Books on Parenting Gifted Kids

Social/Emotional Needs of Gifted Kids

Twice Exceptional Children

Problems of Gifted Kids

Parenting Support

Parents of gifted children often feel isoloated because other parents don't understand the problems involved in parenting gifted children.

Parents of gifted children can find help and support in a number of ways:

Gifted Forum
Gifted Associations
Email Listservs

Email Lists Relating to Gifted Issues:

Email lists are wonderful sources of support and information.  On most of these lists, you can share parenting stories and/or ask questions.   If you are new to email lists, you might want to take a look at the Beginner's Directions at the bottom of this page.

FOR PARENTS OF GIFTED CHILDREN

Gifted Preschoolers
For parents of gifted or possibly gifted preschoolers, toddlers and babies
Subscription address: giftedpreschoolers- subscribe@topica.com
Post messages to: giftedpreschoolers@topica.com
http://www.topica.com/lists/giftedpreschoolers/read

GTOT-L
Topics related to very young children (generally under 6 years of age) who are gifted
Subscription address: GTOT-L-REQUEST@eskimo.com
Post messages to: gtot-l@eskimo.com

GT-FAMILIES
Focuses on emotional and educational issues relating to raising gifted children
Subscription address: listserv@listserv.icors.org
Send message: subscribe gt-families
Post messages to: gt-families@gtworld.org

NNFGC
National Network of Families with Gifted Children (NNFGC)
Subscription address: majordomo@scri.fsu.edu
Post messages to: nnfcg@scri.fsu.edu

TAGFAM
Discussion and support list for families of TAG or GT children
Subscription address: listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu
Post messages to: tagfam@maelstrom.stjohns.edu

PRECOCIOUS AND PRODIGIOUS
For parents and teachers of the profoundly gifted
Subscription address: http://discserver.snap.com/Indices/ 9457.html

TAG-L
General discussion about all topics related to gifted children
Subscription address: listserv@listserv.nodak.edu
Post messages to: TAG-L@listserv.nodak.edu

TAGPDQ
Discussion of radical accommodations, especially in education and social life
Subscription address: listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu
Post messages to: tagpdq@maelstrom.stjohns.edu

SPECIALIZED AREAS OF GIFTED

Gifted But Learning Disabled
Discussion of issues in education for gifted students who may also have learning disabilities
Subscription address: gifted_but_learning_disabled- subscribe@egroups.com
Post messages to: gifted_but_learning_disabled@egroups.com
http://www.egroups.com/list/gifted_but_learning_disabled

GT-SPECIAL
For parents of gifted students with learning disabilities or other special needs (ADHD, Asperger's, Tourette, etc.)
Subscription address: listserv@listserv.icors.org
Send message: subscribe gt-special
Post messages to: gt-special@gtworld.org
http://www.gtworld.org/gtspeclist.html

U-ACHIEVE
Academic underachievement and underachieving students, including gifted
Subscription address: listserver@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Post messages to: u-achieve@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu

FOR KIDS AND ADULTS

GT-ADULTS
Living as a gifted adult or with a gifted partner 
Subscription address: listserv@listserv.icors.org
Send message: subscribe gt-adults
Post messages to: gt-adults@gtworld.org

TAGKIDS
Discussion list for talented and gifted kids; membership restricted to those nominated by adult members of the TAGFAM mailing list
For information: king@access.digex.net

TAGTEENS
For talented and gifted teens and collegians
Subscription address: listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu
Send message: subscribe tagteens
Post messages to: tagteens@maelstrom.stjohns.edu

LOCALIZED GIFTED DISCUSSIONS

DISD-TAG
Discussion of TAG issues in the Dallas (TX) Independent School District
Subscription address: listserv@netcom.com
Post messages to: disd-tag@netcom.com

GIFTEDTN
Discussion of gifted education issues in Tennessee 
Subscription address: giftedtn-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Post messages to: giftedtn@yahoogroups.com

GiftedNew-WA
Discussion of gifted education issues in Washington 
Subscription address: http://gifted.gen.wa.us/wagc/listserv.htm

OHIOGIFT
Discussion of gifted education issues in Ohio
Subscription address: listproc@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Post messages to: ohiogift@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu

PAGElist
Discussion of gifted education issues in Pennsylvania 
Subscription address: listserv@studyabroad.com
Send message: subscribe PAGElist
Post messages to: PAGElist@studyabroad.com

RITAG-L
Discussion of gifted education issues in Rhode Island
Subscription address: listserv@ride.ri.net
Send message: subscribe ritag-l
Post messages to: ritag-l@ride.ri.net

TEXASTAG
Discussion of gifted education issues in Texas
Subscription address: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/ texastag
Post messages to: texastag@onelist.com

GIFTED EDUCATION (Mostly for teachers, some for parents too.)

