As part of a service-learning project for CI 5319 course in Talent Development Program, Amanda Franklin (President-elect, 2017-2018) led a book study by implementing a small group, round-table discussion with fellow graduate students*. A full article about this process as an exemplar for  PARENT ORIENTATION to giftedness and gifted programming was featured in National Association for Gifted Children’s (NAGC) Parenting for High Potential (PHP).

Franklin, A. & Collins, K.H. (2018). A book study framework to help parents understand giftedness & gifted programming. Parenting for High Potential 7(3), 12-16. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1191470  

A brief description of the book along with chapter-by-chapter social, emotional, and cultural (SEC) themes are provided here.  

What does “giftedness” look like and how can parents go about supporting the social and emotional needs of their gifted children?
In Raisin’ Brains: Surviving my Smart Family, author Karen Isaacson (2002) answered this question by drawing on her experiences as a daughter and mother of gifted individuals. Each chapter revolved around a different aspect of gifted manifestations, whereby Isaacson utilized humor and personal anecdotes about her experiences to offer insight into the complexity of recognizing and nurturing giftedness at different ages (i.e. her elderly parents and 5 children). Isaacson’s exploration into the characteristics, interests, and needs of gifted individual provided an easy-to-grasp, conceptual introduction to giftedness for any parent seeking guidance in nurturing their gifted child.  Each chapter was critically reviewed to offer a brief description of the book in the context of characteristics of giftedness as interpreted by Isaacson. Special attention was given to the significance of and applicability to the SEC needs of the gifted individuals. In addition, a synthesis of the content was linked to identified key terms and themes.

Through her reflections, Isaacson provided the reader with descriptions of important social and emotional (SE) contexts of development. She set the stage in chapter one for possible consequences of ill-supported SE needs of gifted individuals. As part of the introduction, she noted that, after attending a gifted and talented conference with her mother, she came to an enlightened conclusion about her mother’s experience as a gifted individual:

My mother went through her entire childhood, and much her adulthood, wondering what was wrong with her. Now, all of those years of seeing the world differently suddenly made sense. She wasn’t weird; she was intellectually and creatively gifted, and there were people who understood and said it was all right to be that way. (p. 16)

Isaacson’s mother was well into adulthood before she discovered, understood, and received the validation of being a giftedness individual. This story demonstrated the importance of understanding “gifted” as a socialized concept that compels SEC support for identity and talent development (Collins, 2017, 2018; Collins & Grantham, 2017) as well as nurturing of the whole gifted child (NAGC, 2016).

Educational Implications
The authors contend that talent development, with opportunity to engage in strategic experiences, can help to close these asynchronous gaps much sooner. It is extremely important that the gifted child have informed parental guidance as social and emotional support mechanisms. The NAGC’s (2010) Pre-K-Grade 12 Gifted Programming Standards Standard 1 on Learning and Development acknowledges that gifted children have unique and different needs in terms of their learning and development, and these needs should be recognized and supported by family members. Through the PreK12 standards, NAGC encourages educators (and parents as first teacher) to identify and “respond to their needs by planning, selecting, adapting, and creating culturally relevant curriculum” (Standard 3). If not properly understood and supported, gifted students can sometimes be at-risk for misidentification of a deficit label. For example, a gifted child’s “characteristics of intensity, sensitivity, impatience, and high motor activity can easily be mistaken for ADHD” (Webb et al., 2011, p.121). As a result, underachievement may be a symptom of not asking for help. The national organization, SENG (Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted), has an entire initiative related to this very thing (www.sengifted.org).

Conclusion
A study of Isaacson’s experiences in Raisin’ Brains provided valuable insight into the manifestation and needs of gifted individuals within the context social and emotional support. Isaacson’s descriptions of her children and their unique interests and characteristics closely align with the attributes of giftedness identified in research on gifted individuals. All of her children were identified gifted, and they all manifested their gifts differently with different social and emotional needs. It is necessary for parents and teachers of gifted students to be informed about diverse manifestations of giftedness and how to support them. As such, parents also need resources for knowledge and support in their efforts to support their child.

Raisin’ Brains is a great resource to help parents better understand how their child might exhibit giftedness. Participants’ responses in the round-table discussion indicated that the book study model provided them with simple explanations of the complex and diverse concept of giftedness while also offering ways to support the social and emotional needs of gifted individuals.

