Education
APR 17, 2024

95 Essential Links for the Parents of Gifted Children: Websites & Online Resources in 2024

Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist

Nowadays, one is bound to find several essential links for the parents of gited children. Still, it can be difficult to determine what the next best step is when the time comes to nurture a gifted child’s talents. For instance, many parents and guardians opt to hire experts and do their own online research for supporting their children’s development.

While the effort to supplement expert knowledge with one’s own research is admirable, parents and guardians would do best to take what they read with a grain of salt. Plucker & Callahan (2020) explain that many resources on such topics could be giving out what seems like sound advice that is in reality unsupported by currently available evidence.

To help parents of gifted children, we’ve listed links to reliable articles, websites, apps, and social media resources for information on developing gifted children’s talents.

Essential Links for the Parents of Gifted Children

Articles and Websites
Organizations
Blogs and Forums
Apps
Social Media

While parents would be ecstatic to learn they have a certified gifted child in their family, they would be well advised to approach the situation guardedly. A crucial piece of information they need to consider is that being a gifted child does not guarantee automatic success for the child in question. Indeed, there’s a significant chance that the child could very well fall into the unfortunate 25% of gifted children who become underachievers later on.

95 Essential Links for the Parents of Gifted Children: Websites & Online Resources in 2024

This stark information highlights the fact that raising a gifted child is not all cherry and glory; in fact, it involves quite a few challenges of its own. Parents of gifted children are nevertheless fortunate that a vast number of studies on the subject have shed more light on how best to help gifted children to be the achievers that they could be.

In this article, you’ll find a variety of links to resources about gifted children and their education. We listed below articles, blogs, websites, applications, and other materials that can support the academic training of gifted children.

Articles and Websites

All children are unique, and some of them are born with an intellectual ability that is significantly higher than the average kid. Gifted, talented, and creative children give evidence of high achievement capability in intellectual, artistic, creative, and leadership areas. This is often referred to as giftedness, which the National Association for Gifted Children defines as the children’s ability to demonstrate “outstanding levels of aptitude or competence in one or more domains." (“5 definitions of giftedness," 2019)

Experts believe that there are various areas of giftedness, and they can be divided into six categories: specific academic ability, leadership ability, creative ability, general intellectual ability, psychomotor ability, and visual and performing arts ability (“5 definitions of giftedness," 2019). According to Robert Sternberg and Robert Wagner (1982), gifted children process information more rapidly than other kids of the same age. By using their natural insight abilities and intellectual giftedness, gifted children exhibit superior problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

In one report by the National Association for Gifted Children (“Identifying gifted and talented students," 2016) it was found that between 6-10% of K-12 students are gifted and could use additional support and specialized programs in the classroom. Below is a compilation of useful resources and websites for parents of gifted children.

