Career Planning for Gifted and Talented Youth (continued)

Possible intervention strategies for multipotentiality at different educational levels include the following:

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
* Provide realistic exposure to the world of work through parent sharing and exposure to parents' working places.
*Encourage career fantasies through dress-up and plays.
*Encourage focusing activities such as class projects or achievement of Scout merit badges, which require goal setting and follow-through.
*Use biographies of eminent people as primary career education material.
*As teachers or parents, carefully evaluate skills, talents, and interests in order to help children understand possible areas of greatest interest.

JUNIOR HIGH
*Discuss the meaning and value of work.
*Discuss family and community values pertaining to work.
*Provide for light volunteer work in several areas of interest.
*Provide "shadowing" experiences in which students spend the day with an adult working in an area of greatest interest.
*Discourage overinvolvement in social and recreational activities for the sake of involvement; prioritize and decide on a few extracurricular involvements.

SENIOR HIGH*Seek appropriate vocational testing from a guidance professional or psychologist.
*Encourage visits to college and university classes in a few areas of interest.
*Provide for more extensive volunteer work.
*Explore possibilities of paid internships with professionals.
*Insist on a solid curriculum of coursework in order to insure against inadequate preparation for a later career choice.
*Provide value-based guidance, which emphasizes choosing a career that fulfills deeply held values.
*Discourage conformist, stereotyped career choices.
*Expose students to atypical career models.

COLLEGE STUDENTS AND YOUNG ADULTS*Seek career counseling including assessment of interests, needs, and values.
*Enroll in a career planning class.
*Encourage careful course selection.
*Avoid conformist and stereotyped major choices.
*Seek a mentor.
*Engage in long-term goal setting and planning.

EARLY EMERGENCE
Early emergers (Marshall, 1981) are children who have extremely focused career interests. A passion for an idea and an early commitment to a career area are common childhood characteristics of eminent individuals in a wide variety of professions (Bloom, 1985; Kerr, 1985); thus, early emergence should not be thought of as a problem of career development, but rather as an opportunity that may be acted upon, neglected, or, unfortunately, sometimes destroyed. Acting upon early emergence means noticing an unusually strong talent or enthusiasm, providing training in skills necessary to exercise that talent, providing resources, and keeping an open mind about the future of the talent or interest. Neglecting early emergence means overlooking the talent or interest or failing to provide education and resources. Destroying the early emerger's passion may not be easy, but belittling the talent or interest ("Who cares about someone who doodles and draws all the time instead of listening?" "What makes you think you can become an anthropologist?") may easily extinguish the flame. Insisting on well-roundedness or disallowing needed training (e.g., refusing to allow a mathematically precocious child to accelerate in math) may diminish the passion. Overly enthusiastic encouragement and pressure may also remove the intrinsic pleasure the child feels in the interest or talent area.

As with multipotentiality, there are signs of early emergence:

Elementary school: Avid interest in one school subject or activity with only general liking for other subjects and activities and extraordinary talent in one area and average or above average performance in others are underlying signs of early emergence. (These students may be mistakenly labeled as underachievers). Students may also try to write more papers than required, choose too many subjects in the area of interest, and mention early career fantasies about success and fame in a particular area of interest.

Junior high: Students continue highly focused interests and may express a strong desire for advanced training in an area of talent and interest. Development of adolescent social interests may be delayed because of a commitment to work in a talent area or because of rejection by others, yet performance in the talent area grows, while performance in other areas diminishes.

Senior high: Students may develop a strong identity in the talent area (the "computer whiz," "artist," or "fix-it person," for example). They may express a desire for help with planning a career in an area of interest. A desire to test skill in competition with or in concert with peers in the chosen talent area and continued high performance in the talent area to a degree that causes neglect of other school subjects or social activities are additional signs of a focused interest and passion.