The Gifted Child

This “rare and compelling” (New York Magazine) bestseller examines childhood trauma and the enduring effects it has on an individual's management of repressed anger and pain. Why are many of the most successful people plagued by feelings of emptiness and alienation? This wise and profound book has provided millions of readers with an answer--and has helped them to apply it to their own lives. Far too many of us had to learn as children to hide our own feelings, needs, and memories skillfully in order to meet our parents' expectations and win their "love." Alice Miller writes, "When I used the word 'gifted' in the title, I had in mind neither children who receive high grades in school nor children talented in a special way. I simply meant all of us who have survived an abusive childhood thanks to an ability to adapt even to unspeakable cruelty by becoming numb.... Without this 'gift' offered us by nature, we would not have survived." But merely surviving is not enough. The Drama of the Gifted Child helps us to reclaim our life by discovering our own crucial needs and our own truth.

This book seeks to increase the awareness by parents, teachers, and clinicians of the often overlooked unique emotional needs of gifted children.

From the author of the nation's most popular blog on parenting gifted children comes the definitive how-to manual for parents, Raising a Gifted Child: A Parenting Success Handbook, a gifted education Legacy Award winner. Raising gifted children isn't easy, but when armed with the practical knowledge and tools in this exciting book, parents can navigate the maze of raising bright kids, leading to success in school and beyond. This book offers a large menu of strategies, resources, organizations, tips, and suggestions for parents to find optimal learning opportunities for their kids, covering the gamut of talent areas, including academics, the arts, technology, creativity, music, and thinking skills. The focus of this definitive resource is on empowering parents by giving them the tools needed to ensure that their gifted kids are happy and successful both in and out of school. Additional topics covered include volunteering at their child's school; different school options and specialty programs; tips for handling special circumstances; specific suggestions for each core content area; and strategies for finding the best resources for parents on the Web. This easy-to-read book is sure to be a favorite of parents of smart kids for years to come! Educational Resource

Why are some gifted children willing to tackle new challenges whereas others seem insecure or uninterested? Why do some gifted students achieve while others become caught in a cycle of underachievement? Are there strategies teachers and parents can implement that promote an achievement-oriented attitude? The Underachieving Gifted Child: Recognizing, Understanding, and Reversing Underachievement answers these important questions. Although there are many factors that contribute to achievement, achievement-oriented students exhibit four key traits: they believe that they have the skills to perform well, they expect that they can succeed, they believe what they are doing is meaningful, and they set realistic expectations and implement strategies to successfully complete their goals. This book offers specific strategies to help increase student achievement by improving students' attitudes in these four important areas.

Exceptionally Gifted Children examines the origin, development and school histories of fifteen Australian children who are amongst the most intellectually gifted young people ever to be identified and studied. The first phase of a longitudinal research project which will trace the children through to adulthood, this book looks in detail at the children's early lives and influences, their families and personal characteristics. More importantly, this book explores the school experiences of the children, the opportunities offered and denied to them and the effects of their early school life on their educational development and how the school environment can affect: * self-esteem * self-concept * motivation * the capacity to find and form friendships * the children's own attitudes towards their abilities and achievements. This fascinating study will be of interest to education researchers, those working in special educational needs, and anyone with a particular interest in this field.

The ,,true" Drama of the Gifted Child is a biography of the famous childhood researcher Alice Miller. As her son and as an experienced psychotherapist I discovered the secret who Alice Miller really was. My mother always cared that nothing of her private life got public. She created a fictional character in her books and in mine she gets a real person, a man of flesh and blood.It's also my history because I describe, how it is when you are faced, as a child and in second generation, with the not coped post-war trauma of your parents.Alice Miller created a mother image in her books she never complied. My book shows what happens when you do not overcome your traumas and you pass them on the next generation. The book is also a concrete application of Alice Miller's theory. It shows how you can overcome the terrible legacy of your parents in a therapeutical way.I can release myself of the filial involvement with my parents by having elaborated my own biography.

A surprising new look at the rise of ADHD in America, arguing for a better paradigm for diagnosing and treating our children In 1987, only 3 percent of American children were diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, also known as ADHD. By 2000, that number jumped to 7 percent, and in 2014 the number rose to an alarming 11 percent. To combat the disorder, two thirds of these children, some as young as three years old, are prescribed powerful stimulant drugs like Ritalin and Adderall to help them cope with symptoms. Meanwhile, ADHD rates have remained relatively low in other countries such as France, Finland, and the United Kingdom, and Japan, where the number of children diagnosed with and medicated for ADHD is a measly 1 percent or less. Alarmed by this trend, family therapist Marilyn Wedge set out to understand how ADHD became an American epidemic. If ADHD were a true biological disorder of the brain, why was the rate of diagnosis so much higher in America than it was abroad? Was a child's inattention or hyperactivity indicative of a genetic defect, or was it merely the expression of normal behavior or a reaction to stress? Most important, were there alternative treatments that could help children thrive without resorting to powerful prescription drugs? In an effort to answer these questions, Wedge published an article in Psychology Today entitled "Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD" in which she argued that different approaches to therapy, parenting, diet, and education may explain why rates of ADHD are so much lower in other countries. In A Disease Called Childhood, Wedge examines how myriad factors have come together, resulting in a generation addictied to stimulant drugs, and a medical system that encourages diagnosis instead of seeking other solutions. Writing with empathy and dogged determination to help parents and children struggling with an ADHD diagnosis, Wedge draws on her decades of experience, as well as up-to-date research, to offer a new perspective on ADHD. Instead of focusing only on treating symptoms, she looks at the various potential causes of hyperactivity and inattention in children and examines behavioral and environmental, as opposed to strictly biological, treatments that have been proven to help. In the process, Wedge offers parents, teachers, doctors, and therapists a new paradigm for child mental health--and a better, happier, and less medicated future for American children

An Applied Psychologist's Initiation to the Study of Gifted Children My interest in the subject matter of this book, the peer relations of gifted children, intensified enormously as result of my' involvement with one gifted child during my days as a school psychologist. At that time, I served a number of schools in a prosperous suburb. I spent most of my time working with children with behavioral and learning disorders. I received very few requests to assist gifted youngsters and their teachers, perhaps because, at that point, I was not very sensitive to their needs. One autumn I was involved in something from which I derived a great deal of satisfaction-helping the teachers of a very advanced retarded boy with Down's syndrome maintain himself in a regular first-grade class. In retrospect, the achievements of this student, Jeff, would have justified my calling him exceptionally bright, given the limits of his endowment. I was interrupted from my observation of Jeff's success in class by a phone call from another school, one to which I had not previously been summoned. I was asked to discuss the case of an intellectually gifted child who was bored, moody, difficult, and disliked by those around him.