Education Learning Issues

• Fisher: What did you used to think and believe about gifted students and gifted education? 
• Teacher: I used to believe that gifted ed starts in 3rd grade and that students who are gifted always do well academically unless they are lazy.

ASPERGER'S IN COLLEGE. The Brownsville Herald had an article on the topic of college for high-functioning autistic kids, including a profile of one young man about to graduate from high school. The article names some universities that provide support for students with high-functioning autism, and mentions the organization Achieving in Higher Education with Autism/Developmental Disabilities (AHEADD). Find the article.

SENG NEWSLETTER. The January issue of  SENG Vine, a newsletter from the organization Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted, is out. It contains an article on dealing with existential depression in gifted young people, based on content from the SENG Model Parent Group. Also in this issue, an interview with Professor Jean Sunde Peterson of Purdue University on social and emotional issues in gifted kids. Find the newsletter.

SPEAKING OF DEPRESSION: A recent study links omega-3-deficient diets with mood disorders such as depression -- in mice, at least. Significantly, intra-uterine development characterized by a lack of these fatty acids may influence emotional behavior in adulthood. Read about the study.

SPEAKING OF NUTRITION: Worry about those energy drinks your kids or students consume? We do. An article in The New York Times explains possible ill effects. Find it.

GIRLS AND VIDEO GAMES. ABC News notes a study showing that girls who played video games with their parents "behaved better, felt more connected to their families, and had better mental health than those girls who did not play video games with their parents." We're not talking Grand Theft Auto, but age-appropriate video games like Mario Kart, Mario Brothers, Wii Sports, Rock Band, and Guitar Hero. The effect did not extend to boys. Read more.

RTI: PART OF THE EVALUATION but not a substitute for the entire comprehensive evaluation for specific learning disabilities. That's the message in an Education Week blog "On Special Education," which discusses the contents of a recent memo on the topic from the federal Office of Special Education Programs.  Find out more.

SMART KIDS WITH LDs. The 2011 Smart Kids with LD Youth Achievement Award is open for nominations. It's given to "a student 19 or younger who has demonstrated initiative, talent, and determination resulting in a notable accomplishment in any field," according to the organization. The entry deadline is only two weeks away. Find out more.

AND FINALLY, THIS. We were intrigued by an ad in a newspaper this morning announcing the Fall, 2012, opening in New York City of a school for children 3 to 18. "Avenues," billed as a rigorous "world school," will eventually have campuses in 20 major world cities and will prepare students for global life, emphasizing cultural studies and language. Find out more at the school's website.

• Explorations in Giftedness  by Robert J. Sternberg 
• Conceptions of Giftedness by Robert J. Sternberg
  
• Encyclopedia of Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent by Barbara A. (Alane) Kerr

DID YOU BELIEVE IN JAVITS? The Senate committee charged with appropriating funds for its continuation didn't, according to their vote on July 29th -- but the battle may move now to the US House of Representatives. Find more information at the CEC website.

THE EFFECT OF GOOD TEACHERS, QUANTIFIED. Try $320,000 -- that's the estimated value of a stand-out kindergarten teacher, as measured by the increased earnings of a full class or his or her students. The New York Times reported on a longitudinal study of 12,000 children, in which some teachers were identified as being able to help their students learn much more than other teachers. The results? "Students who had learned much more in kindergarten were more likely to go to college than students with otherwise similar backgrounds. Students who learned more were also less likely to become single parents. As adults, they were more likely to be saving for retirement. Perhaps most striking, they were earning more." Read the article and give a raise to a standout teacher you know.

ON BULLYING. Also from The New York Times: An op-ed piece "There's Only One Way to Stop a Bully" (training teachers and staff how to recognize bullying and intervene), along with quite a few thoughtful responses to the article by readers. If bullying is an issue that you're concerned with, find the article and find the responses.

AD/HD AND DIET. An Australian study suggests that adolescents eating a "Western" diet have twice the risk of AD/HD than those eating a "Healthy" diet, one high in fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, and fish. The Western diet? It's heavy in takeaway foods, confectionery, processed, fried and refined foods, and higher in total fat, saturated fat, refined sugar, and sodium. The researchers speculate the difference in the levels of omega-3 fatty acids might be the culprit. Read more, then go harass your teenager.

INTELLIGENCE AND THE BRAIN is a new book by Dennis Garlick, Ph.D., who answers questions about it in an interview with Michael Shaughnessy. Topics covered include the nature of intelligence, IQ, and IQ testing. Find it.