Top 20 Principles from Psychology for PreK-12: Creative, Talented, and Gifted Students’ Teaching and Learning: Parents can download this PDF to find out more about the most important principles from psychology. This can be used in the context of pre-K-12 classroom learning and teaching, as well as in classroom practices for gifted students.
APA Handbook of Giftedness and Talent: A handbook that incorporates cutting-edge research and the most recent thinking from a broad range of fields that cover gifted education, such as developmental and social psychology, cognitive sciences, neurosciences, and education. It consists of six sections: history and global perspectives on the talent development and gifted field, gifted identification and assessment, theories and conceptions of giftedness and talent development, gifted identification and assessment, psychological considerations in understanding the gifted (e.g., the family, friendships, peer relations, and social and emotional considerations), and special issue facing the gifted (bullying, perfectionism, suicide, policy and legal issues, ADHD and the gifted, the twice-exceptional learner, and underachievement and the gifted.)
Helping Your Gifted Child Succeed: This brochure by the National Association for Gifted Children aims to help parents understand the unique characteristics of gifted children. It also serves as a guide for parents on how they can support their child at home, play, and school, as well as how they can work with schools to ensure that their child is receiving the appropriate educational services.
Considerations and Strategies for Parenting the Gifted Child: This paper provides practical suggestions on how parents can best interact with their gifted children. It offers plenty of recommendations and activities designed to nurture the creative and academic development of gifted children.
The Joy and the Challenge: Parenting Gifted Children, Readings and Resources: This is a helpful resource for parents who need help in understanding the social-emotional traits of their gifted children. With a strong focus on the identification and recognition of academically and intellectually gifted children, this free ebook contains a collection of articles to help parents raise, guide, and support bright, young minds.
Rethinking Giftedness and Gifted Education: Published by the American Psychological Association, this paper provides a detailed discussion about giftedness. Based on literature found in the field of psychological science, this paper covers the following topics: the definition of giftedness, a review on why giftedness is a separate subject matter from educational policies, a summary of controversies surrounding gifted education, as well as an overview of the primary models of giftedness.
Parenting Gifted Children to Support Optimal Development NAGC Webinar Presentation: This resource discusses the characteristics and development that gifted children often exhibit. Based on the idea that the attributes and needs of gifted children vary by child, this material offers guidelines on how best to nurture a child’s problem-solving and critical and creative thinking skills based on age.
Parenting Gifted Kids: Tips for Raising Happy and Successful Children: Presented at the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, this presentation discusses tips and strategies for raising gifted children. It aims to support profoundly gifted young people aged 18 and below.
Parenting the Gifted and Talented Child: This study discusses the perception of mothers about parenting gifted and talented children. Using a qualitative study design, the paper presents several themes based on the unique experiences of eight volunteer mothers. These include the emotional responses, parent protective factors, and misunderstandings about the roles of mothers in raising a gifted child.
Smart Parenting for Smart Kids: Nurturing Your Child’s True Potential: An award-winning book that explains the struggles of parents in raising gifted children. Drawn from the authors’ clinical experiences and various research studies, the book focuses mainly on the most important skills that gifted children need to maximize their potential and grow up as confident, capable, and caring people.
Opening new vistas for talented kids: This article discusses the factors affecting the acceleration of gifted children in an academic setting. It serves as a great tool for parents, educators, administrators, and others to help determine whether to move a child up a grade level.
Myths about Gifted Students: A compilation of the most common myths about gifted education and evidence disproving each of them. By rebutting these myths, parents can come up with better strategies to support gifted children in pursuit of advanced education.
Special Articles on Gifted Children: Compilation: A collection of articles that describe the unique traits of gifted children. It aims to help parents identify whether their child is gifted or not and provides a list of characteristics common to gifted children.
Gifted Children Bill of Rights: A copy of the bill of rights of gifted children as authored by Dr. Del Siegle, former president of the National Association for Gifted Children.
Parenting Gifted Children, Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page: A website where you can find the latest research and experience on raising gifted children. It provides a long list of the best print and Internet resources regarding every aspect of giftedness, as well as totally free resources that teachers and parents can immediately use.
Resources for Parents of Gifted Children, Advanced Psychology Services: A website where you can find various articles about giftedness. Some topics it covers include the unique traits of gifted children, the emotional complexity of a gifted child, tips on raising gifted children, and testing children for creativity.
How Parents Can Support Gifted Children: On this website, you’ll find various links to highly recommended organizations, stores, books, and other materials for gifted kids and teens. With over 2 million visitors per year, this website has been recognized by Psychology Today and the American Psychological Association.
Genius Kids: Signs You’re Raising Gifted Kids: A website providing various articles about raising gifted kids, with a strong focus on the unique characteristics that can help parents tell if their children are gifted or not. It also provides various links and resources that parents can use as guides for raising their gifted children.
Resources for Parenting Gifted Kids, Verywell Family: Verywell Family is a modern website that provides realistic and helpful articles about pregnancy and parenting. With an entire page dedicated to gifted kids, it also serves as a great resource for parents looking for articles on how to identify gifted children and help them with challenges.
Sage Journals, Gifted Child Today: A journal that offers up-to-date information about parenting and teaching talented and gifted children. It contains articles that cover effective teaching approaches and programs for gifted children. It also provides critical information to administrators and teachers involved with gifted children with learning disabilities.
Exquisite Minds: From articles about giftedness to books, games, and movies that promote thinking skills and higher-level learning, this website offers various materials to help cultivate creativity in gifted and talented children. It contains various resources that can be used to support parents and educators in the creative and academic development of gifted kids.
