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GIFTED ATHLETE, AD/HD. We believe in Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, so a recent sports story was of interest to us. It's about a New York Mets baseball player who played in the minor leagues for decade before accepting a diagnosis of AD/HD and beginning to take AD/HD medications. After that, he blossomed and made it back to the majors. Read more.
PARENTING MATTERS -- especially if the kid has a short allele of gene 5-HTTLPR, a gene associated with a predisposition to depression. Dutch researchers have found that as far as parenting quality was concerned, “If the environment is bad, these children have worse outcomes, but if it is good, they have much better outcomes.” They called these susceptible kids "orchids" because they need a good environment to flourish, as opposed to weeds that will flourish anywhere. Read more.
PARENTING RESOURCE. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a site called HealthyChildren.org. Included on the site is a feature called "Sound Advice on Mental Health," a collection of audios by pediatricians on behavior, mental health, and emotions. Sample audio topics: adolescent mental health; how to recognize anxiety and depression; and AD/HD in children and adolescents. The site also offers transcripts of the audios for those who read faster than they listen. Find the site.
ABOUT.COM has a page called "Understanding Learning Differences" that's based on a presentation by Jonathan Mooney. Find out what he said.
AUTISM SPEAKS has issued its "Top 10 Science Autism Research Achievements of 2011." Find them.
SAYING THANK YOU is the topics of WrightsLaw's Special Ed Advocate this month. The organization offers to "learn how and why to say thank you to those who have helped your child succeed." Read more.
AT SENG. The organization Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted has posted an article by Melissa Sornik, a contributor to 2e Newsletter. The article is a primer on twice-exceptionalilty and is titled "Gifted and Underachieving: The Twice-Exceptional Learner." Find this and other SENG resources.
WE WISH YOU the best of the holiday season as you raise, educate, or counsel the twice-exceptional children in your life.
ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION in their children are very common concerns among parents in the 2e community. The Wall Street Journal ran an article about mental health issues in college students and how educators should accommodate them. According to the article, a rising number of students are registering psychological problems with college disability offices. Read the article.
LDs, THE ADA, AND COLLEGE. A woman student was dismissed in 2003 from George Washington University Medical School after repeated warnings that she was not meeting academic standards. Shortly before the dismissal, she sought to establish that her academic performance was related to learning disabilities, undergoing evaluation and receiving a diagnosis of dyslexia and a mild processing speed disorder. She contended the dismissal violated her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Recently, as U.S. district court ruled in the the university's favor, deciding that the student had failed to demonstrate that her difficulties were from her LD as opposed to study habits and a heavy schedule of extracurricular activities. Read the article.
DOPAMINE, AD/HD, AND MOTIVATION. Scientific American reviewed a study where researchers established a positive correlation between positive dopamine function in the brain and motivation trait scores on a personality test. They also showed a correlation between the CAARS AD/HD symptom test and the motivation score (i.e, fewer symptoms, more motivation. The conclusion: a disrupted dopamine pathway is associated with lower motivation and with AD/HD. The review does not mention that there are several types of AD/HD, but insofar as the study applies to at least one type it might be of interest to parents, educators, and clinicians who deal with AD/HD children. Find the article.
AN ASPIE'S MEMORY helps him connect with other people now that he's in his teens, according to an essay in the Washington Post. At first it was remembering birthdays... then addresses... then movie release dates... and then being able to connect names, birthdates, and movie releases to amaze family and friends. Read more.
THAT'S IT! More next week...
A HARVARD STUDENT diagnosed as a child with dyslexia, AD/HD, and an expressive language disorder has written a wry and insightful account of the challenges he faced growing up and the key (for him) to overcoming those challenges. "Unlike my classmates and teammates who may have spent much of their youth trying to stand out, I spent most of mine trying to fit in," writes the young man. Through sports he gained confidence, and he is now an aspiring Olympic diver. Find the article.
LD IN COLLEGE. Education Week published an article on the expansion of college options for those with LDs, describing a variety of students and their situations along with the programs they chose. Read more.
SAVE THE BRAIN. If you've got a gifted child who plays contact sports, or even soccer, you might be interested in an online library about sports concussions. There's an article about the site at The New York Times site, which not coincidentally just published a chilling, lengthy three-part series about the life and brain of the 28-year-old professional hockey player who recently died and was shown to have severe brain damage. Or, you may go directly to the Sports Concussion Library.
AUSTISM RESOURCE. A new webite, MyAutismTeam, according to Time Magazine, "is more than just a repository of recommendations about local therapists and accommodating Taekwondo studios and barbers; it's also a social-media destination. But unlike Facebook, it's intended as a place where parents of children whose developmental trajectory has taken a different turn from most of their peers can feel understood." Nothing more to say. Read about it in Time. Or, go to MyAutismTeam.
ACCESSIBLE LEARNING MATERIALS. If the accessibility of learning materials is a concern for that twice-exceptional child you raise or teach, you might be interested in a a report by the U.S. Department of Education on the topic. The report concerns post-secondary education. You may read about the report at the CEC site.
LD ONLINE. The current edition of this newsletter focuses on tips for study skills: technology tips, resources for dyslexics, and more. Find the newsletter.
THE WEINFELD EDUCATION GROUP has announced the publication of its book Take Control of Dyslexia and Other Reading Difficulties by Prufrock Press. Find more information.
SENG has issued its December edition of the SENGVine newsletter. In it, Rosina Gallagher announces the end of her tenure on the SENG Board; Melissa Sornik offers an article on the twice-exceptional learner; and more. Find the newsletter.
THE GIFTED DEVELOPMENT CENTER'S December newsletter is also out. It features an article on "the visual-spatial identifier"; observations about visual-spacial abilities, including that "twice-exceptional children are usually visual-spatial learners"; and observations from the TAGT conference earlier this month. Read more.
AUSTRALIAN GIFTED CONFERENCE. The 13th National Conference on Giftedness is scheduled for July 12-15, 2012, in Adelaide, South Australia. According to conference organizers, "This conference will bring together experts in the field of giftedness and talent and combine these with the latest research from around the world." Find out more.
