This paper reviews the literature on the families of gifted and talented individuals for purposes of determining the importance of several broad areas in the talent development process. These are the structural or demographic characteristics of the family, family climate or family environment, values espoused by parents, and values enacted by parents. Family climate variables are found to distinguish between individuals who evidence creative achievement versus those who evidence academic achievement. While structural and demographic variables may mirror psychological processes within the family that influence the role of gifted children and interaction patterns with family members, success may be the result of numerous forces. Further research linking the values of parents with child-rearing practices and later child outcomes is clearly indicated.

This paper examines changes in the self-concepts of gifted students over the course of an intensive summer program. Two groups of academically gifted junior high students participated in two separate kinds of summer programs. They completed a differentiated self-concept measure prior to the beginning of the program, on the first day of the program and on the last day. Data analysis focused on whether patterns of change replicate across the two programs. Students showed a decline in academic self-competence over time and a transitory decline in social acceptance. Physical and athletic competence became more positive over the course of the program. Differences were found for males and females. These findings suggest that programs influence different dimensions of student self-concept.

This article reviews the current status of special curriculum for gifted learners and proposes a new perspective for the development of mathematics and science curriculum at grades 6–12. Fundamental to the development of such curriculum is a recognition of the needs of gifted learners for accelerated content within a conceptual framework that incorporates conceptually the current technology. Suggested scope and sequence charts are included that reflect the best curricular models from the 1960's with futuristic concepts and ideas to meet the needs of students today.

For several years, Talent Search programs at five American universities have offered intensive summer experiences for a select group of highly gifted young adolescents in core academic areas. It has been the position of directors of these projects that the experience of attending such a summer program has a profound effect on an adolescent's life. In an effort to examine the overall effects and benefits of this type of programming, the Midwest Talent Search Project at Northwestern University conducted a follow-up study of one hundred of its summer participants. This article describes the procedures used, reports the data collected, and suggests a “benefits model” for further testing among this population of gifted adolescents.