Parenting gifted children

Parenting practices and parent involvement in a child’s education are strongly linked to a child’s educational outcomes and attitudes toward school. Terman and Hollingworth both recognized the importance of family history and continued to collect this background information, including reports on parental education and employment and the home environment. A seminal 1962 study of 400 eminent persons highlighted the importance of parental influence and nurturant forces in the home for fostering the development of children's special talent or abilities. The distinctive challenges that parents of gifted children face should be of interest to researchers as well as to teachers, parents, and to the gifted children themselves. Parental influence refers to goal-directed actions parents take to guide the academic achievement and goals of their child toward selected outcomes; their conscious efforts to manipulate the home environment to foster these expectations; and their use of strategies for monitoring, pressuring, and supporting their child’s achievement. Copyright © 2020 National Association for Gifted Children.