Book excerpt: This handbook is organized as a practical guide for the counselor working with gifted students. Chapter 1 describes intelligence testing, achievement testing, and other means of identifying special talents. Suggestions are given to the counselor for discovering behaviors associated with various talents. Chapter 2 shows how counselors can work with teachers and administrators to ensure that gifted programs are sufficiently challenging and supportive for bright students. Chapter 3 explores the guidance of students whose performance in a classroom does not match their abilities as measured by tests or past performance. The controversy over the definition of underachievement is discussed, and a model for creating hypotheses about underachievement is presented. Chapter 4 approaches the dilemma of finding the right college for the gifted student. The year-by-year planning schedule for college decision making, developed by Sandra Berger of the Council for Exceptional Children is summarized here as well. Chapter 5 describes the major problems in career decision-making that bright students encounter, and chapter 6 describes the special problems gifted females encounter in their academic and career development. Chapter 7 explores the research on the psychological adjustment of the gifted and talented as well as the specific psychological problems that may interact with giftedness. The final chapter shows how guidance services can be designed and how the counselor can learn effective techniques for helping gifted students. (LLL)