Summarized Themes and Chapter Excerpts  of Raisin’ Brains by Karen Isaacson (2002).
*Contributing authors included graduate students: Hannah Bricker, Faith Kane, Kelsey Monroe, and Amanda Phillips, and course instructor, Dr. Kristina Henry Collins (as part of service-learning project for CI 5319: Social, Emotional, and Cultural Contexts of Talent Development).

Chapter Title with Key Terms/ Themes	Chapter Summary
Chapter 1: Are you my Mother? Different, Oddness, Musical, Gifted denial, Artist, Creative genius, Einstein, Creativity, Unique ability, Innocent, Eccentric, Wide range of interest, High curiosity level	In this introductory chapter, Isaacson provided the reader with a peek into her childhood and her first non-conceptualized introduction to “gifted” and “talented” through her parents. Retrospectively, she shared the characteristics of giftedness that her mom and dad displayed when she was growing up, providing the reader with a foundation for reading the rest of the book. She introduced them to the reader using the terms identified.
Chapter 2:  What Do You Mean, He’s Reading?  Precociousness, Obsession, Passion, Intelligence-experience gap	Chapter 2 mainly focused on Isaacson’s firstborn son, Stanley, who compelled Isaacson to conceptualize the idea of raising gifted children. Stanley recognized letters at nine months old and was reading at age two with a passion for words and movies. She later reminded the reader that even though a child may be intellectually gifted beyond their chronological years, he or she is still in need of parental guidance and age-appropriate, emotional nurturing. She noted that a gifted child will often have knowledge and information but lack the maturity to know what to do with that knowledge. For example, a child may have an advanced sense of humor with little social experience to understand culturally acceptable tact.
Chapter 3: School Days, School Days Asynchronous development	Isaacson described Stanley’s early experience in school. She illustrated several examples of how schools, for the most part, struggle to support the gifts of students while also accommodating their individual needs. Stanley was an incredibly gifted child, but his motor skill development was lacking. Stanley’s kindergarten teacher felt that he needed to learn how to write his letters before receiving advanced content even though he was capable of reading college textbooks. Isaacson learned to advocate for her son and collaborate with teachers to accommodate Stanley’s intellectual and physical needs.
Chapter 4: Just So I Win Gifted siblings, Emotional intelligence, Motivation, Enhanced, vivid imagination	Isaacson described the natural, unique strengths of her individual children. In this chapter, she explained that Stanley was an intellectual bookworm; Otto was self-motivated, strong-willed, and extremely empathetic; and Magnolia was crafty, independent, and imaginative. Each of them exhibited a proclivity for success in whatever they endeavored, but they went about it in very different ways. Because of this, each child had different needs in terms of their social and emotional development.
Chapter 5: For the Love of Mummies Exceptional memory, Extensive vocabulary, Intense interest, Innate Curiosity, Assimilation of Abstract Ideas	In Chapter 5, Isaacson focused on her youngest daughter, Pandora, who displayed exceptional memory; a “knack” for reciting lines from movies; an affinity for learning new words, phrases, and ideas; and a love of learning with a highly developed curiosity and intense interest. Pandora focused on certain concepts with intense interest that was unexpected for her age. She was introduced to mummies through a book about Egyptians at age 5, and this led to an intense interest with mummies and mummification and, subsequently, to a fascination with death.
Chapter 6: Hocus, Focus Daydreaming, Intense focus, ADHD Misdiagnosis	In this chapter, Isaacson discussed the challenge of focus for gifted children or, conversely, the challenge of unfocus. Stanley was often so lost in thought that he became unaware of things happening around him. Isaacson argued that while many suggest gifted children must learn to focus on the task at hand, it is much more appropriate to suggest that gifted children instead need to learn how to unfocus. she contended that focusing on the running script of thoughts in their head along with having an intense imagination can be a great challenge for gifted individuals, one for which there is no single solution, merely suggestions tailored to the motivations of the individual.
Chapter 7: It’s Only a Test Testing vs. Assessment for Identification, Non-testable traits of giftedness, Skill development	This chapter focuses on the identification process and testing for gifted programming and services. She highlighted parents’ varying abilities to determine whether their child is gifted and what services are appropriate for them. Isaacson posited that testing for identification purposes is not absolute – Otto failed to qualify one year, but then qualified the very next year. As an alternative to test scores, Isaacson listed a series of non-testable traits as evidence of giftedness. She ended the chapter by explaining that schools should be appropriately challenging for gifted students in order to develop other life skills such as study skills, organizational skills, and so on.
