Should you tell gifted kids they’re gifted?

… and why explaining this is a bit like talking about sex.

I’ll admit I can talk easily both about sex education and giftedness, and I suffer no shyness or embarrassment about either. Maybe the giftedness talk is more difficult for you, though, and this piece may help with that. Feel free to share or copy.

This post started as another snippet from a podcast interview with Deborah Ruf (me) by Julia Krysztofiak-Szopa, for Julia’s podcast — Dzieci Zdolne — which means Gifted Children. I’ve provided the link at the end of the post. Right now, I’ve written far more than I had the chance to explain during that interview.

When Julia asked me this question, “Should you tell gifted kids they’re gifted?” my short answer was (and is), “yes.” But the timing of the “telling” is somewhat intricate, so I ended up saying that the experience between child and parent can be somewhat awkward, somewhat like talking to them about sex when they are still young. Now, though, I am taking the time to give you readers a little more support on the issue of “how to tell them.”

Here are quotes and synopses of subjects from both my books (5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options, 2005, 2009, and The 5 Levels of Gifted Children Grown Up: What They Tell Us, 2023) from the longitudinal study and listed at the…