Intended for counselors, parents, and teachers, the handbook covers academic, affective, and career/life planning counseling needs at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels. An introductory section addresses goals of gifted and talented education and program elements. A section is provided for each educational level with subsections concerning: characteristics of gifted students at that level; needs of gifted students at that level (broken down into the domains of academic and study/process skills, affective factors, and career and life planning); meeting the needs of students at that level; counseling program options (for each of the three domains); and counseling roles (of counselors, teachers, and parents). A separate chapter addresses underachieving gifted students with sections on the underachieving at each of the three levels, on culturally different underachievers, on learning disabled underachievers, and on underachieving girls. A final section is addressed to parents of gifted children and covers the parents' role in counseling the gifted--the balance between home and school, and techniques for parents. (DB)