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For the Week of August 31st

FOR BRAINY BRAIN FREAKS. We haven't mentioned this resource for awhile -- Eric Chudler's Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter. Each month, Chudler, a faculty member at the University of Washington, e-mails a new edition to subscribers, covering topics such as what's new at the the Neuroscience for Kids website, brain trivia, a site of the month, and pointers to various recent news items on neuroscience. In the current issue, September's, Chudler explains how school buses came to be yellow -- and how scientific evidence now supports the wisdom of that choice. Current issue not yet posted; see last month's issue here.

EDUCATION REFORM. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has released a 35-page booklet called "A Parent's Guide to Education Reform." The bulk of the booklet deals with school choice as a solution; part of the organization's website is also devoted to that issue. Find the booklet here.

ANTIPSYCHOTICS IN KIDS. Science Daily previewed research results on the benefits and risks of antipsychotic medicines in children, along with their impact on individual well-being, social, educational, and/or vocational functioning, and "disease burden." The net-out, in the words of the preview:

  • Early intervention with an effective and well-tolerated antipsychotic provides symptomatologic improvement in some mental disorders in children and adolescents that may modify the actual course of the disease associated with these disorders.
  • Children and adolescents seem to have a higher risk than adults for experiencing adverse events such as extrapyramidal symptoms, prolactin elevation, sedation, weight gain, and metabolic effects when taking antipsychotics.
  • Patients and their families should be included in a careful risk-benefit assessment before prescribing any specific antipsychotic.
If you have a gifted child using antipsychotics as treatment for a conduct disorder, Tourette's, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or tics, you might be interested in this document.

BEHAVIOR AND EMOTIONAL DISORDERS IN TEENS is a topic that concerns any loving parent and probably every teacher of middle school and high school. Parents and teachers know that learning challenges can lead to such disorders in high-ability children, and that the disorders can alienate students from adults or classmates. The results can be a high drop-out rate. Education Week reported this week that a consortium of seven universities have received funding for a National Research and Development Center on Serious Behavioral Disorder at the Secondary Level. The article describes some of the interventions to be evaluated for addressing the problem. Read it.

ADDRESSING BARRIERS TO LEARNING. That's the goal of the ENEWS newsletter from the School Mental Health Project/Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA. Their September issue is just out, 11 pages of pointers to articles, publications, links, and other resources. While we don't ever recall seeing twice-exceptionality explicitly addressed in the newsletter, some of the content might be of interest to the intended audience, "those concerned with enhancing policies, programs, and practices related to addressing barriers to student learning and to promoting mental health in schools." For example, the September edition asks for readers' takes on the issue of enhancing school/family/community collaboration to help at-risk children; points to a variety of professional articles on topics in children's mental and physical health, articles with titles such as "How do school connectedness and attachment to parents interrrelate in predicting adolescent depressive symptoms?"; and recognizes a variety of articles on policy, system, law, ethics, finance and statistics. Find the newsletter here, along with archives of past issues.

WRIGHTSLAW. The September 3rd edition of Special Ed Advocate provides back-to-school tips, including ways to create high expectations, build resilience, and defeat the first-day jitters.

MORE ADVOCACY RESOURCES. Rich Weinfeld and Michelle Davis, directors of the Special Needs Advocacy Training Institute in Maryland and authors of Special Needs Advocacy Resource Book, are offering a four-session workshop beginning in October for parents, graduate students, educators, and other professionals with an interest in advocacy and special education law. Find out more.

From the Week of August 24th

THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF BRILLIANCE. We subscribe to and enjoy Scientific American Mind, which sometimes makes articles from the print edition available online and sometimes not. So when we got around to reading the August/September issue and found a good article about the brain and intellect titled "High-Aptitude Minds," the first thing we wondered was whether it would be available online -- and it is, right here. The article covers the association of intelligence with brain size (total volume and the size of certain parts of the brain); the contributions of different areas of the brain; how hard certain areas of the brain work in gifted versus normal children; and the potential effects of practice on brain anatomy. An associated article in the same issue stresses the importance of proper attention to and coaching of gifted children in order for them to perform to their potential.

