classroom teacher, and administrator in elementary through graduate education, she continues to write and speak about school issues and social and emotional adjustment of gifted children and adults.

Dr. Ruf's PhD 1998 dissertation, "Environmental, Familial, and Personal Factors That Affect the Self-Actualization of Highly GIfted Adults: Case Studies" has free access here: https://rb.gy/cu2qz

Dr. Ruf maintains an interest in educational policy, particularly how to set up schools that meet not only academic but social and emotional needs of children through grouping and instruction with true peers.

She is the author of the award-winning book "Losing Our Minds: Gifted Children Left Behind" (2005) and retitled "5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options" in 2009.

Her most recent invited paper, How Parental Viewpoint and Personality Affect Gifted Child Outcomes (2020, Gifted Child International Journal) looks into specific parent-child interactions of the subject families from the 5 Levels book.

In 2022, she released a short book for parents and grandparents, "Keys to Successfully Parenting the Gifted Child," based on one of her most requested speaking topics.

In July 2023, Dr. Ruf released her follow-up longitudinal book study of the now-adult children from the original book and how they are doing now. Her focus has now progressed toward the social and emotional health of the gifted adults who parent gifted children.

For more than 40 years, Dr. Ruf has served as a keynote speaker, workshop, and conference presenter, and written chapters for 5 textbooks, more than 12 peer-reviewed journal articles, and 100 plus articles and handouts for newsletters, magazines, and websites.