Guidance

Providing guidance to gifted and talented students is a broad concept that can take many forms, including educational and career planning or psychological counseling. Individuals who work with gifted students should be aware of how guidance can be beneficial, as well as what concerns are unique among this population. This entry describes career, educational, and psychological guidance methods in general and provides recommendations for working with gifted students in an effective manner.

The guidance needs of gifted and talented children are complex and best understood within the context of the students' gifted identification. Recently, Jin Eun Yoo and Sidney Moon examined the referring concerns at a counseling center for gifted students to determine the most salient needs endorsed by parents of gifted children. Overall, educational planning and school issues were cited as students' greatest needs. Psychosocial concerns were also commonly reported by parents of gifted children older than 6 years of age. For parents of gifted children older than age 12, career planning was also an important area of attention. These predominant reasons for referral offer many suggestions for school counselors who are in guidance positions for gifted and talented students, such as the importance of providing a developmental perspective to students' presenting concerns, as well as highlighting the concept that gifted students need differentiated guidance methods just as much as they need differentiated curriculum methods. The results also emphasize that gifted adolescents particularly need guidance services because they reported more career and social and emotional concerns—such as pressure to meet others' expectations, perceptions of being different, perfectionism, hypersensitivity, and self-esteem and depression issues—than did gifted elementary-age students.