Video: Nurturing the Highly Capable Child

Nurturing the Highly Capable Child: Perspectives on Gifted Education

Gifted child Q&A with Nancy Hertzog, Ph.D., Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Washington
From the 3-year-old who reads at a higher level than his school-age siblings and knows all the state capitols to the introverted, late-blooming artist who struggles in school, being “gifted” may not always look like the stereotype of the precocious geek.

So, what does giftedness really look like and how can parents and teachers of highly capable children best nurture their gifts and social-emotional health?

Topics covered in the video include:

Characteristics and abilities of a highly capable child that parents should look for and encourage
Basis for having your child tested — or not
Consideration factors for choosing an education environment for a child identified as highly capable
Social-emotional needs of gifted children
How parents can best involve themselves in supporting their highly capable child
Perspectives from gifted education that inform education for all children
Qualities that mark an exceptional teacher of highly capable children
Support systems available to help highly capable children and their families thrive
Cultivating autonomy and independence in highly capable children
And more

About Nancy Hertzog, Ph.D.
Dr. Hertzog received her masters’ degree in Gifted Education from the University of Connecticut and her Ph.D. in Special Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on curricular practices and policies in the field of gifted education. From 1995 to 2010 she was on the faculty in the Department of Special Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She joined the University of Washington in 2010 as a professor in the area of Educational Psychology, and is the Director of the Halbert and Nancy Robinson Center for Young Scholars.