MEDSCAPE ON AUTISM. In a series called "Game Changers in Pediatrics 2011," Medscape pointed to key findings from research in the area of ASDs. Some of the findings show how much more there is to learn about ASD, some point out things that don't work in treating ASD. Find the Medscape article.
PANDAS. The Los Angeles Times published an article about pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcus (PANDAS), a sudden-onset mental disorder marked by OCD-type behaviors. The article also mentions the possibility that other disorders, including cases of autism, might be linked to improper immune system response. Find out more.
GIFTED AND DIFFICULT. A small school in Torrance, California, takes talented students who have difficulties in the normal classroom. For many of the 21 students at the school, The Center for Learning Unlimited, the issue is Asperger's. One "graduate" of the school is at the top of his class in middle school. Read more.
BIOCHEMICAL IMBALANCE IN AD/HD. A recent study has unveiled a new suspect in the biochemistry of AD/HD, this one the receptor protein for the transmitter acetylcholine. Children with AD/HD have about half the protein that typical subjects do. According to a study author, "This indicates that several signal substances are implicated in ADHD and that in the future this could pave the way for other drugs than those in use today." Read more.
AND FINALLY THIS. Researchers in Finland monitored subjects' brains by MRI as the subjects listened to tango music. The results indicate that music affects many areas of the brain. From a write-up of the research: "The researchers found that music listening recruits not only the auditory areas of the brain, but also employs large-scale neural networks. For instance, they discovered that the processing of musical pulse recruits motor areas in the brain, supporting the idea that music and movement are closely intertwined. Limbic areas of the brain, known to be associated with emotions, were found to be involved in rhythm and tonality processing. Processing of timbre was associated with activations in the so-called default mode network, which is assumed to be associated with mind-wandering and creativity." So much for just "listening" to music. Find the write-up.
GIFTED AND CHALLENGING. An article at the Washington Post website starts out, "What do Woody Allen and Steve Jobs have in common? Among other things (including brilliant, creative minds), they both hated school and were discipline problems." The article then goes on to cover a school in Colorado, Eagle Rock, that caters to "difficult" but bright students. Read the article.
ACCELERATION. Miraca Gross, director of a center for gifted education research in Australia, advocates accelerating children who would benefit from more intellectual stimulation, contending that "Kids who are intellectually in advance of their years have social and emotional abilities beyond their age and they tend to gravitate towards older kids for their friendships.'' Gross also addresses the issue of support for gifted children, saying "any child should be assisted to learn to his maximum potential." Read more.
UNWRAPPING THE GIFTED. Tamara Fisher takes note of NAGC's current "State of the Nation in Gifted Education" report, highlighting certain of the findings. See what caught her eye.
MORE ON AUTISTIC INTELLIGENCE. We posted a while ago about the use of the Raven test (rather than WISC) to evaluate intelligence in autistic people. A writer for Scientific American has done an article called "The Hidden Potential of Autistic Kids," mentioning the Raven test but going beyond that in terms of recognizing the strengths of autistics. In the process she relates her experience with her own two autistic brothers, one of whom used to correct her fifth-grade homework for her -- when he was in kindergarten. Find the article.
COMPETITION. The Dana Foundation is sponsoring a contest in the design of a brain-related experiment. Entrants don't have to do the experiment, just design it. The competition is for high school science classrooms. Find out more.
AND FINALLY, THIS. "Sustained changes in the region of the brain associated with cognitive function and emotional control were found in young adult men after one week of playing violent video games." Does that worry you? Read about the study that came to that conclusion. DISABILITIES IN THE U.S. The U.S. Census Bureau has released an analysis of disabilities in school-age children. About 2.8 million children (5.2 percent) were categorized as having a disability as defined by IDEA. Of those, perhaps 4.5 percent were cognitive disabilities. Find out more.
BLOCKS AS A LEARNING TOOL. A New York Times article about blocks in the classroom contained an anecdote about a presumably 2e child. After an apple-picking field trip, the child, described as a struggling second-grader, "went to the block corner and built an incredibly complex structure, a tractor engine, and she was able to talk about how all the parts moved,” according to a teacher, who continued: “We need to be looking at this student in a very different way.” Read the article.
WRIGHTSLAW'S current edition of Special Ed Advocate contains articles that might clear up certain questions and issues about RTI and how schools implement it. Find the issue.
AD/HD'S AFFECT ON MOMS is the topic of a study reviewed by David Rabiner in his Attention Research Update newsletter. As you might guess (or know), parenting a child with AD/HD can lead to stress, and the study documents how and when stress levels might elevate by taking an "electronic diary" approach to tracking events and stress. Find the newsletter.
EDUCATOR OF 2e HONORED. Ben Shifrin, Head of Jemicy School in Owings Mills, Maryland, was recently inducted to the Hall of Fame of the International Dyslexia Association (IDA). Jemicy School provides a highly individualized, flexible, and challenging education for above-average to gifted college-bound students with dyslexia or other related language-based learning differences. According to the IDA, Jemicy's philosophy is based upon building the academic and higher order thinking skills of bright young people through applied research and time-tested multisensory learning. Jemicy serves the whole child, celebrating each student's strengths while exploring individualized skills and strategies that will build the foundation for success in school and in life. Find more information here or here.
WORRIED ABOUT PSYCHIATRIC MEDS FOR KIDS? A member of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has written an article for parents on concerns in children's meds, including "polypharmacy," when a child is on multiple psychiatric meds at the same time. Find the article.
AND FINALLY, THIS. A study has indicated that more creative people are more likely to cheat, but that there is no link between intelligence and cheating. According to the study authors, "people who are creative or work in environments that promote creative thinking may be the most at risk when they face ethical dilemmas." Got a creative kid? Find out more.
ONLINE SCHOOL FOR THE GIFTED. Stanford University is about to rename its online high school for gifted youth, calling it the Stanford Online Highschool. Five years old, the school has graduated 75, most of whom have gone directly to four-year colleges. Find out more about this and other online schools.
