The Social and Emotional Lives of Gifted Kids: Understanding and Guiding Their Development

by Tracy L. Cross

Raising happy, successful children is a goal of every parent of gifted children. In this book, the nation's leading authority on the psychology of gifted children offers advice and encouragement for both parents and teachers. In a thoughtful, conversational style, the author offers an in-depth look at the complex social and emotional issues faced by gifted children.

Completely revised and updated since the popular first edition, The Social and Emotional Lives of Gifted Kids tackles important and timely issues dealing with the social and emotional needs of today's gifted children. Dr. Cross uses personal insight with current research to address the experiences of gifted students, how they cope with mixed messages in a constantly changing society, how they manage their way through school and home, and how parents and teachers can help them cope.

The book contains practical suggestions and ideas for guiding and supporting the development of gifted children. This concise, sensitive look at gifted children and their social and emotional world offers unique insights for both teachers and parents who support these special children.

Genres: Parenting

207 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Tracy L. Cross holds an endowed chair, Jody and Layton Smith Professor of Psychology and Gifted Education, and is the Executive Director of the Center for Gifted Education at William and Mary.

Reviews

[Amy Rhoda Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a collection of columns written for a magazine about gifted children (the audience for which I do not know) and in some ways that is it's downfall. The book is not laid out as a logical series of ideas, facts or conclusions; rather it is a series of disjoint chapters on various emotional issues in gifted children.

The chapters themselves were disappointing too - a lot of them were too short, with the author presenting some psychological concept but never clearly explaining how it applied to gifted children, or how that information might be used by someone who works with gifted children. The material presented was almost entirely theoretical, with hardly any anecdotes or examples given. And when directly worded advice was given it was often head-shakingly obvious: encourage physical activity for health but don't force the child to participate in an activity they are not interested in; encourage interests outside academia. In fact, I found precious little advice or insight in this book that wouldn't apply to non-gifted children.

The only reason I finished this was that it was lent to me by my daughter's teacher. I don't think she read it yet - hopefully not.

[Marjory Munson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it difficult to read this book because it is poorly written/copy edited. That would be forgiven if it contained a lot of good information, but, except for the resources collected in the back of the book, I do not feel that it added anything to my fund of knowledge.

[Kellee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This quick read provides a fairly in depth look at the social and emotional issues that gifted children face.