The document discusses career counseling approaches for intellectually talented youth, emphasizing early assessment of abilities and interests to help identify strengths and match youth with educational and career paths aligned with their potential. It also notes challenges such as multipotentiality and gender influences that counselors should consider to best support gifted youth in developing their talents. A variety of assessment instruments are presented to measure abilities, interests, and personality for career counseling purposes.

1. Career Counseling for
Intellectually Talented
Youth

2. Intellectually Talented Youth
• Need special attention if they are to develop their gifts and avoid becoming
bored or underachieving
• Intellectually gifted youth may have a greater sense of opportunity.
• More career options
• Higher self-efficacy
• Early detection of intellectual giftedness is the first step in facilitating truly
exceptional talent development
• Goal of Counseling:
• Early assessment of personal characteristics relevant to
educational and career environments, followed by access,
support, and encouragement to pursue developmentally
appropriate opportunities.

3. P-E Fit Approach for Gifted Youth
• P-E fit theory, as the overarching framework for understanding and
studying talent development over the life span
• Critical Areas:
• ABILITIES
• verbal- linguistic, mathematical-numerical, and spatial-mechanical
• PREFERENCES
• Holland’s 6 General Interest Themes (RIASEC)

4. Above-Level Abilities Assessments
• Use of tests developed for older students for identifying and
nurturing intellectual precocity among gifted adolescents
• Help distinguish the good from the great
• Above-Level Abilities Assessments distinguish ability differences
among highly intelligent youth, as well as identify areas in which
the individuals are strongest.
• Over time, differential areas of strength forecast the selection of
contrasting educational and career paths.
• Ability patterns emerging in early adolescence among the
intellectually talented relate to the types of activities to which these
individuals devoted time and effort.

5. Above-level Assessment of Preferences
• Crystallization may occur earlier than normal age for the intellectually gifted.
• Strong Interest Inventory
• A vocational test that establishes a Holland code and a general idea of
the sorts of occupations that are appropriate, such as the Self-Directed
Search (Holland, 1985) or the Vocational Preference Inventory (Holland,
1988), should be the first instrument.
• A personality test that provides enough differentiation of specific
personality characteristics and that is developed on a normal population
should be next.

6. Instruments
• Strong Interest Inventory
• Self-Directed Search (Holland, 1985)
• Vocational Preference Inventory (Holland, 1988)
• Edwards Personal Preference Survey
• Personality Research Form

7. Multipotentiality
• Multipotentiality is defined as the ability to select and develop
any of a number of diverse career options.
• Most intellectually talented individuals can thrive in almost any
vocation or career because of their multitude of high-level abilities
and interests. Gift or Curse?
• Self-Report of abilities is not so informative
• Above-level assessment is necessary to show gifted individuals
still are better at somethings than others
• Despite outward appearances, we cannot assume that the gifted have
undifferentiated, or flat, abilities and interests—in fact, most do not.

8. Gender Considerations
GIRLS BOYS
Gifted boys’ attitudes found it
• Adolescent girls are often faced
necessary to hide their giftedness.
with the choice of developing
intellectually or socially.
• Girls tend to stray from original Boys on track for math/science track =
career ambitions good; Boys on humanities track = Bad

9. Gender
Considerations(Continued)
• Career assessment of gifted boys needs to take into account the
pressures boys experience fulfill the traditional masculine role.
• Career assessment with adolescent gifted girls must take into account
career aspirations, lifestyle plans, math/science self-efficacy expectations, and
self-esteem.
• Encouragement both girls and boys to consider nontraditional
occupations.

10. Counseling Intellectually Gifts Youth
• Focus on optimal development
• Acceleration and Rigor
• Counselor’s Aim:
• 1) Identify and capitalize on their salient abilities and interests
(nurturing their potential and finding their passion)
• (2) encourage youth to focus efforts on opportunities that align
with their distinctive potential or passion.

11. References
• Kerr, B., Sodano, S. (2003). Career Assessment With
Intellectually Gifted Students. Journal of Career Assessment.
Vol. 11:2. 168-186.
• Brown, S.D., Lent, W.R. (2005). Career Development and
Counseling: Putting Theory and Research to Work.