​James Webb on Parenting Gifted Kids

MVGATE co-hosted the celebrated Dr. James Webb, founder of SENG, in Mill Valley to speak on parenting gifted children. Watch his entire workshop in our home-shot video (94 minutes), or use the annotated Index below to jump straight to your most urgent questions. 

Index

Part I: Resources & Background on Dr. Webb

• Email questions to Dr. Webb. Definition of “gifted.” (5:25)
• Publishers that focus on resources for gifted children (7:45)
• SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted) organization (8:30)
• Gifted kids and suicide (not more common except in some cases) (9:30)

Part II: Parenting a Gifted Child

• The parenting experience (11:57)
• A Universal trait of gifted kids: intensity (12:30)
• The most frequent concerns of Parents. (13:38 to 30:00). [Is my child gifted? Matching school-curriculum to the gifted child. Intensity. Perfectionism. Idealism, unhappiness and depression. Motivation and underachievement. Sibling issues. Peer relation issues. Asynchronous development/curriculum challenges, and judgment vs. intellect. Communication issues & two biggest takeaways (24:45). Discipline and self-discipline (dealing with strong wills, power struggles). Values and traditions.]

Part III: Useful Web Sites (30:04).  Define “gifted” (30:45)

Part IV. Frequent problems with gifted kids (34:00)
Characteristic health problems, including “One of the best-kept secrets in the gifted literature” (38:30)

Part V: Characteristics of gifted kids (45:35)

Part VI: Four key factors (54:28): level of giftedness, asynchronous development, over-excitability, thinking style (60:06)
Question re dyslexia & 2E (72:32)

Part VII: Five over-excitabilities – intellectual, imaginational, emotional, psychomotor (and ADHD misdiagnosis), sensual. (73:30)  Manage them so they work for you, not against you.

​Part VIII: Audience questions

• Siblings of gifted kids (79:46)
• How to have productive dialog with school or teacher (83:02); parents must become leaders (87:46)
• Emotional needs (self-esteem, self-confidence) in 2E (88:09)
• Enrichment vs. acceleration, grade-skipping, home-schooling, etc.  (90:17)