The Essential Guide to Talking with Gifted Teens: Ready-to-Use Discussions About Identity, Stress, Relationships, and More

Out  of print. Limited quantity available.

The new, revised version is available and called:

Get Gifted Students Talking - 76 Ready-to-use Group Discussions About Identity Stress Relationships and More Grades 6-12

Like other kids their age, highly capable adolescents experience developmental challenges. They’re forging identity, finding direction, exploring relationships, and learning to resolve conflicts. These are difficult tasks to do alone, no matter how smart one may be. The 70 guided discussions in this book are an affective curriculum for gifted teens. By “just talking” with caring peers and an attentive adult, kids gain self-awareness and self-esteem, learn to manage stress, build social skills and life skills, and discover they are not alone. Each session is self-contained and step-by-step; many include reproducible handouts. Introductory and background materials help even less-experienced group leaders feel prepared and secure in their role. For advising teachers, counselors, and youth workers in all kinds of school and group settings working with gifted kids in grades 6–12.

About the Author

Jean Sunde Peterson, Ph.D., was a classroom teacher for many years, was involved in teacher education, and developed summer language camps for children prior to her graduate work in counseling and development at the University of Iowa. She is currently on the faculty of the Department of Educational Studies at Purdue University and is the coordinator of school counselor preparation. For the past several years, she has conducted workshops in the areas of underachievement, group interventions for the prevention of problems in children and adolescents, multicultural issues in education, listening skills for teachers, and the social and emotional concerns of high-ability students, all of these areas related to her own practitioner-oriented research. As a licensed mental health counselor, she also continues to be involved in clinical work with children and  adolescents.