DOCUMENTARY ON ASPERGER'S. A video professional whose son "enjoys engineering and physics and studies Japanese for fun" but who has “zero friends” has created a documentary to fill a gap in resources for parents in similar situations. According to an article in the San Antonio Express-News, "the 68-minute documentary is aimed at families grappling with the realization that their child may take a different path in life than what they'd hoped for and dreamed of." Read more.
RESOURCE FOR CLINICIANS. The Centers for Disease Control have released "Autism Case Training (ACT): A Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Curriculum" to help future healthcare providers identify, diagnose, and manage ASD. The curriculum is PDF based but includes videos. Find out more.
RESOURCE FOR EDUCATORS. Edutopia has assembled a free PDF guide on the topic of brain-based learning to help K-12 educators learn more about the field. Find it.
GIFTED DEVELOPMENT CENTER. If you're a fan of this non-profit organization, be advised that GDC is soliciting donations to upgrade its computer systems, among other needs. Find more about this and other news from the GDC in the Thanksgiving edition of their newsletter.
THE DAVIDSON INSTITUTE, in its November eNews-Update, shares information about the recently honored 2011 Davidson Fellows, each awarded scholarships ranging from $10,000 to $50,000. (Remember: this and all the other contributions that DITD makes stem from the generosity of two people, Jan and Bob Davidson.) Also in the newsletter: pointers to a variety of gifted-related news and resources. Read the newsletter.
GIFTED EDUCATION PRESS QUARTERLY. Maurice Fisher has distributed the winter edition of his newsletter, which marks 25 years of publication. Among the articles: one on how Steve Jobs' ideas can be applied to gifted education. Find the newsletter.
MATH ANXIETY can be overcome, according to researchers at the University of Chicago. The trick: controlling emotions prior to doing math. Find out more.
EXCLUSION, BULLYING, FRIENDSHIP, AND STRESS. Having friends can ameliorate the effects of exclusion or bullying, according to the results of a new study of fourth-graders. The researchers measured the level of the hormone cortisol in kids who suffered exclusion or bullying. Read more.
TWITTER AS A RESOURCE. Two items came to our attention today that promoted Twitter as a way to connect with people of similar interests -- specifically, in the areas of education or giftedness. On the Education Week site, Peter DeWitt reveals how he became hooked on Twitter for exploring elementary education resources and connections. Secondly, Joel McIntosh, head of Prufrock Press and someone whose judgement we respect, emailed about the use of Twitter at conferences, and invited attendees at next week's Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented conference to sit in on a session on using social media to connect with gifted ed supporters; find his email.
AND FINALLY, THIS. Happy Thanksgiving (Thursday) to our friends and subscribers in the United States. For those of you outside the U.S. -- take a minute to reflect on what you have to be thankful for as well; eating turkey to go along with your thanks is optional.
ON IQ. Today we found three items concerning IQ, a topic of some interest to those who raise and educate gifted kids with learning challenges. 1. A UK study found links between higher IQ at ages 5 and 10 with higher-than-typical drug use at ages 16 and 20. Researchers' conjecture? Boredom or feeling different, "either of which could conceivably increase vulnerability to using drugs as an avoidant coping strategy," Read more. 2. The American Heart Association says that in men, a higher late-adolescence IQ score correlates with a lower waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) in middle age. A high WHR is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Read more. 3. Finally, a European study of breastfeeding and IQ indicates that preschoolers who had been breastfed longer had higher IQs. The conjecture: "It is the physical and psychological bonding and interaction between infant and mother during breast-feeding that nurtures development of an infant's cognitive abilities," noting that breastfeeding is not just a meal but "a dynamic, bidirectional, biological dialogue." Find out more.
SENG VINE. SENG's November newsletter is posted at Constant Contact. The issue's featured article is on parenting the gifted; it's by a woman who, as a girl, was featured in the movie Spellbound, about the National Spelling Bee.
RESOURCE. Education Week has announced that November 16-20 is an "open house" at its website, much of which is usually for subscribers only. Find the Education Week homepage.
THE SOCIETY FOR NEUROSCIENCE just concluded its annual meeting. A synopsis of some of the research presented at the conference is available at ScienceDaily; the synopsis features studies involving depression and schizophrenia. Another synopsis at ScienceDaily dealt with studies on ASD, Fragile X, and bipolar disorder.
AND FINALLY, THIS -- ON PARENTING. The New York Times obituary section (we often learn interesting things there) noted the death of a Czech-born little person, 93, who had acted as a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. According to the obit, his father tried "witch doctor" treatments to make him grow, but then, when the child was 9, sold him to a traveling show. For his stint in Oz, he earned $50 a week, supposedly less than Toto was paid. Read a longer AP version of the obit.
NEGLECTING THE GIFTED. The Wall Street Journal has concluded that the "national focus on the lowest-achieving students has helped boost their academic performance, but it has left the country's brightest young minds behind their international counterparts." The article quotes NAGC's Jane Clarenbach on the myth that GT kids are fine on their own. Read more about the problem and possible solutions.
LD ADVOCATE. A world-class lacrosse player and Johns Hopkins graduate is focusing on athletics as a way to help kids with LDs succeed. Paul Rabil, who has auditory processing disorder, was featured in an article about the Washington, DC, Lab School for kids with LDs. Also featured in the article is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former "dummy table" occupant, Philip Schultz, who learned about his own dyslexia when his second-grade son received a diagnosis. Read the article.
MEMORY AND OCD. People with remarkable autobiographical memory may be more prone to OCD-like behaviors, according to a new study. It turns out that two areas of the brain that are larger in people with exceptional memory are also larger in people with OCD. Find out more.
GIFTED HOMESCHOOLING PIONEERS. The New York Times Magazine contained an article about a couple who were homeschooling pioneers in the 1970s, four years of which focused on travel. The article is titled "My Parents Were Homeschooling Anarchists." Find it.
