Counseling Gifted Children in Singapore

Gifted education (GE) in Singapore is entering its third decade. However, local research into the gifted is typically undertaken by graduate students and left as unpublished data. Internationally, there is also very little if any research on counseling models that have been empirically validated for use with gifted children irrespective of their country of origin and cultural experience. This article serendipitously originated from the second author’s visit to Singapore as a consulting scholar and his discussions with personnel at the Singapore Education Ministry’s GE Branch and interactions with local teachers and parents of gifted children. Drawing on the published wisdom of clinical experts and the second author who have provided counseling for gifted children, and the first author’s knowledge about Asian culture and educational context in Singapore, the article proposes an evidence-based counseling model that could serve the needs of gifted children in Singapore and possibly other Asian countries.
This article overviews research on gifted children in Singapore, and proposes an evidence-based counseling model that is based on theory and also culturally relevant to Asian populations.
This article aims to add to the research literature on Singapore’s gifted children population, which is not widely studied. In addition to drawing from clinical research, the authors use their own expertise on Asian culture and on gifted children to propose an evidence-based counseling model that is not only theoretically sound, but locally relevant.