ENDORSEMENT FOR "GEEK CAMP." CNN describes summer camps for gifted young people, in particular the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth and the Duke Talent Identification Program. Read how campers past and present appreciate the experiences they had. Sample reactions: "Yes, yes, I'm not a freak..."; and "You can really get into discussions with people and they'll know exactly what you're talking about." The article's lead notes that Lady Gaga once went to gifted camp; so did one of the founders of Google and the founder of Facebook. Read the article.
MORE ON IMPULSIVITY AND DOPAMINE. Another study, this one from Vanderbilt University, links high levels of dopamine in the brain with impulsivity. Researchers there found that when highly impulsive subjects were given a drug that released dopamine their brains released more than four times as much of the chemical as the brains of less-impulsive subjects. Read the report.
iPADS FOR ALL. A college-prep school in Georgia that serves bright kids with learning challenges has decided to use the Apple iPad to learn in a multi-sensory way. One app on the iPad, Dragon Naturally Speaking, will help students with dysgraphia. The headmaster says that there are so many educational apps available that the school will be able to get rid of most textbooks. Read more.
EQUITY IN ENDOCRINE DISRUPTION. You know those things you don't want your kids exposed to because they can interfere with the body's endocrine system, including the reproductive system? They're equally high in both high-income and low-income homes, according to a study in California, and they're present in the air inside and outside as well as in dust inside the homes. Even more worrisome to us: the number of suspected endocrine disrupting compounds the scientists tested for -- about 70. That's lots of stuff to worry about. Read more.
GENES & ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE PSYCHOPATHY; that according to researchers at the University of Illinois. They discovered that "children with one variant of a serotonin transporter gene are more likely to exhibit psychopathic traits if they also grow up poor." Hopefully your encounters with gifted psychopaths will be infrequent, but now if you do encounter one you can better explain the causes. Read the report.
BOB HERBERT IS FRUSTRATED. The columnist for The New York Times notes that "the U.S., once the world’s leader in the percentage of young people with college degrees, has fallen to 12th among 36 developed nations." He sees college education as important in maintaining a good standard of living in the U.S. and crucial to the country's economic competitiveness. He blames everyone, saying "A society that closes its eyes to the most important issues of the day, that often holds intellectual achievement in contempt, that is more interested in hip-hop and Lady Gaga than educating its young is all but guaranteed to spiral into a decline." If you need more things to be depressed or angry about, read the column.
TREES AND GIFTED KIDS. Tamara Fisher makes a metaphor about growth, potential, and constraints. Read her blog.
READING DIFFICULTIES AND INTERVENTIONS. Two UK scientists compared three reading programs to see which one helped most in children with reading-comprehension difficulties. If you raise or teach a bright young person with reading problems, read about the programs and the results.
CULTURE AND PSYCHOLOGY. The July issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science evidently contained a special section on the "macro" influences on brain structure, brain function, thought, and behavior. Two of the articles were summarized in Science Daily. Find one about the influence of culture; find one about the influence of social and physical environments.
#GTCHAT. If you "tweet," or would like to, you might be interested in Michael Shaughnessy's EdNews.org interview with Deborah Mersino, who moderates #gtchat on Twitter, devoted to discussing gifted issues. Read the interview.
MAYBE IT'S NOT THE KIDS -- IT'S US. Harvard professor and author Jerome Kagan, writing for the Dana Foundation's Cerebrum, suggests that the increase in the diagnosis of childhood disorders such as AD/HD stems as much from social conditions as from biology. Among those social conditions (which have changed over the past several hundred years): changing definitions of pathology and an over-reliance on parental input for a diagnosis; emphasis on schooling as a requirement for success, an emphasis which causes stress in parents should a child show difficulty with school; and just a change in the way we live. For example, in the 17th century, says Kagan, children were likely "not required to maintain attention on an intellectual task for five of six hours a day." Kagan discusses what he evidently feels are over-diagnoses of AD/HD, bipolar disorder, and autism. This is a "big picture" article that might provide perspective to parents, educators, and clinicians who are "down in the weeds" worrying about and dealing with children's behaviors; we highly recommend it to those who deal with twice-exceptional kids. Read it.
