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Showing posts with label gifted resources. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gifted resources. Show all posts

From the Publisher of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

THIS ALIEN PLANET CALLED SCHOOL. A mom and college teacher writes about what school must be like for her son, who has Asperger's. In "Learning with Asperger's: A Parent's Perspective," published in Education Week, she describes the challenges faced by Aspies and some of the consequences -- and offers a plea for change. Find the article.
12TH-GRADE 2e STUDENT REFLECTS. "The system has failed me," says a young man about to graduate from high school. In a familiar story, he relates how attention and learning issues compromised his Mensa-level abilities. Interestingly, he rails against an over-emphasis on accommodations; along with that, he says, his strengths were un- or under-recognized. You must read this. (Note: the author was previously published in 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter.)
AUTISM DIAGNOSIS RATE RISES. The figure used to be 1 in 110. Now it's 1 in 88, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. At that rate, about one million children and teens in the United States are affected by ASD. Wider screening and better diagnosis may be the reason. Find out more.
DAVIDSON INSTITUTE. This organization's eNews-Update for March is out, with information about the Intel Science Talent Search, the Khan Academy, NSGT scholarships for gifted students, and more. Find  the newsletter.
THE GIFTED DEVELOPMENT CENTER has published its March communique, noting that GDC now offers all of their articles as free downloads from their website. Also in the newsletter: Anne Beneventi writes on the Annemarie Roeper method of qualitative assessment. Read more. 
UNWRAPPING THE GIFTED. Tamara Fisher notes how the advent of RTI has displaced gifted programs in some schools. She is not enthusiastic about the movement, and asked current and former students to tell her what they got from GT programs that they didn't get anywhere else. She got lots of answers; find them. 
JUDY WILLIS. If you're a fan of Dr. Willis, be advised that her current RAD Newsletter previews her free upcoming webinar on the teen brain, and also points to other Willis resources, such as her February 1 TEDx talk "From Neuroscience Lab to the Classroom." Find the newsletter.
PRUFROCK PRESS is offering a free PDF download of two chapters from the book Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students, by Christine Fonesca. Find it at the Prufrock website.
AD/HD AND LEARNING TO DRIVE. When one of our kids had a learner's permit, he would sometimes scare the devil out of whichever parent was riding with him by apparently failing to notice relatively important road cues such as stop signs. The New York Times recently examined the issue of learning to drive with AD/HD and listed many, many factors affecting a young person's likely success -- or failure -- in the process. Find the article. Our young person did not get his license for several years after he was eligible, but increased maturity and better judgement have -- so far -- precluded tickets and accidents.
LABELING. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune ran an article about labeling kids, something all parents and educators of 2e kids have to grapple with. The main point of the article was: don't use a label as the child's defining characteristic. Read more.
PANDAS TO PANS. An expansion of the definition of Pediatric Acute-onset Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorderr Associated with Streptococcus (PANDAS) is called simply PANS -- Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome. It involves the sudden onset of OCD symptoms without a known cause. Find out more.
AND FINALLY, THIS. Via press release, we've learned that "moms are not afraid to hire a hot sitter." From the release: "Shattering the old cliche that moms don't hire beautiful sitters, a new survey reveals that today's moms would hire a good looking sitter. A survey commissioned by Sittercity found that only 7 percent of respondents stated they would not hire a beautiful babysitter or nanny. In fact the most important attribute when looking for a childcare provider is that they engage, educate and enhance their children's lives." Interestingly, sitter gender is not mentioned in the press release.

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

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.

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

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.