TEACHING MICROBIOLOGY WITH A VIDEO GAME. It can be done successfully, according to a press release from Wake Forest University. CellCraft, a game developed there and available on popular gaming sites, was played more than a million times within 10 days of its release. Gamers made comments such as, "I wish this game would've come out earlier; maybe I wouldn't have received a D in Biology." The game is available for free download at www.cellcraftgame.com. For the school year, it will include a free, downloadable teacher's packet and a printable lab worksheet. Read more.

STUCK AT PROM CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED. One of our favorite contests, where high-school prom-goers make their outfits out of Duck brand duct tape, has announced this year's winners. You can see the winners here. (You've got to admit, winning this contest takes creativity, discipline, and artistic talent. It's not every kid that would spend up to 300 hours to craft, say, a Victorian-inspired gown -- even if the kids did get to spend the time in the company of their prom dates.)

BACK TO SCHOOL? It's not even August. But anyway, the American Optometric Association has issued its back-to-school recommendation for eye exams. The press release includes indicators of vision problems, for example performing below potential or struggling to complete homework. Find the release. Along those lines, the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD), members of which have been featured in 2e Newsletter, note that August is National Children's Vision and Learning Month. Find the COVD website.

DSM-V -- CONTINUING SAGA. An editorial in the Journal of Mental Health expresses concerns among experts that proposed guidelines in the new DSM would qualify almost everyone as having some sort of disorder. You can actually read the full editorial online, or you can read others' interpretations here or here.

2e NETWORK IN LOS ANGELES. A couple of our readers in the Los Angeles area who have twice-exceptional children have, because of their struggle with the area schools to obtain services, formed an email support group called 2e Network, with a Yahoo group called 2e_Network_LA@yahoogroups.com. If you'd like to contact the parents directly, please let us know and we'll forward your email address to them.

VIDEO GAMES AND YOUR CHILD. Here's a recent notice from the American Academy of Pediatrics on the topic: Television viewing has been associated with attention problems in children. A new study, “Television and Video Game Exposure and the Development of Attention Problems,” published in the August print issue of Pediatrics (published online July 5), found a similar effect for video games. Researchers assessed 1,323 children in third, fourth and fifth grades over 13 months, using reports from the parents and children about their video game and television habits, as well as teacher reports of attention problems. Another group of 210 college students provided self-reports of television habits, video game exposure and attention problems. Researchers found children who exceeded the 2 hours per day of screen time recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics were 1.5 to 2 times more likely to be above average in attention problems. Furthermore, early adults showed a similar association, suggesting that early video game exposure may have lasting consequences. Read or download the article... for free! (Thanks, AAP.)

BUT NOT OUR CHILDREN, OF COURSE. The New York Times carried an article about college cheating, and we were surprised not only by the high-tech ways in which students try to cheat but also by the prevalence -- 61 percent of students surveyed admitted cheating on assignments or exams, a figure that made us suddenly feel old-fashioned... or just old. Colleges are fighting back with high-tech methods, although some still prefer "honor." Read the article.

GIFTED PROGRAM TESTING AT 3... That refers to test subjects who three years old, which is what is happening in New York City as parents try to get their children into gifted programs. The item generated some debate, which you can read here.

GIFTED AND MATH CHALLENGED? We stumbled on a site called "The Dyscalculia Forum" where a discussion is in progress about how it feels to be gifted and to have dyscalculia. Find it.

WHAT'S YOUR STAND ON FOOD DYES? One of the partners here at 2e Newsletter forward us an item noting that the Center for Science in the Public Interest recommends banning chemical dyes used as food coloring because of "serious health risks." The news item also mentions the effects on children. In the email containing the link to the item, our partner asked, "Haven’t parents been saying this for a long time?" Yup. Read more.

GOT A PASSION and the urge to communicate it to educators or parents in the gifted or twice-exceptional field? The National Association for Gifted Children has opened up proposal submissions for its 2010 conference, to be held in Atlanta next November. Find out more and register to submit a proposal.

FILM CONTEST FOR GIFTED YOUTH. The organization Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG) is inviting kids to "creatively share what it feels like to be gifted -- in two minutes or less." Gifted kids under 18 may submit a video by posting it on YouTube and submitting an entry form to SENG. Deadline: Midnight, March 1st. Find out more.