OR -- MAYBE PREGNANCY CAUSES MENTAL DISORDERS. Seriously. An article in November 11th's New York Times outlines a new theory that parents' genes -- and competition between them in the developing embryo -- influence the development of mental disorders. It's a big theory, one that posts autism and schizophrenia on opposite ends of a spectrum of disorders. Experts in the field say, according to the article, that the theory has "demonstrated the power of thinking outside the gene." Read the article.
NO EXCUSES for not meeting the needs of gifted students. On her blog "Unwrapping the Gifted," Tamara Fisher debunks 10 common excuses for not giving gifted students what they need -- excuses such as, “If only that gifted student would bother doing his assigned work, I might consider giving him something different to do.” Read what Fisher has to say about excuses like this.
TEACHER'S RESOURCE. Edutopia has made some of its videos available through Apple's iTunesU. For example, a series of short videos on social-emotional learning is available for free download at iTunesU. So is a series titled "Integrated Studies," presenting ways teachers and students can work together in making curricular connections around a theme or topic. While you're at it, the Lucas Foundation is still soliciting founding memberships for Edutopia; find out more at Edutopia's site. (Note: you'll need iTunes installed on your computer for the video links in this item to work.)
ET (EXCELLENT TEACHER) PHONE HOME. LD Online's feature article for November is called "The Teacher's Role in Home/School Communications: Everybody Wins." It provides tips for teachers in communicating with parents. And parents? Some of the tips apply to you too. Read it.
SCHOLARSHIPS FOR DEBATERS. Now Debate This, a national educational debate and $250,000 scholarship contest for high school students, launched its 2009 program this week in partnership with the National Forensic League Speech and Debate Honor Society. The 2009 topic and focus of the second year is: "How can America achieve energy independence through the lessons of history?" More information.
SORRY, WE NEED TO SAY THIS. ScienceDaily, one of our news feeds, passed on a study today about watching television. Here's the net-out: unhappy people watch more TV. The question: is it cause and effect or something else?
EDWEEK CHAT. This week: "What Does RTI Mean in the Classroom." Transcript is here. Free registration may be required.
DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MIRROR NEURONS? If you raise or teach an Aspie, or anyone with poor social interactions, perhaps you should. Read a Society for Neuroscience article here.
GOOGLE 1. We love Google almost as much as we love Costco. Teachers and homeshooling parents can now use a Google Earth feature to tour a simulation of ancient Rome. What's more, innovative teachers can participate in a contest of lesson plans based on this virtual visit. Info here. You've got to have Google Earth installed to take advantage.
GOOGLE 2. A "vast" collection of public domain children's literature (from International Children's Digital Library) is to be scanned, digitized, and available on Google. We couldn't verify this on the Google site, but stay tuned.
HE SENT IT TO US, BUT YOU CAN'T HAVE IT YET. Each month, David Rabiner sends out "Attention Research Update," and each month we tell you what's in it. But unless you're a subscriber to his newsletter, you have to wait to access it until weeks later when he posts the newsletter. That said, the November edition is about an electronic method for diagnosing AD/HD. The method: Quantitative EEGs, which may detect distinctive brain activity in those with AD/HD. The results: QEEGs can provide a biological marker for AD/HD and complement comprehensive diagnostic examinations for AD/HD. The study review will be here -- eventually.
NAGC CONTINUES FOR CAROLYN K -- IN MALAYSIA. Carolyn K, the webmistress of the Hoagies' Gifted site who is apparently intent on building a website with more pages than any other in the world, was at the U.S. NAGC conference in Tampa, Florida, a couple weeks ago. This week she followed that up with a visit to NAGC of Malaysia, where she presented a keynote address. She is blogging about her travels and visit, and you can read all about them here.
