Education Learning Issues

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.

SENG GIFT. In honor of National Parenting Gifted Children Week (this week), SENG has released a free e-book called The Joy and the Challenge: Parenting Gifted Children. Among the authors of the various sections of the book you'll find some familiar to readers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter, including publisher Linda Neumann. Her contribution: "Don't Get Caught in the Lazy Trap." Find the book to  read online or to download.

AD/HD IN GIRLS AND WOMEN. Katherine Ellison, author of Buzz: A Year of Paying Attention, has an article at ADDitude on the way AD/HD is different in girls and women than in men. She discusses her own encounter with AD/HD and brings up studies of AD/HD in women along with individual "case studies." She also includes a checklist, constructed by Kathleen Nadeau, to use in trying to determine the presence of AD/HD.  Find the article.

POSITIVE TEENS, HEALTHY YOUNG ADULTS. That's the word from a Northwestern University researcher, who found that "teens with high positive well-being had a reduced risk of engaging in unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, binge drinking, using drugs and eating unhealthy foods as they transitioned into young adulthood. " This according to an NU press release about the research. Find out more. The pressure's on, parents. (And don't think we at 2e Newsletter don't know about that pressure.)

AND FINALLY THIS. Go a kid who has what's sometimes called "a fluid relationship with truth"? A study reveals what you might already know -- that although people not telling the truth can suppress some tell-tale facial actions, they can't suppress them all. Now, you might need a video camera and a frame-by-frame analysis of facial movements on your favorite fib-teller, but at least now you know that non-verbal communication may be working in your favor. Find out more.

END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR. Late on this sunny, late-spring morning we were driving through the middle of All-American Wheaton, Illinois, and were startled by a horde of elementary-school students running excitedly up the street, yelling. We surmised that, rather than lunchtime, the excitement stemmed from the last day of school. As we parked in the downtown, packs of middle-schoolers roamed the sidewalks, similarly freed. The experience reminds us to wish the parents and educators among our northern-hemisphere readership a fruitful summer vacation. (Too bad the adults can't take the summer off while the kids work.)

DOCTORS VERSUS EDUCATORS. Whose assessment of a child with Asperger's or some other exceptionality is to be acted upon when medical professionals and school professionals differ on the cause and treatment of a child's behavior at school? The Arizona Republic describes a family in Gilbert, Arizona, whose son has high-functioning autism but whom the school deemed simply had "skills delays." The family struggled all year, although by the end of the year the child was doing well. Read about the conflict.

RTI IN EARLY CHILDHOOD. Should RTI be extended "downward" so that pre-schoolers with potential issues can be identified early? Three groups concerned with early childhood and education are developing a position statement for applying RTI in the context of early childhood. Find out more.

ADOLESCENT RISK. It's the mesolimbic dopamine system that drives risky behaviors in teens, says a University of Texas researcher. As it turns out, the system causes large "reward prediction error" -- the difference between an expected outcome and the actual outcome." Read more about the study.

NON-INTUITIVE RESEARCH RESULTS OF THE DAY -- and nothing to do with giftedness or twice-exceptionality, but interesting none the less. Researchers now claim that caffeine consumption is unrelated to alertness. Their thesis: that coffee merely reverses "the fatiguing effects of acute caffeine withdrawal." See what you think, coffee drinkers.

KIDS AND MEDS. Here's an interesting dilemma. You have a 12-year-old son with a disorder that could be helped by medication, but the child refuses to take the meds. Should you try to sneak the med into his food? Doctors queried on this issue by The New York Times, in conjunction with an inquiry from parents of a child with OCD, recommended against "sneaking" the meds. The professionals suggested that the older the child, the more active the child's role should be in his healthcare. Read the column.

SHUT-DOWN LEARNERS. Michael Shaughnessy interviewed Dr. Richard Selznick, author of a newly-released book called The Shut-down Learner. Selznick's basic formula is: Cracks in the foundation + time + largely ignored skill deficits + emotional issues developing = shut down learner. Selznick also believes that hands-on, tactile learners are more at risk for being shut down. Read the interview.

INTERACTING WITH BOOKS. A Kansas State University professor finds that using Kindle and its interactive features allow children to become more involved with what they're reading. The e-reader has features that make the text audible, increase or decrease font size and let readers make notes about the book. The professor said that sometimes students make comments summarizing the plot, therefore reinforcing their understanding of the book. Other times they ponder character development, jotting down things like "If I were him, I'd say no way!" Find out more.

DYSLEXIA BLOG. The author of Dyslexia My Life recently posted a blog interview on the topic of giftedness and learning disabilities. The interviewee was Dr. James Russell, who teaches on the topic of assessing exceptional students; he also counsels and assesses adults and adolescents with learning disabilities. Russell discusses some the burdens of being GT/LD. Find the blog.