AD/HD AND THE BRAIN. A particular area of the brain works much harder in children with AD/HD. The area in question is the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. The reporting scientists concluded that "This fundamental difference in brain function might be an underlying cause of the inattentiveness, impulsivity and focus problems that make it hard for ADHD children to concentrate in the classroom." Find out more.
AND FINALLY, THIS. We discovered from a press release that apparently the U.S. Congress is considering legislation to categorize pizza as a "vegetable" for the purpose of school lunch menus. The irate whistle-blowers behind the press release? A group of retired military leaders who support policies that will help young Americans succeed in school and later in life. Read more at the group's website, www.missionreadiness.org. (Part of the group's motivation, from their website: "75 percent of 17- to 24-year-olds in the US cannot serve in the military, primarily because they are physically unfit, have not graduated from high school, or have a criminal record.")
ASPIES: NOT THINKING ABOUT WHAT OTHERS THINK? That's the conclusion of a study by researchers at Caltech. They devised an experiment to compare how much subjects would donate to a cause either in the presence of an observer or not. Control subjects donated more in the presence of the observer; high-functioning autistics donated the same in either situation. Read more.
AD/HD RESOURCES. About.com provides a list of scholarships available to students with AD/HD. Find it. Separately, the site also has an article about choosing a college when you have AD/HD.
DISORGANIZED? SENG has an upcoming webinar called "Helping the Disorganized Gifted Family." Find out more.
FOR EDUCATORS OF THE GIFTED, Education Week offers nine tips for teachers in an article called "What Gifted Students Need from You." Find out at edweek.org.
AND FINALLY, THIS. We often bash the overuse of media by kids. Now comes a study concluding that "Both boys and girls who play video games tend to be more creative, regardless of whether the games are violent or nonviolent..." The write-up, however, only notes the correlation between the two; no cause-and-effect relationship is implied. Find out more.
COLLEGE AND LD: FOLLOWUP. In our last post we noted an article in The New York Times dealing with the issue of what to disclose, if anything, about an LD when applying for college. As it turns out, the Times has made available an admissions expert to answer questions online from readers about applying to college with a learning disability. If that young person you teach or raise is nearing college age and you have specific questions, this could be a great resource. Find it.
2e PIONEER SUSAN BAUM is presenting a workshop titled "Bright but Challenged: Understanding and Treating the Twice-exceptional Learner." To be held on December 9 in Portland, Maine, the workshop is geared to learning specialists, educational therapists, classroom teachers, parents and mental health practitioners. Find out more. Susan Baum is on the Editorial Advisory Board of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter.
GDC'S NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER is out. It notes the 100th anniversary of the IQ test and presents an article titled "The WISC-IV Integrated for 2e Learners," with tips for identifying and accommodating 2e kids through WISC-IV results. In addition, the newsletter notes that four GDC speakers will present at the TAGT conference coming up in Austin. Find the newsletter. Separately, Linda Silverman was able to arrange a "conference within a conference" at TAGT on testing the gifted. She says, "Anyone who tests gifted and 2e kids should be there. Find more about TAGT.
GIFTED MYTHS. The Washington Post published five myths about gifted kids, offering commentary on the reality versus the myth. One myth: "Students with learning disabilities cannot be considered gifted or talented." You knew the truth about that, but it's good to see publications like the Post spreading the word. Find the article.
ASD DIAGNOSES DIFFER BY CLINIC. A study has found that clinics vary in how they apply diagnostic criteria for ASDs and in the final diagnosis they come up with. A study author is quoted as saying, "...in those borderlands of autism spectrum disorders, there is a lot of confusion." That means that where one clinic might diagnose a child with autism, another might apply the Asperger's label. Read more. LD ON COLLEGE APP: TELL OR NOT? A New York Times blog explored the issue of what to reveal on a college application about one's learning challenges. According to the article, whether to disclose might depend on the impact on performance of the LD; students with strong grades might not want to disclose. Also in the article: a pointer to sources of information about colleges supporting students with LDs. Read more.
COULDN'T MAKE IT TO NAGC, wrapping up this weekend? Tamara Fisher blogs about her experiences there at "Unwrapping the Gifted."
DEBORAH RUF, in her e-newsletter, pointed us to "Nobel Conference 47: The Brain and Being Human." Not only does the conference site offer resources for each presenter's topic, but it also provides a video archive so that site visitors can view videos of presentations. The topics are more general than 2e- or LD-specific, but brain mavens might want to check out the site. Thanks, Deborah.
MATT COHEN, special ed attorney who has written for 2e Newsletter, has an article in his November e-newsletter titled "Beware the IQ Score," discussing challenges to the common belief that IQ is constant. Find the newsletter or download the article (as a Word document) from the Monahan & Cohen website.
ATTENTION RESEARCH UPDATE, David Rabiner's newsletter, has been posted for October. The subject: what's important to families as they make decisions in seeking treatment for AD/HD in a child. Find the newsletter.
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR READERS. An article in the most recent edition of 2e Newsletter mentioned Bookshare, a tool to help struggling readers by providing books in a way that can be both seen and heard on the computer. Bookshare is free for schoolchildren. Got a problem reader? Find out more about Bookshare.
BOOKS FOR DYSLEXIC KIDS. The Telegraph of London published a column in observance of Dyslexia Awareness Week, noting books from a British publisher devoted to bringing out works for struggling readers. Find the column. Separately, The LA Times noted research from Stanford University indicating that intelligence is unrelated to dyslexia -- "evidence of dyslexia was shown to be independent of IQ scores." Read more.
THE AUTISTIC ADVANTAGE? A Canadian researcher "has strongly established and replicated the abilities and sometimes superiorities of autistics in multiple cognitive operations such as perception and reasoning," according to ScienceDaily. As in an item in one of our recent blog posts, the researcher notes that standard IQ tests can be inappropriate in gauging the strengths of the autistic mind. Read more.
NOT JUST INTELLIGENCE: CURIOSITY TOO. "Personalty traits like curiosity seem to be as important as intelligence in determining how well students do in school." That's the conclusion of a study published recently in a publication of the Association for Psychological Science. Conscientiousness also affects academic performance. Read more.
