Contemporary thinking challenges the view that giftedness and high IQ are synonymous. Contemporary thinking also challenges the view that being gifted is something real. A number of authorities in the gifted field advocate a paradigm shift; moving away from emphasizing categorical definitions of giftedness and adopting a talent development perspective. This shift to a developmental perspective advocates that we consider giftedness as the unfolding and transforming of uncanny potential among young children into actual outstanding performance and accomplishments in adulthood. The early identification and ongoing assessment of individuals of uncommon ability takes on a more complex, nuanced, and rich perspective when viewed from a developmental model.

Designed for practitioners who work with the gifted, this volume is intended to serve as a practical and easy-to-use resource for working with gifted students, their teachers, and their parents and families. It provides timely, practical, evidence-based techniques and guidelines to help these practitioners better help an underserved group. The book is written in a user-friendly style that makes this a quick, simple, and easy reference. Topics covered include identification and assessment of gifted students; important information for understanding the needs of the gifted; counseling and psychotherapy strategies; career counseling for gifted and talented students; methods for working with the families of the gifted; and legally-correct and ethically-smart counseling techniques. An accompanying CD will contain valuable resources such as PowerPoint presentations and reproducible handouts and forms.

This article discusses three lessons that stand out as particularly poignant in the author’s career working with high-ability students. The author recounts personal and professional experiences that influenced his thinking. The three lessons are that identifying high-ability students is not an easy business, the development of talent requires more than ability, and success requires both head strengths and heart strengths.

The twice exceptional are students who have both high ability and a disability or disorder. The ability can be in any culturally-valued domain, including high intelligence, academics, the visual or performing arts, and athletics. The co-existing disability can be physical, medical, or psychological. There is a growing literature of scholarly opinion about twice exceptionality; however, there are few well-designed empirical investigations of gifted students with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, eating disorders, conduct problems, or medical, physical or sensory disabilities. This article examines a few key issues about the twice exceptional student and then discusses what we know about the gifted students with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and gifted students with learning disabilities. The article also provides a brief discussion on suicide and the gifted student.

The present article reports on a survey of the state of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in state-supported residential academies nationwide. Sixteen state-supported residential academies completed a comprehensive survey. Findings indicate that the great majority of public residential academies nationwide view themselves as STEM academies. These unique, state-affiliated, residential academic-year programs, specifically designed for selected gifted high-school students, provide extensive and unique research opportunities. For example, 87.5% of the residential academies provide their students with access to outside labs/facilities to support research efforts. Equally noteworthy, 37.5% of the schools integrate STEM content into their humanities curriculum. One unanticipated finding was that only one third of the 16 state-supported residential academies offer advanced placement (AP) courses. Implications are provided for encouraging America's pool of academically gifted high-school students, particularly those with special aptitude and interest in the critical fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

There is a considerable amount of literature on leadership, particularly as it relates to organizations, government, and the military. However, educators and psychologists know considerably less about early precursors of leadership, how leadership develops in youth, possible gender differences, and the relationship of leadership, intelligence and creativity. A global consensus exists that leaders are needed and that we shouldn't delay the early development of leadership skills. The authors propose a model to enhance creative leadership and introduce a teacher-completed rating scale, the Gifted Rating Scales to help accomplish this. As demonstrated, there are possibilities to detect early creative and intellectual giftedness among children and youngsters in the classrooms and expectations to move from a basic level of competence to reach an elite or expert level in any field, facilitating the emergence of leadership.