Psychologist, educators parents, and researchers have described greater-than-typical sensitivities, intensities, and awareness in the development and life experiences of gifted individuals. In highly–profoundly gifted individuals, these differences are distinctly different and are often marked by early and rapid development across emotional, intellectual, imaginational, psychomotor, and sensory profiles.
This first-of-its-kind research-based resource explores the lives of highly and profoundly gifted children, adolescents, individuals, and families across time and cultures, offering an authentic portrayal of giftedness and what it truly means to be highly–profoundly gifted. Experts from around the globe contribute understandings that can be applied to the identification and support for the continuum of giftedness. Published by Gifted Unlimited.
Available Worldwide — International Contributors From the United States of America, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, South Korea, France, Finland, Ireland, Turkey, and Slovenia.
Expert Reviews
A remarkable and long-overdue contribution to gifted education. This book brilliantly combines research-based insights with real-world stories from families worldwide, offering the first comprehensive look at highly to profoundly gifted children since Miraca Gross’s seminal work. The authors’ integration of developmental theory with practical guidance creates an invaluable resource for understanding these exceptional learners’ unique social-emotional needs. Every educator, psychologist, and parent working with highly to profoundly gifted children needs this book.
Keri M. Guilbault. Ed. D., Associate Professor and Director, Study for Exceptional Talent, Johns Hopkins University and Center for Talented Youth (CTY)
This book highlights how being different from the average is simply another way of being human, and it brings this to life with vivid examples and powerful testimonials from experts and parents.
Szilvia Fodor, Ph. D., Psychologist, Vice President, European Council for High Ability (ECHA)
A courageous and timely book that combines bold truths with a call to give profoundly gifted children the peers, mentors, and opportunities they need to truly thrive.
Iseult Beets, Ph. D., Neuropsychologist
I highly recommend this book for those who want to learn and read more about giftedness. Even thought the focus is on highly–profoundly gifted individuals, I see it as very rewarding for those interested in giftedness in general. I would like to use the first two parts as course material in a course on giftedness. These parts provide understanding and knowledge, well-founded in research about the gifted individual.
Elisabet Mellroth, Ph. D., Karlstad University, Sweden, President, International Group for Mathematical Creativity and Giftedness
This is the best book I have ever read on the highly—profoundly gifted. Comprehensive, well-researched, and engaging, this read will expand your understanding of the “lion” poised inside every exceptional child and will help you navigate the unique characteristics at play in these special minds.
Jenny Grant Rankin, Ph.D, Author of Engaging and Challenging Gifted Students, Columnist for Psychology Today
Vanessa R. Wood, Els De Wit, and their contributors not only gave the readers clear and concise explanation of high-profound giftedness but also offer a comprehensive and equitable framework for identifying giftedness and highly-profoundly gifted individuals. The richness and beauty of this book is that allows readers to look with a wide perspective on giftedness from theoretical perspective based on Dabrowski Theory of Positive Disintegration, on a historical and socio-cultural perspective, and on exploration the lives of highly and profoundly gifted individuals across time and culture. I highly recommend this book to parents and educators who wish to recognize the signs of profoundly giftedness in their children and learn how to activate their development to the complex and richer and higher levels.
Krystyna Laycraft, Ph.D., The Center for C.H.A.O.S. Studies
This compelling book shines a much-needed light on our most gifted learners, filling a two-decade void in the literature. Through powerful case studies and multicultural perspectives, the authors move beyond traditional IQ measures to reveal the complex developmental paths of highly to profoundly gifted children.
Keri M. Guilbault. Ed. D., Associate Professor and Director, Study for Exceptional Talent, Johns Hopkins University and Center for Talented Youth (CTY)
“So THAT’s why my child acts like that!”
This book is a first of its kind in multiple aspects.
First, it is unique in the international focus of having a broad range of countries included for highly-profoundly gifted individuals.
Second, it goes into considerably more detail of how highly-profoundly giftedness is perceived in history than any other non-case study document I have seen.
Third, the book is unique in the amount and variety of examples of how highly-profoundly giftedness manifests. Some of these manifestations I had never seen documented previously in the gifted literature, adding information that has yet to be properly documented elsewhere.
On this note, the book also does a great job in reminding readers in all chapters to see the highly-profoundly gifted individual for the full person they are rather than just their intellect.
Lastly, the book brings up a very important point I rarely see documented elsewhere for this subgroup of giftedness. As many countries across the world continue to ignore this level of giftedness, we are slowly losing some precision within the higher categories of giftedness. This means that unintentional partial homogenization of this small subpopulation may occur despite the fact that all researchers and authors of those who focus on this group explicitly discourage this. There are still ways around this (such as out of level testing), but this can be difficult for educators to get on board with using due to misconceptions and myths about giftedness.
For those contemplating buying the book, I would highly recommend that you buy the book. It’s well researched, fairly easy to read, and gives a unique perspective that is desperately needed. For educators, this is a great book to learn about the highly-profoundly gifted. For parents, this will make you go “So THAT’s why my child acts like that!”. Chapters 10 and 12 will be especially useful for parents. For laymen who are just curious about the population, this book covers all of the crucial areas of the highly-profoundly gifted and gives you additional resources for you to learn more.
My only minor criticism is that I wished the metacognition of the profoundly gifted was more documented in the book. While documented (and goes into some detail), I felt that the chapter that focused on metacognition should have been at least doubled in length. Overall, I give the book a 5/5 and convinced a friend to buy it. I only hope that this book spurs more research that is desperately needed for the highly-profoundly gifted.
Reader’s Review