TAGMAX
Educating gifted children to the max 
Subscription address: listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu
Send message: subscribe tagmax
Post messages to: tagmax@maelstrom.stjohns.edu

GIFTED-CHI-L
Focuses on increasing communication between parents and educators; based in the UK
Subscription address: GIFTED-CHI-L-subscribe@onelist.com
Post messages to: GIFTED-CHI-L@onelist.com
http://www.chi-charity.org.uk

Gifted-Teachers
For teachers of the gifted, as well as administrators, counselors, and parents
Subscription address: gifted-teachers-request@list.uiowa.edu
Post messages to: gifted-teachers@list.uiowa.edu

CGEPNETWORK
Sponsored by the American Psychological Association Center for Gifted Education Policy to increase awareness of gifted education policy and resources. Limited to subscribers who are professionals in the field of gifted education.
Send message: subscribe cgepnetwork
Subscription address: listserv@lists.apa.org
Post messages to: cgepnetwork@lists.apa.org

Giftednet-l
National (USA) Science and Language Arts Curriculum Projects for High Ability Learners
Note that mailing list name ends in lowercase "ell" not numeral 1. Also note that the William and Mary curriculum now has its own limited distribution list (WMCURRIC-L).
Subscription address: listserver@listserv.cc.wm.edu
Send message: subscribe GiftedNet
Post messages to: GiftedNet@cc.wm.edu

NASAG
National Alliance of State Associations for the Gifted
Subscription address: listproc@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Send message: subscribe nasag
Post messages to: nasag@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu

Teachers Net Chat Board
Discussion related to gifted and talented education/advanced placement
http://www.teachers.net/mentors/GATE

Beginner's Directions:
If you're new to email lists, you need to know a few things.  First, an email list is a community of people with something in common -- like being the parent of a gifted child.  Some lists are small with little traffic (maybe 6 messages a day), while others are quite large with lots and lots of traffic (50 or more messages a day).  To become a member of an email community, you need to subscribe.  Subscribing is easy.  All you have to do is send a note the subscription address.  The body of the message should be something like "subscribe gt-adults" (without the quotation marks).  Don't send a long note explaining why you want to join or expressing your pleasure at finding such a list.  The message goes to an automatic subscription program.  No human will see what you've written and the program won't understand all the extra verbiage!  It will think you're making strange commands!  

In most cases, you'll get a message back in a few seconds, telling you that you've been subscribed and giving you additional details about subscribing and unsubscribing, as well as instructions for posting messages to the community.  SAVE that information.  People on lists get rather annoyed when people send a message to the entire community asking to be unsubscribed.  It's considered very bad netiquette.

Once you've been subscribed, it's a good idea to receive a few messages to get a feel for the group before jumping right in.  When you're ready to post a message, you need to send it to a different address than the one you used for subscribing.  And, by the way, it's considered polite to introduce yourself briefly in your first message to the group.  This lets people know who you are and therefore, who they'd be responding to.  When you send one message to the "post messages" address, a copy of it is sent to everyone who belongs to that list.  You get messages that everyone on the list sends to the group.  You get to communicate with lots of people (sometimes 100's!) by sending out just one message!  With many of the lists, you don't even need to ask questions to get lots of information.  All you need to do is sit back and read the messages sent by others.  When you feel comfortable or have a pressing question, ask away!  Someone is sure to respond with lots of helpful information

List Addresses and Subscription Help: Not all email lists are alike, which means subscribing to various lists may require slightly different actions. All of them have one address to post messages to and another address for subscribing. But the subscription addresses may require you to do something different in order to subscribe. For example, the address for the gifted preschoolers elist is giftedpreschoolers- subscribe@topica.com. Because the name of the list in is the subscription address, nothing more is needed. The subscription to other elists may be general, like lyris@gtworld.org, the subscription address for gt-families. In that case, you must type a message in the body of your subscription note to let the system know which elist you want to subscribe to. For gt-families, the note would be <subscribe gt-families> without the brackets.

Tip: If online support isn't enough for you, you can start a parent group in  your area.  FInd at least one other person and go from there!  Don't know another person with a gifted child interested in meeting regularly?  You can find one by placing an ad in your local news-paper.  Meet at a local book store or coffee shop until you get to know each other and can make plans to enlarge your group. It's not easy to start a group, but it's well worth the effort.  There's nothing like being with others who understand what it means to be the parent of a gifted child!  You can use the book on SENG (Supporting the Needs of the Gifted) parent groups to help you get started.

Be sure to visit the forums at the Gifted Children About.com site.