MORE ON NEUROEDUCATION. Lately we've posted a few times on the topic of neuroeducation, using the findings of neuroscience to guide teaching methods in the ordinary, everyday classroom. An article in The New York Times from December 20th gave examples of how neuroeducation works with math in the classroom. For example, pre-schoolers can learn cardinality, and are able to do simple division when the concept is delivered appropriately. For example, one expert quoted in the article said, “If children have games and activities that demonstrate the relationship between numbers, then quantity becomes a physical experience.” Neuroeducation builds on innate abilities such as subitizing, using parts of the brain that instinctively judge quantity. If you're looking for an article that makes neuroeducation concrete, try this one.

BRIGHT, INTELLIGENT, AND STRUGGLING TO READ. A study to be published in January shows that IQ and reading ability in dyslexics are not linked over time and do not influence each other, as opposed to typical readers, whose IQ and reading ability track together and influence each other. The study's lead author, Dr. Sally Shaywitz, says in a Science Daily article that "I've seen so many children who are struggling to read but have a high IQ. Our findings of an uncoupling between IQ and reading, and the influence of this uncoupling on the developmental trajectory of reading, provide evidence to support the concept that dyslexia is an unexpected difficulty with reading in children who otherwise have the intelligence to learn to read." Read more.

OMEGA-3 AND SENSORY OVERLOAD. Also from Science Daily, research indicating that omega-3 fatty acids help animals avoid sensory overload. From the article: "The finding connects low omega-3s to the information-processing problems found in people with schizophrenia; bipolar, obsessive-compulsive, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders; Huntington's disease; and other afflictions of the nervous system." The study examined the role of DHA fatty acid in sensorimotor gating, which helps animals respond to stimuli, and suggests that the proper fatty acids might have therapeutic potential. Read the article.

VIDEO GAMES IN THE CLASSROOM. The Sunday supplement Parade Magazine describes a classroom in New York City in which educators use a curriculum entirely focused on video games. According to the article, students "study and explore subjects through role-playing activities and computer-driven interactive quests... They work together on game-like 'missions,' solving puzzles and completing challenges as teams. Their courses have been combined into multidisciplinary “domains...” And at semester's end? They reach the "next level." Find the article.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND. The January issue has been mailed and contents are online. Although the "meaty" articles are reserved for subscribers or those willing to buy the digital issue online, interested readers may find some "public" features of interest: "How Birth Order Affects Your Personality"; "Should Parents Spank Their Kids?"; book reviews; and other items. Go to the table of contents to see what interests you.

WE BASH VIDEO GAMES, sometimes, but an article in the Boston Globe describes research about the positive side of the games. From the article: "Most games involve a huge number of mental tasks, and playing can boost any one of them. Fast-paced, action-packed video games have been shown, in separate studies, to boost visual acuity, spatial perception, and the ability to pick out objects in a scene. Complex, strategy-based games can improve other cognitive skills, including working memory and reasoning." The article also notes that video games are just a medium, and, as such, neither inherently good nor bad. Find the article.

THE EIDES ON VIDEO GAMES. Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide, in their Neurolearning blog, note that action-based video games can improve contrast sensitivity in players -- the ability to discern close shades of gray. The ability to train this sensitivity may help kids with lazy eye, or older adults who are losing their night vision. The Eides also weigh in with their opinion on "Anti-learning Style" proponents such as Daniel Willingham, the subject of two recent items in this blog. Find the Eide's blog.

NAGC'S ANNUAL CONFERENCE is November 5th through 8th. We will have a presence at the conference, and we look forward to meeting friends of 2e Newsletter. Hope to see you there!

LD AWARENESS MONTH is October in the US and Canada, points out the LD Online Newsletter. Find out more.

CHINESE DYSLEXIA IS DIFFERENT than dyslexia in English speakers, contend two researchers at the University of Hong Kong. The researchers explain English dyslexia as a "phonological disorder" only, a problem mapping speech sounds onto letters. Chinese dyslexia, they say, combines a visuospatial deficit and a phonological disorder. The difference is related to the characteristics of the two languages. Read more.

VIDEO GAMES AND ATTENTION. Science Daily reported on a study showing that video game experience has a negative impact on the player's "proactive attention," which is defined as "gearing up" or planning moves in games. It contrasts with "reactive attention," which is "just in time" attention manifested in reaction to events such as dealing with a monster that suddenly appears in one's path. The researchers say their findings are in line with other studies showing a relation between frequent gaming and AD/HD. However, the report goes on to say, "This negative relationship between action games and proactive attention can be contrasted with the beneficial effects of these games on other aspects of visual processing." Find the report.

