Peak Performance for Smart Kids

Peak Performance for Smart Kids provides success strategies, activities, tools, real-life examples, and checklists for parents to employ to help their kids achieve to their highest potential. Even the most talented child will not succeed if he or she has not developed the mental, psychological, and emotional skills to face the heavy demands of high performance. Maureen Neihart, a psychologist and leading authority on talent development in children, examines seven mental habits of successful kids, providing practical approaches for developing them in talented children of all ages in this easy-to-read guide for parents and teachers. By working with parents to complete the activities included in this book, high-ability kids will learn to manage stress and anxiety, set and achieve goals, use mental rehearsal to improve performance, manage their moods and emotions, practice optimistic thinking, and resolve their frustrations of needing to belong while needing to achieve. With its research-based strategies and unique approach to maximizing potential, this is a book from which every parent of smart kids can benefit!

Dr. Maureen Neihart is Associate Professor of Psychological Studies at the National Institute of Education, Singapore.

Table of Contents --What do Successful Coaches, Athletes, and Performing Artists Know That We Don't? --Learning to Tolerate Stress and Anxiety --Out of the Comfort Zone: Getting Kids to Work Hard --Getting Smarter About Goal Setting --Every Dream Begins With a Picture: Improving Performance With Mental Rehearsal --In the Zone: Using Mood Management to Improve Achievement --Improving Perseverance and Motivation With Optimism --Navigating School Meetings: Getting What Everyone Needs (and Wants) --Helping Children Resolve Achievement/Affiliation Conflicts --What's Next?