BACK TO SCHOOL OVERLOAD. The barrage of articles and press releases coming our way with the words "back to school" in them has been somewhat overwhelming, but among the product pitches and self-serving announcements we found one from physicians at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Chicago) emphasizing five sensible and simple tips:

  1. Go to bed early and get up early. Make a transition to the school schedule.
  2. Eat properly, including a healthy breakfast.
  3. Get active with at least one hour of moderate-intensity exercise each day.
  4. (For parents) Recognize signs of stress such as irritability, impulsive behavior, frequent nightmares, recurring headaches or stomachaches, or a consistent lack of desire to go to school.
  5. Be up to date with health exams and vaccines (okay, maybe the release is a tiny bit self-serving).
Read the press release.

ARIZONA 2e RESOURCE. Two Arizona parents have established a website called "Arizona Twice Exceptional," a collection of resources for Arizona families. The parents, Kelly and Gary Rostan, state on their site that in 2009 they hope to open a local alternative school for twice-exceptional children. Their comprehensive list of resources should actually be very useful for 2e families worldwide. Resource topics with links include:
  • Twice exceptional
  • Books on neurologic learning differences
  • Sensory processing disorder
  • 2e homeschooling
  • Social/emotional
  • Talent development
  • Experts available for consultation
  • Publications
  • Organizations
  • Legal
We were honored that Kelley Rostan starts off her "Top 3 Picks" with 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter. (Okay, so she listed them in alphabetic order -- Hoagies Gifted is second and the Uniquely Gifted site is third.) Check out the Rostan's site.

RESOURCE. Edutopia distributed its electronic August/September issue this week. The magazine focuses not so much on giftedness or LDs so much on what it is we need to do to improve the overall educational process now and in the future. The current issue features articles on ten predictions for the future of public education; on how "smart and targeted use of technology can provide customized and affordable education that allows students to learn in their preferred style and at their own pace"; one titled "Greenbacks for Grades"; and more.

HOME-AND-SCHOOL COMMUNICATION. No families need good communication with school more than families with underachieving kids, underachievement that often stems from dual exceptionalities. Pearson, a vendor of IT applications and services for schools, released this week the results of a survey the company commissioned on school-to-home communication. Some of the responses may help parents and educators benchmark their own communication habits. From the survey report:
  • About 70 percent of the K-12 parents surveyed wanted to receive academic or progress information weekly or monthly rather than at report card time.
  • When asked how often they'd like updates on their children's performance, 12 percent of parents wanted it daily and 57 percent wanted it weekly.
  • Parents responded that their school's primary methods for communication are mail (16 percent), email (25 percent), newsletter (20 percent), parent-teacher conferences (26 percent) and phone (13 percent).
  • Of the parents surveyed, 42 percent of their children (not the parents) currently have online access to grades, attendance, and teacher comments.
  • Of the parents, 38 percent currently have online access to their child's performance information.
Perhaps it will be systems from companies such as Pearson that will enable parents of high-ability but learning-challenged children to receive timely, detailed information on grades, homework status, progress reporting, and upcoming assignments. As any parent of a 2e child would agree, using such a system would be much preferable to painfully pulling that same information out of the student or out of his/her backpack. Hopefully educators will find such systems worth the effort to help not only 2e students but all pupils. The report should be available soon at www.pearsonschoolsystems.com/survey.

PARENTING FOR HIGH POTENTIAL. The June issue (okay, so we're getting to it a little late) of this publication from the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) contains an article titled "The Perils of Parenting -- Top 10 Things Not to Say to Your Gifted Child." Read what the author, a teacher and a parent of gifted children, says about these thoughts that have slipped out of all of our mouths at one time or another.

From the Week of August 17th

VIDEO GAMES: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UNEXPECTED. Research presented during this past week at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association confirmed some of the good effects and bad effects of video game play. On the one hand, game play can improve cognitive and perceptual skills; on the other hand, players of violent games are more hostile, less forgiving, and more likely to believe violence is "normal." And yes, frequent players performed less well in school and were at greater risk for obesity. So what was unexpected? Gaming can evidently improve the skills involved in advanced surgical procedures -- spatial skills and hand dexterity. So should you let your gifted kid play video games? Read more research here.