THE DUKE GIFTED LETTER, Fall edition, has been emailed, and one article in it is "Overexcitabilities and the Gifted Child," which describes overexcitabilities and offers ways to support a gifted child with overexcitabilities. Find it. Also in the issue, an article about praise and gifted children -- benefits and pitfalls.

KIDS' SCIENCE CHALLENGE is an NSF-funded competition, now in its second year, for students in grades 3 through 6. According to "Science Friday," a program on NPR, "Teams this year will focus on topics including bio-inspired designs, sports that would be suitable for play on Mars, and forensic science." You can find out more and listen to the program at NPR.

THE ONLINE BARGAIN BASEMENT is the title of a webinar to be presented by Gifted Online Conferences and featuring Carolyn K, webmistress of Hoagies' Gifted Education Page. Here's what the Gifted Online Conferences page says about the webinar: "The online bargain basement with classes, curriculum units and enrichment materials for all grades K-12, all totally accessed on the Internet for free. Curriculum libraries, containing units from English to Social Studies, Science to Math, even the Arts, all organized and including the instructional
standards met for each grade level. Interactive enrichment materials supplement any subject, and free textbooks and classroom materials round out the Bargain Basement offerings." Register ($10) or find out more.

WONDERING ABOUT KINDLE and whether it will play a part in your gifted student's learning? Some of the 200-plus college students using the devices tell what they think about Amazon's e-reader. Read their reactions.

COLLEGE AT 12. The New York Times covered the college experience so far of 12-year-old Colin Carlson, who attends the University of Connecticut full time. He had actually been attending classes at the university since age 8. Colin lives at home and commutes, but carries a full class load. The writer says of Colin that he "looks like a young Woody Allen, but with better social skills." Read the article.

ELITISM? Also in the New York Times this past Sunday was a review of the book Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality, by Charles Murray. Murray, according to the review, thinks that it's impossible to raise academic ability and that most children -- 80 percent -- should not go on to college. The title of the review is, "Just Leave Them Behind." Read the review.

VIDEO GAMES AND BEHAVIOR. Regular child and adolescent violent video game use early in the school year predicted later aggressive behavior in both the U.S. and Japan, according to a new study from the American Academy of Pediatrics. According to the AAP, researchers monitored the behavior of more than 1,200 students in Japan, ages 12 to 18, and 364 U.S. students, ages 9 to 12. The study results were similar: habitual violent video game play early in the school year predicted later aggression. The more the children played violent video games, the more physically aggressive they became. The AAP website is here.

THE FLIP SIDE OF VIDEO GAMES. The latest "Trend and 'Tudes" survey from Harris Interactive finds that four in five youth say they play sports at least once a week. (We'd bet that video game play is much more than that, both in frequency and duration.) The survey also includes data on organized sports participation. Read the survey.

MAY YOUR FAMILY'S DIAGNOSISTIC PROCESS BE QUICKER THAN THIS. ABC News published the story of 29-year-old Jason Ross, who over the decades was successively diagnosed with speech delay, AD/HD, psychosis not otherwise specified, and OCD. In a multi-year detour, he was thought to be schizophrenic; here's how is mother tells that story in the article: "You'd say, 'Do you hear voices?' and he'd say, 'Yes' ... It took three or four years until he got that the question was, 'Is it in your mind, or is it other people on the street?'" Ross was finally diagnosed at age 25 with Asperger's. He has graduated from college and works as a cardiovascular technician. Read the article.

GOT A SMART 10TH-GRADER? Do you think he or she should be allowed to take exams to earn immediate entrance to community college or technical school? New Hampshire does -- the state, according to Time Magazine, will allow students to skip the last two years of high school should they wish, based on passing a set of state exams. Those interested in attending more challenging universities may finish the final two years and take a different, more rigorous set of tests. The exams have yet to be developed. Read the article.

NOW IT'S TV THAT CAUSES AUTISM -- at least, according to a study of rainfall records in three western states. Actually, the link is only with the number of rainy or snowy days, on which children are presumed to watch more TV. Scientists recommend further study and replication. Read the article.

BIKING TO CHILE. That's the mission of Tyson Minck, a dyslexic college student at Western Washington University, who qualified for a $15,000 Adventure Learning Grant to "study and travel abroad for 10 months, learn from that community and bring that knowledge back to the [college] community," according to the school's website. An article in today's WWU student newspaper gives some perspective on the trip and its impact on Minck. Read it.