Parent Resources, Illinois Association for Gifted Children: Illinois Association for Gifted Children is an organization that advocates for all talented and gifted children. It provides links to various resources about gifted children, as well as effective programs, practices, and policies that nurture the development of gifted kids
Neuroscience for Kids: Neuroscience for Kids is a website created for teachers, parents, and students who want to learn more about the nervous system. Supported by the National Center for Research Resources, it contains various resources for many aspects of neuroscience, such as the functions of the brain, common methods and techniques used in neuroscience research, and neurological and mental disorders.
Gifted Development Center: Gifted Development Center is an organization that promotes awareness and a better understanding of giftedness through advocacy, research, and development of national policies. Their website contains various resources that focus on the needs of gifted children and adults.
Schools for the Gifted: On this website, you can find a list of schools for gifted children. These schools are recommended by parents of gifted children, with some testing very strictly for highly gifted students.
Mensa for Kids: Mensa for Kids is a website dedicated to providing free, high quality, and diverse educational resources for gifted kids of all ages. It contains various articles that support the education of gifted children.
Davidson Resources Database: This database provides articles, resources, and state policy pages that can help educators, parents, and students to explore various topics on giftedness. It contains extensive resources, including support websites, schools and universities, books, testing, and more.
Gifted Guru Resources for Parents: This website contains tips, ideas, and resources for educators and parents who want to support gifted children. Owned by Lisa Van Gemert, an educator and a gifted child herself, Gifted Guru provides plenty of materials for gifted education.
Science Resources for Young Gifted Children: Created by parents, educators, and family experts, this website offers various articles that cover many aspects of giftedness. You can also find science resources and recommended books, videos, and other learning materials from the website.
Raise Smart Kids: This website provides all kinds of information regarding gifted education. Owned by Maria Aurelia “Chacha" Tumbokon, a degree-holder of Psychology and Early Childhood Development, the website contains detailed discussions on giftedness based on key findings on child psychology and brain research.
The Kids Should See This: A website that holds a collection of kid-friendly videos and learning materials that parents and educators can use to support the education of gifted children. It covers a wide range of topics, from science, technology, art, and engineering to climate science, evolution, and clean energy solutions.
Ted-Ed: A website that supports gifted education through a vast library of animated videos and interactive lessons and presentations. It has separate pages for students, educators, and parents to ensure appropriate content for each individual web visitor.
Parenting Gifted Children: A website that offers experiential training, workshops, seminars, and online classes for parents of gifted children. Owned by Catherine Guener, author of Parenting Young Gifted Children: What to Expect When You Have the Unexpected, the website provides transformative articles and other materials that help parents in raising talented and gifted kids.
Exceeds Expectations Learning: This website offers mentoring and tutoring services for gifted students aged seven and up. It covers a broad range of subject areas, with specialization in gifted and twice-exceptional students. In many of its online classes, it uses a learning approach tailored to the specific needs of each student.
Genius Denied: How to Stop Wasting Our Brightest Young Minds: Genius Denied is an inspiring book that covers various aspects of giftedness. It covers topics to help parents support their gifted children, such as homeschooling and finding the right mentor for their kids. The book also discusses many stories about parents who experienced poor schooling environments for their children and how they overcame challenges and discovered the joy of learning.
Top Summer Camps for Gifted Children: This page lists the most highly recommended summer camps necessarily designed for gifted children. It details the location and the programs offered at each summer camp.
What No One Tells You About Gifted Children Behavior Problems: This website contains a variety of resources dedicated to investigating and addressing issues about the behavioral responses of gifted children. It also provides free resources, informational articles, and affordable ebooks covering the topics about challenges in raising and supporting gifted children.
Types of Enrichment Activities for Gifted Children: This page lists plenty of enrichment activities and specific, honed training for gifted children. To help parents become more reserved with their children’s educational progress, the page serves as an informational resource that focuses on the different types of enrichment activities for gifted children.
10 Reasons Gifted Students Don’t Use Their Full Potential: An article that lists the possible reasons why gifted children could become underachievers. It discusses various scenarios that make it difficult for gifted children to use their full potential, allowing parents to overcome the roadblocks that hinder their children’s full academic capabilities.
Social and Emotional Needs of Gifted Children: California Association for the Gifted is an organization of parents, educators, and community members that provides resources to support the development of talented and gifted children. This paper in particular deals with the unique emotional and social needs of gifted children, helping parents unleash the highest levels of their children’s academic and intellectual potential.
Gifted Children, Babycenter: A digital parenting resource with award-winning and high-quality content reviewed by expert sources, such as pediatricians, obstetricians, midwives, and developmental psychologists. It contains various articles about gifted children and the best practices to support them.
Psychological Misdiagnosis of Gifted and Talented Children: This page talks about the most common misdiagnosis of talented and gifted children and the difficulties that they face in their day-to-day lives. It serves as a guide for parents to better understand the personal traits and academic potential of gifted kids.
ProProfs Brain Games: This is where you can find a variety of online puzzles and brain games for your gifted child. ProProfs is one of the world’s leading platforms for online tests and quizzes, puzzle games, training and assessments.
Nrich: This site offers free curriculum-linked resources that help develop the problem-solving skills and mathematical reasoning of gifted children. You can also find a vast collection of mathematical activities designed to help learners develop their curiosity, resiliency, resourcefulness, and collaboration with others.
IBM Gifted Children Video: A video resource detailing how IBM started supporting gifted children way back in 1939. Upon taking equipment from New York World’s Fair, IBM established a research laboratory for 30 girls and boys who registered to work in the facility.
The School of Life: This YouTube channel provides videos exploring the emotional and psychological lives of gifted children. Through ideas and open discussion, it aims to support the emotional well-being of gifted and talented youth.

