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Roeper Review
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Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students: Helping Kids

Cope With Explosive Feelings
Chelsea A. Harris
Published online: 28 Mar 2012.

To cite this article: Chelsea A. Harris (2012) Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students: Helping Kids Cope With Explosive
Feelings, Roeper Review, 34:2, 133-134, DOI: 10.1080/02783193.2012.660788

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 Roeper Review, 34:133–134, 2012
Copyright © The Roeper Institute
ISSN: 0278-3193 print / 1940-865X online
DOI: 10.1080/02783193.2012.660788
BOOK REVIEW
Anne N. Rinn, Book Review Section Editor
Fonseca, C. (2011). Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students:
Downloaded by [TCU Texas Christian University] at 12:10 11 December 2014
Helping Kids Cope With Explosive Feelings. Waco, TX:
Prufrock Press. (211 pp., $19.95 paper, ISBN-13: 978-1-
59363-490-2)
For many, raising a child is duplicitous in nature; oftentimes
it is as vexing as it is rewarding. A parent spends just as
many hours pulling at her hair in frustration as she spends
reflecting and tracing the edges on her son’s Mother’s Day
present. As parents, we realize that our children may all be
different in the big picture, but there is a common thread in
all child-rearing experiences; there are instances of behavior
that, good or not so good, are not unique to any particular
population of child. There will be tantrums and tears from
any given toddler, and teenagers as a whole are renowned
for their moody and ephemeral natures. However, there are
also issues that are specific to children who fall within the
category of the “gifted and talented.”
Author and school psychologist Christine Fonseca
attempts to cover the unique issues and instances that can
come about due to a child’s gifted nature. Many beliefs
and assertions exist with regard to a gifted student that do
not hold true, yet these views remain popular, often to a
student’s detriment. In her book, Fonseca addresses three
specific examples of popular myths involving gifted students.
First, she asserts that more work does not necessarily equate
to appropriate challenge for gifted students and that not all
students have a propensity for giftedness. Second, she states
that despite a few drawbacks, grade acceleration can pro-
vide the necessary environment that gifted students require.
Finally, she maintains a focus on what a parent can do to help
his or her child, through coaching and cues, to not only better
assimilate into the world but to grow within its boundaries.
The persons who would best benefit from this are pur-
ported to be parents, and it is an assessment with which
I would agree. Much of the book contains strategies geared
specifically toward instances that occur within a domestic
sphere, where emotional ties are much deeper in a much
narrower space. Clashes are inevitable when personalities
rub under a single roof, and there are some truly helpful
techniques proposed by the author that would provide a sta-
bility and understanding between parents and their gifted
children, something that parents who operate without this
information may not be able to simply provide off-hand.
Reading the book requires no background knowledge, other
than the acknowledgement that giftedness is a possibility for
one’s child. However, the book alleges that it can also help
teachers to be more effective in their dealings with students.
To a degree, this could also be true. However, oftentimes the
book fails to pause and remember the sheer demand on teach-
ers and the possibility of strained relationships between a
child’s teachers and his or her parents. Though the emotional
detachedness that the book often relies on for the resolution
of the fabricated conflicts could be better served in a situation
where an adult is not so emotionally tied to a child, such as
a teacher, Fonseca only makes blanket statements that exist
outside of a scenario that indicate “the child does behave dif-
ferently in the two settings” (p. 82). The coaching examples
for both parties seem poorly differentiated, and oftentimes
the child in both scenarios “reacts” in an almost identical
fashion.
In fact, these strategies are both where the book shines
and where it labors the most. Fonseca authored this novel
“in conversational style,” and she mostly adheres to this sim-
ple, commonsense discussion of the contents of the book.
The information provided is handled in a very up-front man-
ner; she understands that parents want to know what is going
on with their children, and immediately after that they will
want to know exactly how to fix the problem. With little to
no “fluff,” she keeps the flow of the book consistent and con-
stant with a definite focus. However, as I continued to read,
her psychological background really came to the forefront,
and it created a strange mixture of language that ranged from
overly simplistic terms such as “angry” or “sad” to more ele-
vated terms such as “facilitation,” though the overall effect
is minor. Fonseca also includes worksheets within the chap-
ters for children and parents to complete. Though they may
indeed be helpful, these worksheets and the accompanying
checklists create a sensation of a relationship being forged
through clinical trials. There is a sense of detachedness,
 134 BOOK REVIEW
which upon examination of Fonseca’s stance of confronta-
tion may be intentional. Throughout the book, she asserts
that emotional detachment is absolutely necessary in conflict
and reiterates this whenever she presents a conflict situation.
This book attempts to cover a wide swathe of topics, rang-
ing from dually gifted children to perfectionism. Though
there are many topics to cover, many are achieved in just
enough depth to be beneficial to a parent without miring the
information within the confines of research technicalities.
Fonseca touches lightly on each one in turn, attempting
to indicate just how these individual factors can affect the
behavior and reactions of a child and how best to go about
diffusing tense situations and ensuring success. The chap-
ters are grouped into three separate parts with information
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funneling from general topics down to the specific strate-
gies for dealing with issues pertaining to gifted children.
Each chapter deals with a specific focus and attempts to
progress naturally in keeping with the overall construction
of the book. First, an overview is presented, often with care-
ful attention to the impact it has on the child, and then a
conflict situation is described, after which the author details
how best to deal with the topic. However, some confusion
occurs if the author attempts to backtrack and tie in other
aspects from different chapters. This only occurs once with
the topic of extroversion/introversion, but it is enough to
slow the pace of the book. There is also some awkward-
ness in the arrangement of the chapters because there is no
apparent reasoning as to how the chapters are ordered within
a section. This, too, affects readability and sometimes slows
the flow of information.
Though it is not without issues, this book is an excel-
lent starting point for parents of gifted children who may
be experiencing problems with behavior or at school or for
teachers who are interested in better serving their gifted
and/or twice exceptional students. This book is not meant as
a final word in the matters that plague a gifted child, but it is
meant as a guide to help in the recognition of such needs and
intends to provide a workable solution to those instances that
do occur. Though it may be limited in its immediate avail-
ability for use, meaning that you cannot read this book and
immediately apply these strategies and see results, it does
propose some very functional, if impersonal, suggestions for
behavior modification and overload relief. Written in a style
that attempts to be nonthreatening and helpful, rather than
in a style that tends to dictate, it is an approachable piece of
work that lends itself easily to the populations in which it
seeks to be most effective.
Reviewed by Chelsea A. Harris, a current master student
at the University of North Texas where she is studying educa-
tional psychology. Her main research focus is the issues and
challenges that face gifted and talented students and how
their education can be attuned to meet their needs. E-mail:
charri1@sbcglobal.net