Parenting The Gifted

Filmed before a group of parents in Batavia, Ohio, this lecture--on two 1-hr. tapes--on the characteristics of gifted children and strategies for parenting them is technically rough. The format is straight talking-head, the cameraperson occasionally plays with the focus, and the questions from the audience are all but incoherent. However, presenter Marci Nichols, a teacher of gifted children for the past ten years who has published papers and presented lectures on the subject nationally, knows her stuff. In Part 1: Characteristics and Needs, Nichols discusses the pluses and minuses of the 10 most common traits of gifted children (which she puts at about 130 I.Q. and higher): knowledgeable, good verbal skills, good thinkers, energetic, independent, curious, creative, motivated, critical, and sensitive; while in Part 2: Parenting Tips and Strategies, she goes back over the traits and talks about ways that parents can cope with their advanced children. Although a couple of the questions and answers deal specifically with local schools in Batavia, the majority of the information is applicable to all, and Nichols underscores her in-depth commentary with the exhortation that parents become involved and not let the current thinking of let's-lump-everyone-together prevail. Gifted children need to be challenged in class; if they aren't they become bored (and that can lead to other problems). There is far more information packed into these two tapes than what was covered on Is Your Child Gifted? (reviewed in our April 1993 issue), but the production values are pretty bad. An optional purchase. (Available from: Nichols-Galvin Productions, 110 Wood St., Batavia, OH 45103.)