Organizations

In many parts of the world, children with learning disabilities experience problems in listening, speaking, writing, reading, and performing math. According to a report by the Center for Disease Control, 5% of children in the U.S. have learning disabilities, while 4% have both a learning disability and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Percentage of Children in the U.S. Who Have Learning Disabilities

As learners, gifted children understand their lessons in more advanced ways. They learn faster compared to their regular learning peers, and they are more likely to draw evidence-based conclusions rather than from explicit observations. For these reasons, gifted and talented students have always been regarded as the responsibility of special education (Munro, 2019). In the U.S., these students may be enrolled in one of the 1,903 special education schools in the country.

Because each child is unique, there is no such thing as a “perfect program" for gifted children. A study by the Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented (Seed, 2018) also reveals that only a small percentage of teachers have a background in teaching academically advanced students, leading to negative attitudes toward gifted education. According to Dr. Kate Burton, a researcher known for her work in gifted education, teachers learn about the educational needs of gifted children in just one lecture and without any significant focus on it (Seed, 2018).

For gifted and talented students to make continuous progress in school, there needs to be an active promotion and establishment of gifted education programs. Organizations supporting gifted children play a special role in ensuring that these programs happen. The Advocacy for Gifted and Talented Students Education, for instance, is committed to passing bills that will give schools the proper funds and resources to support gifted and talented children. You may find similar organizations in the list below:

Center for Gifted Education Policy at the American Psychological Association: This organization is dedicated to improving the performance of gifted children through advocacies, clinical applications, public awareness, and cutting-edge research. Housed in the APA’s Education Directorate, the Center for Gifted Education Policy (CGEP) strongly focuses on PreK-12 education, teaching, and learning for gifted individuals.
Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth: An organization committed to identifying and developing the talents and academic potential of gifted individuals. As a world leader in gifted education, it provides a wide range of programs and services to support parents and educators in the training of children with special gifts and talents.
National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC): Through community building, education, research, and advocacy, the National Association for Gifted Children aims to support the development and growth of gifted and talented youth. It provides various resources for parents and education professionals to help gifted children strive for academic achievements and contribute to their communities.
Duke University Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP): A nonprofit organization serving more than three million gifted students in grades 4 to 12. Founded in the 1980s, the Duke University Talent Identification Program, or Duke TIP, has been consistently involved in research surrounding the educational, social, and emotional factors impacting the lives of gifted and talented individuals.
Gifted Resource Center, Institute for Educational Advancement: A resource center that contains an abundance of information regarding programs, organizations, schools, scholarships, and supplemental opportunities for twice-exceptional (2e) learners. It is also actively involved in research activities concerning gifted education to provide families, students, and education with the most relevant and pertinent information.
The Gifted Child Society (TGCS): A nonprofit organization that provides enrichment services and programs for children born with special gifts and talents. Founded in 1957, The Gifted Child Society, or TGCS, has served over 70,000 gifted individuals in New Jersey and its surrounding areas.
Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG): Established in 1981, this nonprofit organization aims to guide gifted and talented individuals in maximizing their potential as academic achievers. Through education and research, the organization provides the right intellectual and emotional support to talented, gifted, and twice-exceptional learners.
Center for Bright Kids: This organization provides access and opportunities to students with high interest and ability in acceleration programming and quality enrichment. It supports gifted and talented youth in their intellectual, emotional, social, ethical, and personal growth and development.
Governor’s Program for Gifted Children (GPGC): The Governor’s Program for Gifted Children is a program that provides an academic curriculum emphasizing independent projects for groups and individuals. Through this approach, the program aims to maintain and stimulate the interest levels of gifted children.
World Council For Gifted And Talented Children (WCGTC): A global nonprofit organization supporting the development, growth, and education of talented and gifted children of all ages. It is a diverse organization that comprises educators, researchers, scholars, and parents who aim to provide advocacy and support for gifted children.
Gifted Parents: An organization dedicated to establishing a strong global network of parents of gifted children. One of its ultimate missions is building a long-lasting relationship with a community that works for the successful future of kids born with special gifts and talent.
Renzulli Center for Creativity, Gifted Education, and Talent Development, University of Connecticut: One of the leading centers in the world for talent development and gifted education. Through high-quality research and outreach activities, Renzulli Center promotes engagement, enjoyment, and enthusiasm for teachers and gifted students at all educational levels. It is also affiliated with the only federally-funded research center in gifted education in the USA.
List of organizations for the gifted, by state (USA Under “State Associations and State Departments for the Gifted and Talented"): Summer Institute for the Gifted provides a list of programs for the gifted, creative, talented, and high-potential youth. It provides various opportunities to gifted students to develop their current passions and skills and interact with other kids who have the same level of intellectual capacity.