WRIGHTSLAW. The current issue of Special Ed Advocate examines whether children with AD/HD -- which is not a "specific LD" -- are eligible for IDEA services or eligible for Section 504 accommodations. Find out more.
THE WEINFELD GROUP is presenting an event on November 10 titled "Helping Your Worried Child -- Behavioral Treatment of Childhood Anxiety." The presenter is Bonnie Zucker. To be held in Rockville, Maryland, the event is an hour and a half long; the cost is $25 for those who register by 11/3, $35 afterward. More information.
AD/HD DRUGS do not increase the risk of heart problems in children or young adults, according to a U.S.-funded study involving over a million subjects. Included were meds such as Adderall, Concerta, Strattera, and Ritalin. Find out more.
SCREEN THOSE PRESCHOOLERS. A study funded by the National Insititutes of Health found that many more preschoolers have vision problems than previously thought -- about 25 percent compared to the previous figure of 5 percent. The net-out -- screen that preschooler to make sure vision problems don't masquerade as learning problems, and also, of course, to make sure that kid can see. Read more.
MAYO TOOLKIT FOR CHILDREN'S MENTAL HEALTH. The Mayo Clinic has published a toolkit to help identify mental health problems in children and teens. The motivation? The fact that up to 75 percent of children with problems evidently don't get help. Read more about this. Find the toolkit.
AND FINALLY, THIS. If you've ever worried about food safety -- whether what manufacturers put into the food you buy is really safe -- you'll not enjoy a recent item at ScienceDaily on the topic. It seems that U.S. law:
- "Allows manufacturers to determine that the use of an additive is "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS), and then use that substance without notifying the FDA.
- "Does not require that manufacturers inform the FDA when health reports suggest new hazards associated with additives already used in food."
If that makes you dangerously excited and you want to know more, go to ScienceDaily.
A GRAMMY AND AD/HD. About.com, in its AD/HD section, provides an interview with a Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter who was diagnosed with AD/HD in his early teens.Adam Levine, of Maroon 5, describes his early difficulties, how AD/HD has affected his adult life, and his advice to kids or teens with AD/HD. Read more.
GIFTED RESOURCE. Thanks to Carolyn K for pointing us to Cogito.org, an online community for gifted kids interested in math and science. Sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, the site features interviews, news, forums, links to sites and tools, and extracurricular programs. Go to the site.
DAVID RABINER pointed us to a free download from ADDitude, titled "40 School Accommodations for Your ADD/LD Child." If your gifted young person is of the AD/HD persuasion, check it out.
UNWRAPPING THE GIFTED. Tamara Fisher writes about using Symbaloo in gifted education. Symbaloo, she says, is "a place where you can collect a plethora of links on various topics and organize them however you want." She has created one containing resources for her gifted students to use then they do projects. Find out more.
THE WEINFELD EDUCATION GROUP has created a blog on topics related to its areas of expertise. The first posting is by Russell Barkley and titled "Understanding AD/HD -- Part 1." Find it.
PREDICTOR OF MATH LD. Young children who cannot associate small quantities with the numerals that represent those quantities are more likely to develop math LDs, according to a new study. The study also identified other predictors of later math difficulty. Dyscalculia in your family? Check out the study.
THE DANA FOUNDATION has posted two new articles on its website. One provides evidence about how childhood trauma -- physical or sexual abuse -- leads to later psychopathology; read it. The other provides a tutorial on brain imaging technologies and how they are used in neuroscience; it looks like a must-read for all neuroscience mavens. Find it.
SHARP BRAINS has posted articles on the impact of stress, emotion, and self-regulation on the structure and performance of the brain. Find them.
TESTING AD/HD DRUGS. Researchers used used brain scans on mice to determine whether treatment drugs increased dopamine levels in the brain, and thus would be effective. The study concerned a type of attention deficit caused by "neurofibromatosis type 1" -- NF1 -- which affects about 100,000 people in the U.S., according to Science Daily. Find out more.
NOT TO LATE TO GET IRATE. If you live in the U.S., you may -- once again and maybe for the last time ever -- attempt to block legislative attempts to scuttle the Javits Act, which is, according to CEC, "the sole Federal investment in gifted education." Seems that the Javits Act is one of 43 programs deemed "inefficient and unnecessary." CEC has more.
IQ NOT CONSTANT? Recent research indicates that IQ can change significantly during adolescence because of changes in the structure of the brain. The research involved comparing the results of testing and imaging done four years apart. Performance on the tests changed by as much as 20 points during that time. Imaging showed changes in certain brain areas that were associated with changes in verbal and non-verbal IQ scores. Read more, or visit NPR to hear a piece on the topic.
PREDICTING RITALIN'S EFFECTIVENESS. Some kids respond to Ritalin (methylphenidate) and some don't. The reason may be variations in genes affecting the transport and reception of dopamine in the brain. No mention of whether cheap-and-easy DNA tests are available to help spot this difference (we'd guess not), but you can find out more from ScienceDaily.
RITALIN FOR TODDLERS. A New York Times article discusses the pros and cons of medicating preschoolers for symptoms of AD/HD. The article is in response to the AAP's recent change in stance on AD/HD treatment. Does your bright, active preschooler have AD/HD, or is he or she just healthy and normal? And what, if anything, should you do? Read more.
iPADS FOR TODDLERS? The AAP recommends no TV for kids under two. How about the iPAD? Experts give varying opinions. Read them.
BY AND FOR AUTISTICS. A Chicago-area man with autistic traits has written three books featuring characters with autism. His latest is titled Teddy Turbine: A Quarterback with Autism. Find out more.
APPS FOR ASPERGER'S. A pediatric psychologist has developed an app for youngsters who have difficulty with social situations, as with Asperger's. One feature: a "What Did That Mean" program where a user can enter a hard-to-understand phrase like "go jump in the lake" to find out what it means. Find out more.
LANDMARK COLLEGE, a 2-year school in Vermont that focuses on educating students with LDs, was featured in an article and video by USA Today. Besides academics -- or, rather, as a foundation for them -- Landmark teaches organizational and compensatory skills. Landmark can serve as a springboard to attendance (and graduation from) a four-year college. Go to USA Today.
