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

Choosing Books for Your Gifted Child

Parents of gifted children often have a difficult time choosing the right books for their children to read.  Recommended age and grade levels don't always apply.  You need to consider several issues before choosing books for your child: reading ability, reading comprehension, and content.

Reading ability refers to the ability a child has to recognize or sound out words as he or she reads.  Some gifted children actually read better when they read silently than they do when they read out loud.  This may be due to their minds going faster than their mouths.  They want to get ahead in the story and if they have to read outloud, they try to read as fast as they're thinking, which makes them stumble over words they know.

Reading comprehension refers to the understanding a child has of what he or she has read.  A child may be able to read the words on a page quite well, but not comprehend the material as well.  Most gifted kids don't usually have a problem with comprehension. 

Content refers to the subject matter of a book.  As long as a gifted child is reading at an elementary school level (regardless of the child's age), content isn't much of a problem.  However, as a child's reading level increases, it becomes more difficult to find books with appropriate content.  A 7 year old gifted child may be reading at a 12 year-old level, but many books written for 12 year olds aren't appealing to a 7 year old. 

Reading levels are determined in a number of ways, but the easiest one for parents to use is known as the "five-finger test."  Children can use this test by themselves as well. 

"Five Finger Test"

• Open a book to a middle page full of text (not mostly pictures)
• Hold up five fingers
• Ask your child to read the page out loud
• Each time your child misses or struggles with a word, put one finger down
• If you put all five fingers down before your child reaches the end of the page, the book is probably too difficult

You can teach your child to use the "five-finger test" alone.  If your child is a strong silent reader, that might provide more accurate results. 

Unfortunately, the "five-finger test" won't help you decide which books to buy if you're buying them online.  If you need to get an idea now about your child's reading level and don't have a number of books handy, you can have your child take the "Schonell" test.