Blogs and Forums

To successfully identify gifted children, it is extremely important for parents to be fully aware of the traits that their children exhibit, as well as the ways in which giftedness can be recognized. According to Joseph Ranzulli (1986), an education leader known for his work in gifted education teaching strategies, gifted and talented kids can be identified using a three-ring conception approach. This emphasizes the interaction between the three basic clusters of human traits that make up Renzulli’s multi-faceted identification system for gifted children: above average ability, creativity, and task commitment.

There are certain characteristics that differentiate gifted children from other kids. Some of these traits include having an early ability to read and understand various nuances in language, periods of intense concentration, early use of advanced vocabulary, keen observation and curiosity, and strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills (“Characteristics and signs of giftedness," n.d.). When a child exhibits one or more of these traits, parents may wish to consult experts and have their children assessed and recognized for giftedness.

In one report published by Purdue University’s Gifted Education Research and Resource Institute, it was found that there are more than 3.3 million children in the United States who are labeled as gifted (“States lag in identifying," 2020). However, the same report reveals that as many as 3.6 million gifted children are not given the right support and resources in their school districts.

Even though most states in the U.S. legally require schools to identify and support gifted children, some don’t have the money and resources to do so. In many instances, gifted children can only rely on parents and specialized programs for support and training. Here are some blogs and forums that contains various articles and online resources for parents of gifted students, enabling them to best understand the behavioral and intellectual characteristics of gifted children:

Gifted Issues Discussion Forum: A discussion forum where you can share and post experiences and information about research, advocacies, and other relevant gifted education issues. This site is affiliated with the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, a nonprofit organization that supports gifted students through scholarships and fellowship programs.
Children First, Gifted Second: A blog that shares helpful parenting advice and optimistic perspectives in raising gifted children. It provides information and resources related to the unique characteristics of children with special gifts and talents and the challenges in supporting their intellectual and emotional needs.
Hoagies’ Blog Hop: Gifted 101: This blog welcomes parents and educational professionals who need help in understanding the distinctive personalities and needs of gifted learners. It has a long list of online resources related to gifted education.
Parents of Gifted Children Resource Group: An association of parents with personal experience in raising gifted children. Based in Delaware, United States, it aims to provide resources concerning giftedness and the challenges faced by parents in supporting the intellectual and psychological development of their children.
Byrdseed: This blog is made for teachers working with gifted and talented children. It provides helpful tips and advice to teachers to hone their craft and master the art and science of teaching gifted kids.
TED-Ed Blog:An award-winning educational platform and one of the most followed blogs for youth and education initiatives. It features various articles and animated lessons on various educational topics for teachers and students.
Parenting Gifted Children Blog: A blog dedicated to helping parents connect with their gifted children. It serves as a helpful resource for those who want to have a better understanding of the social and emotional characteristics of gifted children.
Unwrapping the Gifted: One of America’s most trusted resources for K-12 and gifted education. This blog tackles various topics regarding giftedness, such as the common misdiagnosis of gifted children and other insights, ideas, and resources for nurturing bright, young kids.
r/Gifted: A Reddit community that welcomes anyone who wants to learn more about giftedness. It encourages open-minded and respectful dialogue and discussions about gifted children and the best practices to support their intellectual and personal growth.
Reddit>>Gifted: A collection of Reddit discussions covering various aspects of giftedness. From the unique traits of gifted children to finding the right schools to support their education, this page contains up-to-date and relevant information to guide parents and educators working with gifted children.

