Chapter 11 1 When parents are faced with the reality that their child is exceptional they usually go through a range of emotions or an adjustment stage before they can accept their roles as parents of exceptional children Parents should learn to see the child first and the exceptionality second they should concentrate on what the child can do and not on what the child cannot do Acceptance and knowledge about the exceptionality can be the beginning of a parent s journey in helping their child and themselves An exceptional child is not necessarily handicapped he she may become handicapped if the services and support needed to participate in activities is withheld or not provided To prevent a child from becoming handicapped parents need to become their child s advocate and determine what services are best for their child Higher levels of functional progress has been seen in children whose parents were professionally involved in their services Parents should be encouraging but not overbearing They should develop hopeful life trajectories for their child as well as for themselves and pessimistic attitudes be should be avoided 2 Research shows that there is a link between interpersonal violence between parents and conduct disorders with children raised in those environments Additionally children raised by caregivers who use aggressive child rearing methods have a higher chance at exhibiting conduct disorders and the same studies show that these problems decreased as the caregivers received training and implemented more positive childrearing methods Based on this information a child with a conduct disorder raised by a caregiver trained in mindful caregiving methods would likely be happier and have a more harmonious family life Although this child has a better chance of being gifted than a child raised in a violent household I believe that alone could not guarantee the child being gifted Children labeled as gifted are usually raised in a household with mutually supportive relationships flexibility and the open expression of thoughts and feelings Parents of gifted children report that they also provided a variety of reading material for their children and focus on reading for meaning If these children had been raised in a household with violence then there is definitely a chance they could have turned out to have a conduct disorder While there is a direct correlation between violence in the household and conduct disorders and mutually supportive relationships and gifted children there are other factors that can play a role in how a child turns out So while it is possible and likely there would be no way to say for sure because of other factors that contribute