DIAGNOSING CHILDHOOD BIPOLAR DISORDER. The National Institute of Mental health reports on a series of imaging studies that apparently reveal that the brain works differently in youth with bipolar disorder (BD) than in chronically irritable children who are often diagnosed with pediatric BD. The update discusses the differences between BD and chronic, severe irritability distinct from BD, and also describes how the brain differences were detected. Find it.

ON TEMPERAMENT. Developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan has a new book out, titled The Temperamental Thread, describing the nature of the traits that shape our responses to our experiences. At the Dana Foundation website, he is interviewed about temperament -- "how temperament affects personality, whether it can predict your future, and how it might influence a doctor deciding which medical treatment may work best for you." Find the interview, and see if it explains anything about that temperamental gifted child you raise or teach.

THE ADOLESCENT BRAIN. While browsing the Dana website looking for recently-added material, we found an article from 2007 titled "The Adolescent Brain -- The Dana Guide." The topics covered are: sorting out adolescence from puberty, behind the scenes in the adolescent brain, healthy risks, unhealthy risks, mental disorders, and the kaleidoscope of changes. Got a gifted or 2e adolescent you can't figure out? Read it.

GIFTEDNESS IN THE NEWS. If you like to keep track of news pertaining to giftedness or gifted education across the United States, the National Association for Gifted Children maintains a page of current news items -- 20 for the most recent week. Find the page.

ADVOCATE -- as in verb. The Council for Exceptional Children joins the ranks of organizations urging their members to support renewal of the Javits Program for research into gifted issues. The deadline: Tuesday, April 13th. Find out more.

CALLING GIFTED TEENS. Judy Galbraith of Free Spirit Publishing invites teens who are gifted to take an anonymous survey concerning giftedness, education, relationships, and personal growth. Her goal: to help update the Free Spirit book The Gifted Kids' Survival Guide. Find the survey.

COLORADO GIFTED EVENT. Barbara Gilman, of Denver's Gifted Development Center, has scheduled an April 26th presentation titled "Optimizing Gifted Advocacy by Parents and Schools: How to Ensure Meaningful Options, Even in Difficult Times." Find out more about where and what.

EDNEWS.ORG AND DAVID RABINER. If you enjoy the AD/HD-themed newsletters we point you to by David Rabiner of Duke University, you might be interested in Michael Shaughnessy's recent interview with Rabiner at Ednews.org. Find the interview.

GIFTED EDUCATION MYTHS is the topic of Tamara Fisher's most recent posting at "Unwrapping the Gifted." She comments on the persistence of some myths treated in a recent article in Gifted Child Quarterly, noting that the some of the myths were "the very same ones tackled in the 1982 issue" of the same publication. She also points to several articles of her own dealing with gifted education myths. Find the post. Separately, we invite our readers to check out our six-part series "The Mythology of Learning" at the 2e Newsletter website.

ART COMPETITION. The Brian Ayers Memorial Art Exhibition celebrates the "unusual artistic ability of children with learning disabilities and dyslexia." The competition is open to artists ages 7 through 21, with an entry deadline of July 1st. You can find out more about the Exhibition here (including its poignant history), and see some of the striking past entries here.

BLUE MAN GROUP AND THE BLUE SCHOOL. Founders and spouses of the Blue Man Group have started the Blue School in New York City. Now comprised of pre-school through first-grade students, the school was conceived as a reaction to admissions hysteria and Ivy League college focus, an education that "you don't have to recover from," in the words of the founders. One challenge faced by the progressive school: its popularity and tuition now make the school seem "what were rebelling against," says a founder. Read the article.

WANT TO SEE HOW OTHER FAMILIES HANDLE TEEN AUTONOMY? Read about a Penn State study of 200 families concerning their children's decision making in the areas of chores, appearance, curfew and bedtime, health, schoolwork, social life, activities, and money. Researchers concluded that decision-making autonomy, a reflection of the development of youths' independence and responsibility, depended on what kinds of decisions youngsters faced, and on their personal and family circumstances. Find out more.

BEEN THROUGH THE COLLEGE TOUR PROCESS? Jay Matthews of the Washington Post wants your input on best and worst questions you've heard asked on college visits. Sample, from a parent visiting Boston College: "Do all these priests have to dress in black all the time? What if that upsets the students?" To contribute, go here.

GIFTED IN FLORIDA? Find out about a free summer academy on the campus of Florida State University. Sponsored by the Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion, the academy will be slanted toward aerospace disciplines. Read more of in an interview between Michael Shaughnessy of EdNews.org and academy co-director Steven Pfeiffer.