Apps

Gifted or talented individuals are known to have a keen power of abstraction and great interest in problem-solving and applying concepts. Their minds are always racing, and may easily become bored with unchallenging and repetitive lessons.

Thanks to technology, there are now many mobile applications that children can use to support their education. In a report published in The Bible App for Kids (“5 mobile app statistics," 2017), 59% of parents agree that mobile devices support the engagement of children with their lessons in school.

As part of the essential links for the parents of gifted children, here’s a quick list of popular educational apps to keep gifted children engaged:

DIY.org Creative Challenges: An educational app that allows kids to access a vast library of project ideas and tutorial videos. Kids can choose from different categories, such as photography, drawing, animation, designing, and cooking.
codeSpark Academy: An app filled with challenging drag-and-drop coding puzzles. It aims to introduce kids to the basics of programming through visual blocks of code.
Dotopedia: Dotopedia improves the learning abilities of kids through various audio, visual, and written content. It provides a fun way for children to learn and apply their knowledge to accomplish challenging activities.
Busywater: A leveled puzzle game that challenges kids to apply basic physics principles in completing various tasks. With over 100 levels, the application aims to enhance the problem-solving skills of children aged 6 and above.
The Foolish King: An application that introduces kids to the game of chess. It contains an 80-page ebook detailing the origin of the game of chess as well as explanations on how to use each of the chess pieces.
Storybird: An app that lets kids unleash their creativity and create personalized stories. With a free membership, kids can create and share books and poems, whereas a paid subscription entitles them to additional writing tips and other benefits. Learning through digital storytelling can be beneficial especially since the method has been found to improve writing and presentation skills.
Wizard School: Formerly called WonderBox, Wizard School combines drawing, videos, and interactive challenges to engage kids with learning materials appropriate for their age. It comes in various categories that kids can choose from, such as music, sports, and science. Interactive lessons are useful especially since interactive learning is said to enhance knowledge retention.
Zoombinis: A math and logic game designed to help kids explore, develop theories, and test their ideas. It is intentionally built with no instructions or tutorials to make puzzles more complex and more challenging for gifted children.
Garageband: A multi-track recorder and digital music workstation that helps kids create songs and soundscapes. It has features for playing virtual instruments (guitars, strings, basses, drums, and keyboards), sequencing high-quality pre-recorded loops, and editing musical performances.
Lumino City: A mystery and adventure puzzle game featuring a lush and vibrant world with a wily young woman called Lumi as the protagonist. In a quest to save her grandfather who was mysteriously kidnapped, players must solve tricky puzzles that will test their pattern recognition, persistence, and hypothesis testing.

Social Media

Over the years, the importance of values and attitudes of parents toward their gifted children have been underscored by many researchers. Colangelo and Parker (1979) stated that values determine the extent and quality of cooperation and communication between parents and their children, thereby affecting the academic achievement and social adjustment of the child. Additionally, parents are expected to encourage gifted children in pursuing creative interests and activities outside of their home.

Studies suggest that parental motivation for gifted children can greatly affect a child’s development and motivation to learn. In the case of gifted children, parents play a vital role in instilling self-confidence and developing a positive attitude towards learning. By placing greater emphasis on the value of learning, parents can easily facilitate the social and educational development of gifted youngsters (“Review of research," n.d.).

One of the most common methods by which parents support gifted children is through the use of reading materials (“Review of research," n.d.). Cheyney (1962) reveals that parents primarily use reading materials to foster the intellectual abilities of gifted children.

The latest social media research reveals that many parents find social media as an effective platform to discover resources and engage with other parents about raising gifted children. According to The Infinite Dial 2019 (“Moms on social media 2019,"), 81% of U.S. moms on social media use Facebook as an informative platform about parenting topics.

