Every October, people national wide celebrate National Book Month. Studies have shown that reading not only improves your vocabulary and spelling, but it鈥檚 also good for your mental health. This October, take some time to pick up a new book you鈥檝e been meaning to read or reread some of your favorites.

Below are some featured readings for parents and educators focused on best practices and strategies for raising and educating a gifted child. These books are listed on 优蜜视频鈥檚 (GRC), which serves as a free online tool created and curated by 优蜜视频 for our community. The resources listed in the GRC are appropriate for gifted learners from preschool through high school.

Comment below with your favorite reads and don鈥檛 forget to hashtag #NationalBookMonth on your social media to keep the reading train going!

The latest research in child development shows that many kids who have the brain and heart to succeed lack or lag behind in crucial 鈥渆xecutive skills鈥�–the fundamental habits of mind required for getting organized, staying focused, and controlling impulses and emotions. Learn easy-to-follow steps to identify your child鈥檚 strengths and weaknesses, use activities and techniques proven to boost specific skills, and problem-solve daily routines. Small changes can add up to big improvements–this empowering book shows how.

Differently Wired is a revolutionary book鈥攚eaving together personal stories and a tool kit of expert advice from author Deborah Reber, it鈥檚 a how-to, a manifesto, and a reassuring companion for parents who can so often feel that they have no place to turn.

In A Mind at a Time, Dr. Levine shows parents and others who care for children how to identify these individual learning patterns. He explains how parents and teachers can encourage a child’s strengths and bypass the child’s weaknesses. This type of teaching produces satisfaction and achievement instead of frustration and failure.

Based on new surveys of nearly 1,500 gifted teens, this book is the ultimate guide to thriving in a world that doesn鈥檛 always support or understand high ability. Full of surprising facts, survey results, step-by-step strategies, inspiring teen quotes, and insightful expert essays, the guide gives readers the tools they need to appreciate their giftedness as an asset and use it to make the most of who they are.

Recognizing the different levels and kinds of giftedness, this book provides an insight into the challenges and benefits specific to gifted children with attention difficulties. Explaining why certain children are gifted and how giftedness is manifested, each chapter on a specific topic addresses the relevance for children with AD/HD, autism and Asperger Syndrome. Lovecky guides parents and professionals through methods of diagnosis and advise on how best to nurture individual needs, positive behavior and relationships at home and at school.

When is life like a prizefight, a garden, and a quiz show, all hurtling down the road on an office chair, wrapped in song? When you’re living in the land of the gifted and twice-exceptional. Join the author on her journey through discovery, understanding, and acceptance, as she copes with the challenges that only the gifted and twice-exceptional can create.

Designed to provide support for the difficult job of parenting and teaching gifted children, this book provides the resource parents and teachers need to not only understand why gifted children are so extreme in their behavior but also learn specific strategies to teach gifted children how to live with their intensity.

In Genius Denied, the Davidsons — founders of a nonprofit institute that provides assistance to gifted children — offer hope and practical advice to parents and students alike. They show parents how to find an appropriate education for their children, when to go outside the school system, and how to create a support network with school authorities and other parents.

Gifted children and adults are often misunderstood. Their excitement is viewed as excessive, their high energy as hyperactivity, their persistence as nagging, their imagination as not paying attention, their passion as being disruptive, their strong emotions and sensitivity as immaturity, their creativity and self-directedness as oppositional. This resource describes these overexcitabilities and strategies for dealing with children and adults who are experiencing them and provides essential information about Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration.

If you鈥檙e making your book purchase on Amazon, please consider using 优蜜视频鈥檚 Amazon Smile as a portion of your purchase will be donated directly to us so we can continue providing high-quality programs and services to gifted and advanced youth nationwide.

Executive skills are those cognitive abilities and habits that allow us to be organized, to plan and implement action.聽 They are essential to being productive and to completing goals and projects.聽 We learn these very early on, from rote (A-B-C鈥檚 and colors) helping us to strengthen our memory, to learning to play well with others in the proverbial sandbox.聽 But what do these skills have to do with our success later in life?聽 How do they translate to a professional environment, aka, 鈥淲hy do I need to learn this?鈥�

A quick survey of professional development experts and their websites tells us that many executive skillsets are common among the differing methodologies.聽 This suggests that improving these functions is precisely what leads to great leadership qualities.