Chapter 8: Can You Repeat the Question? Parent expectations and advocacy, Gifted potential, STEM identity, Myths about giftedness, Twice-exceptionality, Leadership-giftedness	In this chapter, Isaacson set the stage for a discussion of one of the most complex and debated issues in gifted education and programming: untapped potential. She started by reflecting on her mom’s unrealized dream of becoming a scientist. Isaacson admitted to yearning for better opportunities for her children to recognize their own capabilities, learning styles, and interests. She discussed her beliefs about the gifted label, and myths about their abilities. In a discussion about Stanley and Magnolia, she revealed other exceptionality characteristics such fine motor skill disorder, mental dexterity, and test anxiety. She introduced the concept of leadership-giftedness as a behavioral trait.
Chapter 9: I Already Know How Perfectionism, Low- and Under-achievement, Gifted self-concept	Chapter 9 expanded on the discussion of motivation (or lack thereof) that was introduced in earlier chapters. Isaacson related motivation and perfectionism to underachievement. In contrast to chapter 1, this chapter provided possible negative consequence of gifted self-concept as result of the gifted label. Isaacson characterized the myth of “all-knowing” as a misplaced identity marker for the gifted individual, contributing lack of motivation to self-perceived “too much” wisdom and common sense as noted in the discussion about her dad. Here, she contended that even though “knowing things” may be what a gifted child is good at, their development still requires nurturing and challenge in order to avoid the potential for boredom, which can lead to low achievement or unhealthy work habits. Because of their perfectionism, the gifted child will avoid any chance of perceived failure.
Chapter 10: I Gotta Be Me   Sensitivity, Sense of Justice, High energy, Acute self-awareness, Talkativeness, Disorganization; Conceptual questioning, Questioning authority and rules; Exceptional reasoning ability; Nonconformity	In chapter 10, Isaacson offered a list of social and emotional characteristics that gifted students might embody. This list is consistent with the common affective and cognitive characteristics of gifted individuals that require SEC support. Characteristics that have been identified are highlighted as key terms for this chapter. Isaacson provided several examples of how these characteristics may manifest in young individuals but also reminded us that gifted individuals are not built from checklists; rather, they are a unique combination of strengths and weaknesses that look different for different individuals. She warned that parents and teachers must identify and appreciate these differences if we want to help gifted individuals be successful. Isaacson confirmed this complexity when she wrote, “I’ve tried to define myself, but there are too many contradictions in my personality” (p. 134). She summed it up beautifully when she wrote that gifted individuals “don’t want to be forced into being someone else” (p. 133).
Chapter 11: Brain Food Creativity	In chapter 11, Isaacson discussed the uniqueness and creative nature of gifted individuals through the lens of her family’s cooking endeavors. She described how she and each of her family members, who approach and experiment with cooking differently, experience success and failure in the kitchen. This narrative iterates the importance of giving gifted children room to experiment, to be creative, and to learn to make their own mistakes.
Chapter 12: Two for the Show  Creative and talent development, Co-curricular programming	In chapter 12, Isaacson addressed the importance of guiding gifted students’ development and understanding of their own creativity and vivid imaginations. She warned that imaginations left unrecognized and unguided can manifest as stifling phobias. Isaacson mentioned two appropriate development programs for gifted students: Odyssey of the Mind and Destination ImagiNation. These programs provide gifted individuals with a ‘safe space’ to quench their insatiable curiosities.
Chapter 13: Great Expectations Goal Setting, Aspirations, Career Awareness & exposure	All five of Isaacson’s children showed signs of giftedness and, as a parent, Isaacson speculated on all of the great endeavors that they would pursue. As she interpreted it, her expectations far surpassed their aspirations. Isaacson concluded that maybe young people develop a strong passion but don’t realize that their potential extends past what seems most obvious. She discussed the importance of exposure and choice.
Chapter 14: Weird Can Be Beautiful Perspective on nurturing identity	In the last chapter, Isaacson noted that gifted individuals seem to “have an intense desire to be accepted as normal, while at the same time, there is an intense fear of actually being normal” (p 173). Through various examples from her personal life, she illustrated a non-traditional perspective on weird,” as the chapter title implies. In her role as a mother, she supported and nurtured each child “to be just exactly who he or she was meant to be” (p 183).