Below is a compilation of useful social media platforms where you can find great articles and various resources that you can use to support the training of your gifted child:

National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC): The official Twitter account of the National Association for Gifted Children where you can find the latest news, events, and featured articles about giftedness. With more than 18,000 followers worldwide, the account serves as a helpful resource for those who are interested and want to support the development of gifted children.
Gifted Unlimited: A U.S.-based account dedicated to the dissemination of informational materials to inform and inspire the gifted experience. It contains tweets on the latest news and events in the field of giftedness, as well as research-based publications, podcasts, and regional gatherings.
Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG): The official Twitter account of nonprofit organization Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted. It features various articles on giftedness and retweets relevant events and programs for gifted individuals.
Gifted Guru: Lisa Van Gemert is an author, educator, and a gifted student with a strong commitment and passion for teaching gifted kids. Head to her feed to hear more of her tips and advice in parenting bright, young kids.
Davidson Institute: A nonprofit organization with various programs, events, and activities for gifted children. You can follow their account for news and announcements regarding the projects and services offered by the organization.
Gee4GiftedEd: An account dedicated to raising awareness about gifted children and their potential as academic achievers and talented individuals. You can follow them for updates on the latest giftedness programs.
Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented (TAGT): A Texas-based association committed to providing gifted education articles, checklists, templates, video presentations, and lesson plans. It aims to empower parents and educators in meeting the unique needs of talented and gifted individuals.
Jo Freitag: Author of Sprite Site blog and coordinator at Gifted Resources. Follow this account for group chats and Zoom meetings that support the homeschooling of gifted students.
Institute for Educational Advancement: One of the leading organizations for gifted and talented individuals aged 2 to 18. Discover important events and other relevant information about gifted education when you follow this account.
Teach A Gifted Kid: Angie is a retired GT specialist and teacher with 15 years of experience working with gifted learners. Follow her account for tips and advice on raising and supporting the development of gifted children.
Prufrock Press: Turn to this Twitter account for reliable resources in understanding, supporting, and empowering gifted children in school, at home, and beyond. Prufrock Press is the nation’s leading resource for gifted education, advanced learning, twice-exceptional learners, and special needs students.
Gifted Matters: Learn more about QUASIE (quirky, anxious, sensitive, intense, and excitable) learners by following this Twitter account. Gifted Matters is made up of well-trained and specialized professionals who have personal experience with parenting and homeschooling of gifted students, twice exceptional learners, and students with learning disabilities.
CT Gifted: An association of parents, students, families, teachers, and advocates for gifted, talented, and high-potential children in Connecticut and other surrounding areas. You can follow their account for updates on upcoming events and programs for gifted youth.
Gifted Unlimited: Head to this Twitter account to find the latest updates on quality, research-based podcasts, publications, regional gatherings, and other informational resources that support the development of gifted and talented youth. Gifted Unlimited is an association of professionals and authors who have released several books and papers on the topic of guiding and nurturing talent.
JAGC Jeffco Gifted: The official Twitter account of Jefferson County Association for Gifted Children. It promotes information about the educational and social-emotional needs of gifted learners.
Parenting Gifted Children: This Facebook page is for sharing up-to-date and relevant information about raising gifted and talented children. You can also join the group to have discussions with other parents concerning all things related to the intellectual and emotional growth of gifted kids.

The Challenge in Raising Gifted Children

There are numerous ways to support gifted children, but it’s often not so straightforward. It’s a lot of responsibility, and supporting them until they reach their maximum potential can be a lot harder than it looks. For parents, raising gifted children is no easy task, and it takes a vast amount of patience and persistence to help their children understand what it means to learn in more advanced ways compared to their peers.

Nonetheless, parents of gifted children should know that they’re not alone in supporting their children. As this compilation of essential links for the parents of gifted children shows, there are hundreds of resources on the web that can help every step of the way, from information to advice and education resources that can support and encourage a gifted child’s special abilities.

Of course, raising gifted children are not the concern of parents only. A nation is only as good as it invests in the future of all its citizens. Education is always a given in this regard. If you see yourself as an educator, you will likely cover dealing with gifted children while pursuing childhood development careers.

References:

14 educational learning disability statistics and facts HealthCareers. (2020, June 21). HealthCareers. https://healthcareers.co/learning-disability-statistics/
5 definitions of giftedness. (2019, August 14). Institute for Educational Advancement. https://educationaladvancement.org/blog-5-definitions-of-giftedness/
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