Understood.org¹ lists 8 Key Executive Functions:

Impulse Control

Think before you act, envision the consequences of your actions before the action is taken.聽 Stephen R. Covey, in his seminal work The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People², suggests that we have a choice in how we react to a given situation, and that decision determines the outcome of that experience. This also plays a part in 鈥渄oing what we want鈥� vs. 鈥渄oing what we need to.鈥�

Emotional Control

Remain Calm. It helps to separate emotion from experience; learning to take constructive criticism and alter one鈥檚 trajectory is a huge growth opportunity. Being able to communicate without excessive emotion helps develop trust. It can be seen in Covey鈥檚 tenet, 鈥淭hink Win-Win,鈥� which allows us to consider a circumstance as an opportunity for all parties to be happy with the outcome, rather than a win-lose mentality.

This is also what allows us to Synergize, to work with others for a result that is stronger than if we each acted alone. This skill is of utmost importance in teamwork.

Flexible Thinking

Being flexible, adaptive, and able to modify course based on new information allows us to capitalize on changes to create the best outcome in a project. It helps to Clarify³ the project鈥檚 goals, and then modify as you go based on new information.聽 Another area where being flexible helps one to excel is in listening.聽 Covey recommends that we 鈥淪eek First to Understand – then to be Understood.鈥澛� This enables us to get to the heart of the matter quickly, offering valuable insight for a project鈥檚 completion.

Working Memory

Practicing remembering facts, learning new subject matter, and developing mnemonic devices to assist with retention and recall are excellent ways to develop a stronger working memory.聽 In addition, being organized and utilizing tools and methods to help you remember will make it easier to access key information.

Organization

This, in turn will help you organize your thoughts, to be able to effectively communicate an idea or to plan a project.聽 The first step in David Allen鈥檚 鈥淕etting Things Done鈥� method is to Capture and then Organize information³.

Planning and Prioritizing

Franklin Covey once published a booklet titled How to Eat an Elephant.聽 The booklet outlined steps for success starting with Covey鈥檚 鈥淏egin with the End in Mind.鈥� Being able to envision the end result will help construct a plan for achieving a large or long-range goal.聽 Consider goals and break them down into smaller, bite-sized pieces.聽 Simon Sinek鈥檚 Start with Why⁴ and Brian Tracy鈥檚 鈥淭he Seven Leadership Qualities of Great Leaders鈥�⁵ both speak of Vision.聽 In addition to Strategic Planning, prioritizing and thinking with the big picture in mind, beginning the process with value-based goals helps us Focus on mission-driven decisions, so that our activities will ultimately be effective and satisfying.聽 Covey expresses this by reminding us to 鈥淧ut First Things First.鈥�

Task Initiation

Once all the pieces are in place, one must actually take action!聽 Allen recommends that we Engage³.聽 Covey recommends that we Be Proactive².聽 Sinek and Tracy state Action is the final necessary ingredient for success.聽 Yvon Choinard, founder of Patagonia said, 鈥淭here is no difference between a pessimist who says, 鈥渙h, it鈥檚 hopeless, so don鈥檛 bother doing anything,鈥� and an optimist who says, 鈥渄on鈥檛 bother doing anything, it鈥檚 going to turn out fine anyway.鈥� Either way, nothing happens.

Self-Monitoring

Allen recommends that we Reflect on the outcome of our activity.聽 Did what we do create the result we expected?聽 Are there ways to be more efficient?聽 Regular, routine check-ins allow us to monitor our progress and decide whether we have met milestones on the way to our goals. Covey also advocates for us to take care of ourselves by Sharpening the Saw, as we cannot provide or contribute if we are not healthy mentally and physically.

1. Morin, Amanda. “At a Glance: 8 Key Executive Functions.”聽Understood.org. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.
2. Covey, Stephen. ” 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”聽StephenCovey.com. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.
   1. https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits.php
3. Getting Things Done庐. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.
   1. gettingthingsdone.com
4. Sinek, Simon. 鈥淪tart with Why.鈥� StartwithWhy.com. Web. 27 Jan. 2017
5. Tracy, Brian. “7 Leadership Qualities and Attributes of Great Leaders.”聽BrianTracy.com. 14 Oct. 2016. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.

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