Parental communication style and its influence on exceptional children's television viewing

This study examines the impact of parental communication style on gifted children's awareness of prosocial television portrayals, and compares those findings to that of nonlabeled, learning disabled, and emotionally disturbed children. Findings suggest that any parent regularly engaging in more inductive (e.g., the use of reasoning, explanation, and appeals to the child's pride and achievement) and less sensitizing (e.g., the use of physical punishment, deprivation of material objects or privileges, the direct application of force, or the threat of any of these) modes of communication interaction can indirectly impact on what their child observes when watching television. Gifted children were particularly responsive to parental communication style; the disparity between gifted children from sensitizing and inductive households was greater than that found among their nonlabeled and exceptional counterparts.