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High IQ Kids: Collected Insights, Information, and Personal Stories from the Experts

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High IQ Kids- Collected Insights, Information, and Personal Stories from the Experts is not a guidebook on how to raise a profoundly gifted child. It is, rather, a collection of deeply moving personal experiences from parents of highly to profoundly gifted children packaged together with professional observations from some of the world's foremost experts on these children. Children who are twice exceptional are given center stage, which is not surprising, as Kiesa Kay, the project's originator, is a well known champion of children who are both profoundly gifted and also learning disabled or challenged. Kay is co-editor of the book, along with Deborah Robson and Judy Fort Brenneman.

High IQ Kids is for both parents and for educators who may be searching for answers as to how to address the needs of a child who is "way out there" on the far right of the bell curve. Stories alternate between touching and humorous; informative and inspirational. Unfortunately, there is no single "right" way to raise and educate these enigmas. Highly gifted children are different both inside and out, and they tend to learn in a manner that is unusual; not just faster than the norm.

I particularly loved Annemarie Roeper's chapter on the SAI model of education. Roeper says, "Giftedness includes heart and soul and is not limited to intelligence and achievement." I find her ideas on education and life for profoundly gifted kids to be very uplifting. She views gifted individuals holistically, and not just as a set of numbers on a test.

Carolyn K., founder of the number one online resource for and about gifted children, Hoagie's Gifted, outlines her family's struggles with school advocacy. Eldest child "Dolphin" is followed through the ups and downs of her public school career. As one with some insider information, I believe it would enhance the story to have included details of Dolphin's more recent success with early college.

"Normal Kids Don't Quack" by Cathy Marciniak is a hilarious look at life with high IQ children. Cathy muses, "My life is full of things that other parents can't relate to." A baby who quacks, a seven year old who wonders if she should pick up her beanie babies in a, "sequential, chronological,or alphabetical" order... normal is a relative term, isn't it?

Annette Revel Sheeley and Linda Silverman collaborate on a chapter titled, "Defining the Few" which opens the book and sets the stage for later reading with a clear description of the various levels of giftedness. This entire book is based upon the "old" SBLM standards, so referenced IQ scores are on a scale that measures beyond two hundred. Sheeley and Silverman continue to recommend the Stanford Binet form L-M for children who have taken a more modern IQ test and scored 99th percentile on two or more subtests. These more commonly used tests, such as the Wechslers, have an upper limit of 160.

An excellent piece on homeschooling profoundly gifted children by Kathryn Finn might just nudge parents on the fence into giving it a try. Homeschooling has become a commonplace educational solution for gifted kids, and it offers many advantages.

There are many other notable contributors to High IQ Kids, including Dierdre Lovecky, Karen Rogers, Sally Reis, Miraca Gross, and Stephanie Tolan.

High IQ Kids: Collected Insights, Information, and Personal Stories from the Experts

I really like this book with all the different perspectives it offers from its many different writers. Its biggest plus point is that it draws from a vast variety of writers with articles ranging from good to really great. I would highly recommend this book to anyone with a suspected HG+ child. It was also personally illuminating, reflecting back on my own childhood difficulties and how some of them could have been avoided...

There are many books on this subject. This one is a collection of essays, and as such has "highs and lows". There were some essays I found "spoke to me" and informed what I feel and know to be true about high IQ kids and adults; others were either flat or not terribly informative. I am happy to have this in my collection, to draw on, but it isn't my "go to" book.

"High IQ Kids: Collected Insights, Information, and Personal Stories from the Experts", Edited by- Kiesa Kay, Deborah Robson & Judy Fort Brenneman, Free Spirit Publ., Minneapolis, MN, 2007. ISBN 13: 978-1-57542-261-9, PC 360/370. Index 7Pgs. and Ref./Notes at end of 30 Chaps.

The three authoresses, collectively, have background in journalism, writing and/or teaching skills, but more importantly, each have raised high-IQ kids, which impart first-hand knowledge to these writings.

This book of four sections begins with discussion of numerical assignments, chiefly IQ assessments that distinguish "gifted" children, various types of intelligence tests, their content and level groupings within and commentary on limitations of groupings. There is some general acceptance that average IQ range values are 90-109, High Average 110-119, Superior 120-129, Gifted 130-144, Highly Gifted 145-159, Exceptionally Gifted 160-174 and Profoundly Gifted 175+. Reference to scores of 191 or >200 are rarely made, but these unusual cases requires other test procedures but recognize calculations with SB L-M and modified MA/CA x 100. Though these IQ values appear to be constructs of GIA scores, there are subtypes of differential cognitive abilities where "asynchrony" or uneven development of abilities is commonplace and must be searched for. For example, there may be profound giftedness in mathematics but blunted by diminished competencies in writing skills, etc. Somewhat akin, a separate disorder is "twice-exceptional giftedness" where a major deficit or weakness coexists as ADHD, EBD, OOD or a LD (learning-disability) to obscure or depress exhibition of the high general intelligence.

Emphasis on the learning hurdles encountered by gifted children is the highpoint of this book: - the impact on/by their peers, teachers, principals, parents and their subsequent personal and social integration, whilst maximizing scholastic performance is usually a rocky road, largely uncharted and involves sacrifices at every encounter. Maximizing use of available resources, "speaking out" for these children, home schooling, tutoring, being observant for their special needs can/will be rewarding. Given the choice of having a child who is "brilliantly normal" or "abnormally brilliant", which would you choose? You have to be careful of what you wish for, but also generous and willing to sacrifice in either case. This is a good book for all parents with school age children. It is not overtly technical; it is highly instructive and covers most of the A to Z's that govern learning tactics of schools in America. Timelier now since the recent announcement of major changes in "No Child Left Behind" policy by the Administration.

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I love the book and reading so many different perspectives from well known experts as well as parents, teachers, and individuals. It provides a lot of information and resources. Especially good at understanding highly, exceptionally, and profoundly gifted children.

As is already stated here it is a collection of personal anecdotal accounts and articles by both parents of highly+ gifted children and internationally recognised leaders in the field of gifted psychology and education such as Dr Linda Silverman and Dr Miraca Gross. I found this book to be the most helpful of any book I have read. I believe this is due to the many personal accounts that enable the reader to gain a real insight into the experience of being either a parent of a gifted child or a gifted person. With this book I was finally able to identify that my daughter was most likely much more highly gifted than had been indicated by modern IQ tests. It was through the descriptions written by parents of children who had been found to be exceptionally or profoundly gifted using older tests that I was able to see how my daughter fitted into the range of intellectual ability. I was then able to approach a consultant who qualitatively assessed my daughter's level (as the older test SB-LM was not available to us) and assisted me with advocacy to obtain an acceleration in school. This book is one of the few that assists parents with the needs of children in the highly to profoundly gifted range. There are few books around that describe these children. The modern IQ tests are of little assistance to this population because the extent of their abilities cannot be identified using them. There is a great deal of confusion about levels of giftedness amongst educators and even psychologists who practice in this field. The highly+ gifted therefore go unrecognised and are at a very high risk of education failure and long term psychological problems. This is truth because I have seen the depression, suicide, alcoholism and drug use, misdiagnosis and life-long suffering of these people. My favourite 'article' and the most helpful to me was Marilyn Walker's 'Too Smart for School'. I found such similarlities between her experiences and mine. It is this kind of identification with the experiences of others that can be so helpful to parents who are struggling with even identifying just what is going on with their child. Congratulations to the editors of this book. I highly recommend it.