Raising a gifted child or children is - like raising any child - both a joy and a challenge! But because gifted kids are, by their very nature, more intense, those joys and challenges are also more intense.
Parents of gifted kids may sometimes feel alone with their experiences in raising their children. When they talk about their children's unusual patterns of development, others may accuse them of exaggeration, lying, or bragging. When they express concerns about meeting the special needs of their children, others may discount these concerns ("What's she got to be worried about? - her child's gifted!")
Parents of gifted children & teens need to feel understood and supported in their intensified experiences that come with rearing their extra-(check all that apply: active, argumentative, bossy, busy, curious, daydreamy, driven, empathic, funny, imaginative, impatient, perfectionistic, silly, worried, etc.) offspring!
In 1981, a new organization called SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted) established guidelines for SENG-Model Parent Support Groups. In communities around the country, parents of gifted children are invited to participate in a ten-week series to discuss the social and emotional needs of their children, and the parenting issues related to those needs. The emphasis of these parenting groups is on positive aspects of parenting, avoiding power struggles, and helping gifted children learn appropriate life skills while enhancing the parent/child relationship and parent self-esteem.
Raising Gifted Children with Additional Special Needs
Raising a gifted child is challenging enough, in its own right. Raising a gifted child who has other special needs to consider inreases the "challenge factor" exponentially! Such children are affectionately referred to as being "twice-exceptional," (a.k.a. "2E") even if they have more than one additional special need.
A child who is gifted and who has physical, behavioral and/or emotional challenges requires much attention and energy from parents. And those parents require much information and support as they carry out their important responsibilities in this role.
Because the current zeitgeist in education seems to be to focus on what students can't do - on their weak spots - a child's "giftedness needs" may be downplayed, ignored, or even denied, and only the disorders or disabilities addressed.