BRAIN FACTS. If the proper points on your "mental map" of the brain don't light up when you read phrases like "Broca's area" or "angular gyrus," check out a primer on the brain available from the Society for Neuroscience. Chapters we found interesting and relevant to child psychology and child brain functioning included those on the topics of the neuron; brain development; learning, memory and language; challenges such as AD/HD, autism, and Tourette syndrome; and new diagnostic methods. A bonus: a glossary of brain-related terms. It also contains material of interest for adult neurological issues. Find it here.

MORE BRAIN STUFF. Go to the site of the Dana Foundation to find an online version of the publication The 2008 Progress Report on Brain Research. So far in our print version, we've turned down the corners of pages dealing with arts and cognition, including the effects of arts training; the possible use of deep brain stimulation for conditions such as OCD and Tourette's; recent research on the genetics of autism and on AD/HD; and recent research on bipolar disorder and OCD. While you're at the site, check it out to see if there are publications you'd like to subscribe to or news you'd like to read.

USEFUL FOR THE GT/LD COMMUNITY? The Washington Post ran an article about a site called NiceCritic.com, where users can anonymously send pre-written criticism or comments to others via email. We started thinking about whether this tool could have a constructive use in communication between parents and educators, between educators and children, or between parents and children. Sample messages include:

  • Your talking in class is distracting.
  • You have great ideas, please participate more.
  • Your test was too hard.
  • Please try sharing a bit more.
  • Try not to interrupt the teacher so much.
Some of those are evidently meant for peer-to-peer communication, but the possibility exists of using them otherwise. Are there times when anonymous communication can be more useful or effective than personal communication? Is it "cheating" to communicate anonymously? Would students abuse the process in communicating with teachers? If these education-related examples leave you cold, visit the site to find out what kind of insults you can send to co-workers. ("Please do not remove your shoes. Your feet tend to give off an aroma.")

GRANDIN ON SCREEN. Various sources reported this week that autistic scientist and speaker Temple Grandin is to be the subject of a "biopic" for HBO. She will be played by Claire Danes. Grandin is familiar as a speaker to those who attend conferences on giftedness and LDs; some of her presentations have been covered in 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter. Read about the biopic.

GIFTED EDUCATION PRESS. The Fall issue of Gifted Education Press Quarterly is online at www.giftededpress.com. The issue contains articles on gifted girls, differentiation, and more. Read it.

APROPOS OF NOTHING GT/LD. An article in the Houston Chronicle carried a denial from the Houston school districts that teachers would be able to carry handguns in school this fall. The denial was prompted by the actions of a small (110-student) North Texas school system that, says the Chronicle, allows its teachers to become authorized to carry guns at school, supposedly to protect employees and students from armed intruders. Much of the article consisted of reactions from other educational professionals. The article did not consider possible benefits of teachers carrying weapons in situations like these:
  • AD/HD? I don't believe in it. Achieve to your potential, kid -- or else.
  • Okay, kids, put those water balloons down on the floor and back away slowly.
  • Mystery meat again? Tomorrow I want to see something edible in this cafeteria.
  • What do you mean, Madam Colleague, that Wordsworth was a better poet than Coleridge? Clear leather!
  • And I say that evolution is right [wrong/whatever].
  • No way my Odyssey of the Mind team's entry isn't best, Mr. Judge. And isn't that kind of a little pea-shooter you're carrying?
  • What do you mean, Mr. Superintendent, that I'm not getting tenure? [Although maybe the size of the weapon carried depends on one's rank in the district hierarchy.]
  • You're cutting school early? Well, you've got to ask yourself one question -- "Do I feel lucky." Well, do you ya, punk?
Maybe the entire thing stems from something Clint Eastwood supposedly said: "I have a very strict gun control policy: if there's a gun around, I want to be in control of it." Read the article.