TEACHING THE GIFTED AND 2e is what Linda Collins, of a school in Overland Park, Kansas, does every day. In an interview with Michael Shaughnessy of EdNews.org, you can read about Collins' "Teacher of the Year" award, how she views the rewards and challenges of teaching gifted children, and her work with twice-exceptional students. We've heard Collins speak at conferences, and her sessions are always full-to-overflowing with ideas, revelations, and the results of her 20 years' experience in teaching. Read the interview. (2e Newsletter subscribers can find our coverage of a SENG conference session by Collins in the September, 2008, issue of the newsletter.)
BF SKINNER LIVES. If you believe in behavior analysis and modification, you might be interested in a panel discussion sponsored by the Chicago School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles, on October 24th at 5:15 pm. The session is titled "Unraveling Autism: What's Next in Treatment and How Do We Best Train Practitioners to Provide It?" The school says of applied behavior analysis that "this therapeutic system has become known as the only effective treatment for helping children and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities improve their social, motor, verbal, and reasoning skills." More information.
SERVICE DOGS GO ROBOTIC. An article in the November, 2007, issue of 2e Newsletter described some of the ways service dogs can assist children with Asperger's, sensory issues, and other problems -- for example, by interrupting behaviors leading up to a meltdown, being a calming influence, or applying "deep pressure" by snuggling. An article appearing in MIT's Technology Review this week describes how researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are developing robots to mimic the actions some service dogs perform. The robot E1-E can respond to commands given by a laser pen or by voice to do things such as fetching a towel. But will it be able to cuddle satisfactorily or provide a good lick on the face? Read the article.
AD/HD KIDS AND FAMILY LIFE. Parents with children who have one or more exceptionalities know that raising such children can lead to stress in the spousal relationship. Unfortunately, a study reported this week in Science Daily confirms this, showing that parents of a child with AD/HD are almost twice as likely to divorce by the time the child is 8 than parents of children without AD/HD. Other factors contributing to the risk of divorce included the severity of coexisting disorders in the children with AD/HD, such as ODD or conduct disorder. Do the results extrapolate to 2e families harboring issues such as Asperger's, dyslexia, sensory integration issues, and other exceptionalities? Be careful out there, parents of 2e kids.
SCHOOL FOR DYSLEXICS. Greengate School, a small private school in Huntsville, Alabama, is for dyslexics. It was founded by the mother whose son is dyslexic; many of the teachers have dyslexic children. Families of some of the students have moved to Alabama from other states so that their children could attend Greengate. According to an article in the Huntsville Times, staff and students draw inspiration from posters and quotes of dyslexics such as John F. Kennedy, Wernher von Braun, and Walt Disney. Read the article. Go to the school's website.
AUTISM MYTH-BUSTERS. Autism is an emotional or mental health disorder, right? We are in the middle of an autism epidemic, right? Well, ABC News on October 23rd published responses to what they call 10 common myths about autism. Read the myths and responses.
VIRTUAL SCHOOLING. Parents and educators of gifted students often turn to non-traditional resources in order to provide for their students' needs. Online learning is one. The fifth Virtual School Symposium (VSS) on K-12 online learning is October 26-26 in Glendale, Arizona. About 1,200 online learning experts and educators are expected. According to the symposium host, The North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL), students enrolled in an estimated one million K-12 online courses last year in the United States. Read about the symposium. Read about NACOL.
WORDS OF WISDOM for kids now come at the touch of a button, according to the manufacturer of Life Learning Devices (LLD). For US$29.95 parents can purchase the Secrets of Life and Words of Wisdom LLD. According to the company, "Life Learning Devices are placed on the kitchen table, beside a coffee pot, on a clothes dresser, on the desk at work or on a nightstand... [P]arents can now easily and consistently expose their children to the values and mindsets of some of history's most accomplished icons... Legendary achievers and innovators have followed certain secrets that allow them to do great things in life. This LLD delivers these secrets along with mantras and quotes that motivate people to make their dreams a reality. Belief systems and values of people who have fulfilled their dreams are shared with the touch of a button." And at $29.95, it's surely a lot less expensive than a college education. And if you find the secret of life, let us know. Visit the LLD site.