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What are the concerns that commonly motivate parents to seek guidance?

While giftedness is not necessarily associated with specific problems, people do seek out counseling services that specialize in this topic, and they do so for a wide variety of reasons. Most frequently, it is parents who are seeking advice, but also the children and adolescents themselves and the teaching professionals at schools and Kitas make use of counseling services.

Counseling does not always have to address specific problems, it can also be used to prevent them. Parents and educators are often looking for sound information on the topic of giftedness as well as on the possibilities of school and extracurricular support.

However, very many requests for consultations are also motivated by a specific diagnostic concern. In many cases, whether or not a child is actually gifted is not the only question that is raised. Rather, there are specific problems or decisions to be made that prompt a desire for educational assessment, such as issues of academic underachievement or overachievement, or making school career adjustments by skipping a grade or changing schools. The guidance accompanying the diagnostic process then aims to provide information and assistance based on the specific individual circumstances.

Sometimes children, adolescents, or their parents are also troubled by more serious concerns. These include, for example, conflicts in the family, with teachers, or with fellow classmates, prolonged learning and achievement problems, or adverse emotional states. Counseling provides support in coping with these specific problems.