THE EDUCATORS GUILD NEWSLETTER for October is out and posted on the DITD website. In it are an article by Jim Delisle on the peer relations of gifted students; gifted news; and news about DITD. Find it.
THE SENG VINE newsletter is also out, including articles on GT kids and behavior, the role of a pediatric doctor in caring for gifted kids, and more. Find it.
PRODIGY: WHAT NEXT? In Deborah Ruf's October Talent Igniter newsletter we found a pointer to a story on a young prodigy, now 13, who at age 9 got perfect 5's in five AP math and science tests. From the article: "When he's not in class, he's working through a stack of books at home; he keeps a list of everything he has read. He's absorbed 52 textbooks on science and math: read the physics lectures of Richard Feynman, and books on robot programming, systems biology, immunobiology, fractals, Latin (a new passion), music theory and the work of Fibonacci, René Descartes, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, among others." Read more.
EDUCATOR'S RESOURCE. Adobe offers a free curriculum and resources for educators to "create breakthrough learning experiences for young people." Find out more.
AD/HD AWARENESS EXPO. During AD/HD Awareness Week, visitors may attend a free online Awareness Expo. Find out more.
NO TV FOR KIDS UNDER 2 -- That's what the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends. On the other hand, this current recommendation is evidently less restrictive than the AAP's prior issuance on the topic. Got an almost-toddler? Read more.
AD/HD AWARENESS WEEK is this week, October 10-22. At the AD/HD Awareness Week site you can find resources concerning the condition. In the meantime, the American Academy of Pediatrics has just updated its guidelines on diagnosing and treating AD/HD in younger children and in adolescents. Emerging evidence, says AAP, makes it possible to diagnose and manage AD/HD in children from ages 4 to 18 (previous AAP guidelines covered ages 6 to 12). The new guidelines describe the special considerations involved in diagnosing and treating preschool children and adolescents. They also include interventions to help children with hyperactive/impulsive behaviors that do not meet the full diagnostic criteria for AD/HD. Find out more. To help parents understand the new guidance on AD/HD, the AAP has published a detailed and updated consumer resource book entitled “ADHD: What Every Parent Needs to Know.” Parent information is also available at www.healthychildren.org/adhd.
MORE ON AD/HD. The New York Times has initiated a discussion on AD/HD, posing the questions, "Are Americans More Prone to AD/HD?" along with "Do the American and educational systems inflate the numbers?" So far the discussion has generated seven pages of posts. Read or contribute.
AUTISM DOCTOR DISCIPLINED. Parents of autistic children are often desperate to find treatments that will help their children. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has filed a complaint against an Illinois doctor who used methods such a chelation, hormone modulation, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, stating that "none... has been proven to influence the course of autism." Read more.
SCHOOL AVOIDANCE was the subject of an article on HealthDay recently -- and we're betting that many 2e kids have the desire to avoid school because they might not fit in one way or another. Find the article, along with a pointer to AAP information on the topic.
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR WRITING. Education Week covered a variety of assistive technologies for kids who have problems writing, including a list of free resources. Got a student or offspring with this problem? Find the article.
FOR IDEA WONKS. CEC has released a side-by-side comparison of updated IDEA regulations and those from 1999. If IDEA is a big part of your life, check it out.
GIFTED AND STUTTERING. A gifted 16-year-old New Jersey boy who is taking two college classes described how his professor had asked him not to speak in class because of his stuttering. According to an article in The New York Times, about five percent of people stutter, and it is thought to have genetic and physiological causes. Find the article. In response to the article, the Stuttering Foundation issued a response that includes eight tips for teachers; find it. (The foundation website also notes that for both Winston Churchill and James Earl Jones, "Stuttering didn't stop them. Don't let it stop you."
EDUTOPIA has a blog entry on its site titled "How to Support Gifted Students in Your Classroom." It notes the importance of identifying such students and of having a gifted, intuitive teacher to serve gifted students. Find the blog.
MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES. We received an email directing us to a site by the name of Bytes Power Smarts, which is apparently deigned to help kids 8-11 "recognize and appreciate their strengths and talents," as manifested in the eight multiple intelligences recognized by Howard Gardener. The site contains stores for the children to read relating to those intelligences. Find it. (We recognized at least one name on the staff listing as being involved in the 2e community.)
OCD. CNN has an article on its website about OCD in children, and the article profiles two young people with different sets of symptoms. It describes how each young person has confronted the disorder. Find the article.
THE GIFTED DEVELOPMENT CENTER newsletter for October is out, and it brings news of the organization's move out of downtown Denver to more spacious quarters. (We visited the Center several years ago and would characterize their present space in an old house as pleasantly unique, but could see how they could use more space.) The newsletter also notes Linda Silverman's five decades of experience in the gifted field. Read the newsletter.
CURETOGETHER: ANXIETY. CureTogether, a site that provides information and support for persons with a variety of conditions, has posted information stemming from a 6200-patient survey on which treatments for anxiety work best and which are most popular. If you have a gifted child with anxiety, this will be of interest to you. The top three treatments in terms of effectiveness: exercise, Xanax, and then yoga. The treatments reported least effective: Wellbutrin, Amitripyline, and Paxil. Find the site.
EDUCATION WEEK published an article, available to non-subscribers, about the various types of reading problems (eg, phonemic awareness) and reading programs that work for those various types. Find it.
DISRUPTIVE MOOD DYSREGULATION DISORDER -- haven't heard of it? It's being proposed as a new diagnostic category, and, by providing a label, it could improve diagnosis and care for kids who have problems regulating mood and temper. Read more about it in the Los Angeles Times. Separately, the Dana Foundation pointed us to an article on mental health screenings of teens by schools. The purpose: "to identify those at risk and, if necessary, help them get treatment." One advocate calls such screening "a non-pressured way to ask for help." Read more.