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

BRAIN RESOURCES from SharpBrains. The organization has released its May eNewsletter. In it are two articles that might be of interest to those who raise, educate, and counsel gifted kids with learning challenges:
  • "AD/HD: Brain training Neurofeedback, Diet, and More"
  • "Neuroplasticity in the Brain of Children with Neurological Disorders," dealing with Tourette's
EDUCATIONAL OPTIONS NEWSLETTER. Deborah Ruf has issued her June newsletter. In it are a number of pointers to useful things: an article on why gifted girls may not be as confident as they should; a list of top-10 gifted education blogs; a list of top-10 open education resources; and more. Find the newsletter. 
EDUCATOR RESOURCE FOR SUMMER. If you're a teacher of the gifted or twice-exceptional, you might be interested in Edutopia's current issue, which contains ideas for summer relaxation and learning. We notice, however, that one of the articles is titled "The Myth of Summers Off." Go to Edutopia. 
SCHOLARSHIP FOR KIDS WITH AN LD. An Alabama Internet consulting company, Lumin, has established a $2000 scholarship for a young person with an LD who is going to college. The company's founder says her mom suggested the idea and also suggested that "the scholarship be made available to students with learning disabilities. This came as no surprise since she and I spent countless hours looking for available scholarships when I was in college. (Yes…I have a learning disability…two in fact.)" Find out more, and good for Lumin Consulting!
SENG SUMMIT EARLYBIRD DISCOUNT EXTENDED. You can still save money with an earlybird discount to the July SENG conference in Seattle, but only through June 10th. Thinking of going? Check it out.
COMPETITIONS FOR GIFTED MIDDLE-SCHOOLERS. A discussion on LinkedIn has elicited opinions on the most valuable competitions for gifted middle-school students. Responses include Destination Imagination, Odyssey of the Mind, Science Olympiad, Lego Robotics Challenge, National History Day, and more. Join in -- free registration is required, and then you can continue to participate in the group, Gifted Talented Network. 
FILE THIS UNDER "NEXT YEAR." PBS and Adobe have sponsored a competition whereby selected teen documentary filmmakers receive grands for their projects, along with mentoring. This year the competition received 250 applications and awarded 15 grants. Read more at Yahoo. 
DAVIDSON INSTITUTE. Don't forget the DITD "Tips" section, which offers collections of tips on various gifted-related topics such as acceleration, AD/HD, advocacy, depression,  and lots more. Find it.
AD/HD: THE BAD NEWS. "Analysis of data from two long-term studies of the impact of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) on the development of psychiatric disorders in young adults confirms that AD/HD alone significantly increases the risk of cigarette smoking and substance abuse in both boys and girls." Read more from this report.
AND FINALLY, THIS. A father and his dyslexic son collaborated on a fantasy novel that will be published next week. According to the Biloxi, Mississippi, Sun-Herald, "The story involves a young, idealistic, inspirational kid who decides he’s going to save his kingdom, which has been taken over by goblins. There’s a princess who escaped by chance the night the palace fell and learned magic. She watches what is going on and makes him a magic sword, which completely transforms him. He becomes a great a hero." Read more.


From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

SURVEY OF MOMS OF GIFTED KIDS. A researcher (and member of the 2e community) is conducting a survey investigating the thoughts and feelings of mothers of gifted and twice-exceptional children (dads excluded). You may find out more and take the survey at SurveyMonkey.
AD/HD AND ATOMOXETINE. If you have a gifted kid with AD/HD, the choice of drug (or not to drug) is always a central part of dealing with the situation. According to Modern Medicine, the drug atomoxetine (Strattera) "is generally well tolerated and reduces core ADHD symptoms, but it fails to translate to overall clinical and functional improvement." Read more. 
INGENIOSUS. This gifted resource site contains a blog, resource listings, and archives of #gtchat, a weekly Twitter gathering on a particular topic. The site also mentions resources for twice-exceptional kids, such as 2e Newsletter and our (this) blog. Find the site. 
NOT MUCH NEWS -- that's it for today and this week. Have a good weekend!

NEW YORK RESOURCE. Melissa Sornik, one of the founders of the group Long Island Twice-Exceptional Children's Advocacy (LI-TECA), now offers a variety of services to New York-area families with 2e children: individual and family coaching, social skills training, parent support groups, and workshops. Sornik is a licensed master social worker (LMSW) and a certified SENG model parent support group facilitator. She may be reached at 516.724.7100 or by email.
FOR YOUNG, GIFTED LITERATI. A new website, Figment.com, is aimed at young people who like to read and write fiction; the site allows collaboration and feedback. Founded by a former managing editor of The New Yorker, the site is seen as a way for publishers to find young talent and also to expose readers to published authors through book excerpts. The site went live today, December 6th.
FOR THE LITERATE YOU. Google Books opened its e-bookstore today. It offers access to millions of free books and hundreds of thousands for sale. A search for "twice-exceptional" brought up 11 books (none free), including titles by Barbara Probst, Renzulli and Reiss, and Carol Kranowitz. Prices are expected to be competitive with other online e-booksellers.
GLOBAL VIRTUAL MEETINGS FOR GIFTED EDUCATION. Through Jo Freitag, we discovered that there have been three global virtual meetings concerning gifted education, all taking place in SecondLife, and presented by the Bavarian Center for Gifted and Talented Children. The first one covered "Solution Oriented Therapy for Gifted Children." The third meeting, titled "Gifted Children and the Future Problem Solving Program International," is viewable on YouTube.  To attend, one creates an avatar in SecondLife, registers the avatar's name with the conference organizers, and participates online using a headset. According to Freitag in December's Gifted Resources Newsletter, the next conference, on January 29, 2011, features Deborah Ruf on gifted underachievement. Find more information here.