An Applied Psychologist’s Initiation to the Study of Gifted Children My interest in the subject matter of this book, the peer relations of gifted children, intensified enormously as result of my’ involvement with one gifted child during my days as a school psychologist. At that time, I served a number of schools in a prosperous suburb. I spent most of my time working with children with behavioral and learning disorders. I received very few requests to assist gifted youngsters and their teachers, perhaps because, at that point, I was not very sensitive to their needs. One autumn I was involved in something from which I derived a great deal of satisfaction-helping the teachers of a very advanced retarded boy with Down’s syndrome maintain himself in a regular first-grade class. In retrospect, the achievements of this student, Jeff, would have justified my calling him exceptionally bright, given the limits of his endowment. I was interrupted from my observation of Jeff’s success in class by a phone call from another school, one to which I had not previously been summoned. I was asked to discuss the case of an intellectually gifted child who was bored, moody, difficult, and disliked by those around him.