LDs AND THE LSAT. A Minnesota man who wanted accommodations on the Law School Admission Test has received them. Twice rebuffed in his request, he apparently enlisted the US Department of Justice in pressing his case; the DOJ decided that the man had submitted appropriate documentation, and that the organization administering the LSAT had violated the ADA. Find out more.
EDUCATOR RESOURCE. Edutopia has posted about a school that has the lowest per-pupil funding in Arizona and yet has excelled in education -- at least partly because of differentiated instruction. Find out more at the Edutopia site.
SENG has issued a call for proposals for speakers at its 2012 conference in Milwaukee, to be held July 13-14. Interested in addressing the attendees at this 2e-oriented conference? Visit a post on LinkedIn; the information is not yet on the SENG site. If you visit the SENG site, however, you'll find the announcement of the appointment of the organization's new executive director, James. D. Maloney.
A PEDIATRIC MRI appears not to cause inordinate risk unless it involves intravenous contrast dye or sedation -- in which case, according to a report from The Hastings Center, "an MRI increases the odds of harm and makes them unacceptably high." The study compared the risk of physical injury or death from the MRI experience to risks from "everyday" activities of healthy children. Read more.
GIFTEDNESS: POWER AND PERILS is the topic of a blog at the Psychology Today website, in which the writer uses the occasion of a friend's son's recent evaluation (99th percentile, 150 IQ) as a springboard on what it takes -- besides giftedness -- to succeed. Find the blog.
NAGC offers a variety of resources on its website for the 2011-2012 school year, including information about RTI, gifted programming standards, FAQs, and more. Go there.
ASSESSING ASPIE INTELLIGENCE. A new study indicates that individuals with Asperger's rate higher on an intelligence test called Raven's Progressive Matrices than on scales such as the Wechsler tests. The Raven's test evidently emphasizes reasoning, novel problem-solving abilities, and high-level abstraction. A ScienceDaily report on the study concluded, "...the authors emphasize that autistic spectrum intelligence is atypical, but also genuine, general, and underestimated." Read the report.
UNWRAPPING THE GIFTED. Tamara Fisher says "gift a teacher a book about gifted education," and provides a list of books suggested by her readers. Find it. Along with her idea, we suggest that if your child is twice-exceptional you gift a book on that topic -- or a subscription to the ever-handy 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter.
ATTENTION RESEARCH UPDATE. The September edition of David Rabiner's newsletter, now posted on his site, describes a study of how the "stigma" of being treated for AD/HD might affect adolescents. Got a 2e adolescent with AD/HD? Check out Rabiner's newsletter.
ANESTHESIA IN YOUNG CHILDREN can be something to worry about, according to the Mayo Clinic, becuase it can increase the chance of learning disabilities by over 100 percent. Got a child under two? Read more.
FORDHAM STUDY. If you paid attention to the recent Fordham study that asked whether current educational practice underdevelops gifted kids, you might be interested in a discussion of the topic at The New York Times site.
CASH FOR AP ACHIEVEMENT. The New York Times reported on a Massachusetts experiment that provided cash incentives to both students and teachers for success in Advanced Placement courses. The results? More students taking those courses, and a higher percentage qualifying for college credit. Read more.
GIFTED TEEN SURVIVAL GUIDE. Free Spirit Press has released the fourth edition of this book, which is based on surveys of almost 1,400 gifted teenagers. One of the revisions: inclusion of new information on twice-exceptionality. (Way to go, Free Spirit!) Find out more about the book at the publisher's website.
VIDEO COMPETITION. If you have a smart, young, penurious media maven in your house, the American Bankers Association has a video competition that might appeal. The competition aims to "inspire teens to explore the value of saving money and share their thoughts for all to see," according to the sponsors. Find out more at the ABA site.
AND FINALLY, THIS. Thinking of starting your child into team sports early? Say, at age 3? It might not be a good idea, according to at least one researcher, to immerse them in organized sports rather than unstructured play. In fact, the researcher says, "Most children should not commit, or specialize, in one sport until they are age 15." Find out more in Health News from UPI.
DYSLEXIA GOES TO COLLEGE. An event at Stanford University for college admission deans was intended to help colleges appreciate dyslexic applicants. Organized in part by expert Sally Shaywitz, the event featured speakers who shared their experiences with dyslexia -- Charles Schwab was among those. Also covered: topics such as the effect of dyslexia on the testing and admissions process; accommodations in college; and tips for dyslexic students on choosing the right college. Read more.
COMPOUNDING THE PROBLEM. Research by Autism Speaks notes that more than half of the young people in their registry also show symptoms of either attention problems or of hyperactivity. Researchers noted that the AD/HD symptoms further burden children with autism, and stressed the importance of identifying AD/HD symptoms so that they could be addressed. Read more.
TREATING OCD. An article in Time Magazine noted the effectiveness of a therapy called exposure and response prevention (ERP) in reducing OCD symptoms, especially when used in combination with medication. Among kids in a JAMA-reported study, about 67 percent of kids treated with a combination of medicine and ERP reduced their OCD symptoms by a 30 percent benchmark. Find out more.
GIFTED STUDENTS AND ONLINE LEARNING was the topic of an Education Week online chat this week. Interested persons may find the chat at the Education Week website.
GIFTED ISSUES DISCUSSION FORUM. The Davidson Institute maintains a free public forum for the discussion of gifted issues at http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/. Some of the threads deal with twice-exceptional topics, such as giftedness and AD/HD, or low working memory, or visual processing issues.
AD/HD AND STIMULANTS. About 2.8 million children in the United States were prescribed stimulant medicine for AD/HD in 2008, up from previous years. The study covered the years from 1996 to 2008. Usage is higher in boys and children not of color; usage is lower in Western states. Find out more.
BEST STEM HIGH SCHOOLS. Want to find out which high schools rank highest in the teaching of science and math? US News can tell you.
SMARTS AND PROCESSING SPEED. Adolescents become smarter (as measured on intelligence tests) because their processing speed increases, according to a new study. Read more.
BRAIN RESOURCE. Healthline has a cool interactive tool for visualizing the brain. You can turn it, split it, see different layers, identify components, and read about them. Find it.
AND FINALLY, THIS. You can buy your child a pair of $40 sunglasses with a hidden video camera inside. According to a reviewer, the set-up includes a battery, 128MB of RAM, and a USB port for downloading the video to a computer for viewing and editing. Read the review or go to the vendor's website.
EIDES IN WIRED. Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide have a Q&A in Wired Science centering on their new book The Dyslexic Advantage. In the Q&A, the Eides provide their definition of dyslexia, cover various misconceptions of the condition, and get into the strengths that may be associated with dyslexia. At the Q&A page you may also read an excerpt from the new book. Go there.
HIGH PERFORMERS: LOSING IT. Education Week reports on a Fordham Institute study showing that "many high-performing students lose ground from elementary to middle school and from middle school to high school." The study raises the issue of whether programs such as NCLB impose a trade-off, helping kids at the bottom but hurting those at the top. Find the EdWeek article.
METHYLPHENIDATE: LATER PUBERTY -- in monkeys, at least. The active ingredient in Ritalin delayed puberty in young male monkeys, although the treated monkeys later caught up in development. Read more.
APPS FOR AUTISM is the goal of a partnership between Hewlett-Packard and two autism-focused organizations. HP will bring together developers to build free apps addressing areas such as communication and scheduling. Find out more.
2e SOLUTION IN VANCOUVER. The Vancouver Observer published an article about a gifted young man with learning challenges for whom "school never quite fit." [Sound familiar?] The young man and his family found a solution through a company called BrainBoost Education, which tailored a curriculum for him based on online learning courses. The results: a more engaged, confident, and achieving young man. Read more.
AD/HD RELIEF. A study has indicated that playing outside in green areas may ameliorate symptoms of AD/HD, compared to playing in other settings. Find out more.
JUNK FOOD, DEPRESSION, AND ANXIETY. Adolescents eating diets of junk or processed foods are more prone to depression and anxiety, according to a new Australian study. While the results are consistent with what's been seen in adults, the researchers had this to say about the results: "[W]e think it could be more important because three quarters of psychiatric illnesses start before adulthood, and once someone has depression they are likely to get it again." So serve up those fruits and veggies. Read more.
THE THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM is a book and website with the following mission: "to help people with autism and their families make sense of the bewildering array of available autism treatments and options, and determine which are worth their time, money, and energy." As part of that mission, TPGA accepts submissions on the topic of autism from writers 13 and over. Find out more.
EARLY-LIFE STRESS. Twice-exceptional kids can suffer more stress than other children for a variety of reasons. To find out how stress may affect children, check out a new article at Cerebrum on the Dana Foundation website.
DON'T FORGET our stash of categorized article links at http://www.delicious.com/2eNewsletter. The articles cover 2e, giftedness, various exceptionalities, child development, parenting, education, and more.
YOUR CHILD'S BRAIN was the topic of an interview with two neuroscientists recently aired on NPR. Authors of a new book (naturally) called Welcome to Your Child's Brain, the interview covered things such as language development, self-control, and reward and punishment. Find the interview.
MEDIA BASHING is something we occasionally do in this blog. The American Academy of Pediatrics has released the results of a study showing that some TV s hows may be worse than others when it comes to a their effect on a four-year-old's attention, problem solving, self regulation and other executive function abilities. While the researchers could not determine exactly which features had a negative impact on kids, a fast-paced animated "SpongeBob" cartoon resulted in poorer test results. Find out more, and note that the creators of SpongeBob refute the findings.
PESTICIDES AND AD/HD. Rodale Press reports on the apparent association of certain pesticides and symptoms of AD/HD, based on a Canadian study involving organophosphate pesiticide byproducts excreted in urine. From the article: "Children with substantially higher levels of a breakdown product of neurotoxic organophosphate pesticides were twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD." Read the article for more scary stuff and what you can do about it.
AND THAT'S IT -- unless the topic of the complexities of children's naps is of interest to you ("a mix of individual biology, including neurologic and hormonal development, cultural expectations and family dynamics"). Seems like there's a dearth of items on giftedness and twice-exceptionalities this week, sorry.
ASPERGER'S AND GEOGRAPHY. A local television station in the Chicago area profiled a 15-year-old boy with Asperger's whose love of geography allows him to do quite well in the National Geographic Geography Bee. But geography isn't a long-term goal, according the the report: " I want to possibly go into a career of broadcasting because I'm an actor and I love baseball and I just think the two would come together." Read the article.
HOMESCHOOLING BENEFITS. A Concordia University study indicates that structured, curriculum-based homeschooling can provide an academic edge when compared to either unstructured homeschooling or traditional education. One of the advantages of homeschooling mentioned by the study's lead author was the opportunity to accelerate a child's learning process. Read more.
GLOBAL VIRTUAL MEETING FOR GIFTED EDUCATION, the next edition, is scheduled for September 24th. The topic: engaging gifted students in critical and divergent thinking, presented by Dr. Mary Bruck in the virtual world of Second Life. Find out more.
BIPOLAR DISORDER IN CHILDREN. If this is of concern to you, a somewhat lengthy article (for Science Daily, anyway) discusses its diagnosis and treatment. Find it.
SAFETY VERSUS EXERCISE. Helicopter parents may impede kids from getting higher levels of physical activity, according to a recent study of physical activity in public parks. The goal of the study: better design of public parks. Find out more.
BRAIN SCANS may allow the diagnosis of autism. In MRI scans in children 8 to 18, researchers found differences between those with autism and those without. The method was accurate, but not likely to replace current diagnostic practice, according to Disability Scoop. Find out more.
AND FINALLY, THIS. On Facebook? Stop by and contribute: http://www.facebook.com/2eNewsletter.
THE GIFTED DEVELOPMENT CENTER, in its latest newsletter, brings the news that Center stalwart Betty Maxwell has retired, and features an interview with Maxwell, who assessed and worked with gifted learners and was particularly interested in visual/spatial learners. Find the newsletter.