As parents, you want your children to enjoy their giftedness, derive happiness from their achievements and take pride in your respect for them. The GCS staff and Board are dedicated to serving you in actualizing these; we urge you to use its services - and even ask for more!
Parental alertness is urgently needed to help gifted learners attain their true ability levels unhampered by inappropriate curricula, insufficient individualization and unidentified difficulties. As the new school year begins, parents of gifted children should ask themselves some questions: Is my child well-prepared to advance academically in all areas? Are there any residual gaps in his/her intellectual functions which need attention? Are her/his communication skills and emotional awareness equal to social needs? Perhaps these questions do not seem relevant to children who are gifted. But research showed that, on average in our society, gifted children scored lower than average children on psychomotor tasks of the revised Wechsler Intelligence Test (universally used to identify intellectual status). Significantly for us, our ongoing GCS programs (Assessment and Learning Styles studies) have also very frequently discovered uneven areas of development. In more than fifty percent, overall IQ scores of our students were diminished due to low performance on mental operations which had not been detected as atypical for the child and had not been remediated. While these factors generally were of lower-order (as compared to critical, analytical) mental operations, they are important in daily academic work.
What is crucial for parents to know is that these findings were most often associated with evidence of the child's anxiety about or avoidance of the activity and the belief that nothing could be done about it. Indeed, improvement is possible- and surprisingly swift - when the underlying impediments (attitudes, emotions of earlier derivations) are identified and alleviated. We know how. We have the means. Parents need to become aware.
Our Planned Seminars for Parents and Saturday Workshop programs offer you enrichment for your efforts to motivate and sustain your children toward their productivity and high density. Please call us. Best wishes for your success in a rewarding school year.
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Just as I.Q. stands for "Intelligence Quotient", E.Q. stands for "Emotional Quotient". I.Q. refers to raw intelligence; E.Q. refers to the capacity to empathize and to judge and relate to others. E.Q. is the ability to comfortably and effectively understand and deal with others, which is a key part of the equation for success.
Students can be taught to analyze their feelings through a teacher-directed format in which they are encouraged to be unique, express rather than stifle their feelings, and make their own choices.
A program designed to develop emotional and social intelligence by teaching students to express feelings appropriately develops skills in the areas of empathy, reading body language, communication, and, particularly, listening skills. Role playing, games, group activities, and questionnaires that relate to making choices are integral in the process. Building self esteem during the early years develops a positive pattern that will allow students to use their resources when dealing with a variety of interpersonal situations. As students mature, building a sense of competency and confidence effectively steers them toward positive thinking and an interplay of emotions. Effective problem solving techniques using real life situations provide students with the flexibility to deal with our changing culture.
Students can be taught life skills, how to interact socially, and how to make choices in a non-threatening atmosphere where they are guided by participation or observation in varied activities geared to help them enhance skills in social confidence.
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At a recent Gifted Child Society parent seminar, a mother asked how she could help her child "get in touch with his emotions".
This mother expressed one of the most significant needs facing parents in this fast changing society. What remains most daunting for parents is dealing with their children's most important reactions to experience -- emotions.
In the year long study of gifted children (GCS assessment and learning styles programs of 1995) we have found that, despite high verbal and conceptual abilities, a surprising number were unable to identify feelings and to connect them to behavior. Thus, they often demonstrated emotional and even social lag below their intellectual attainments. In some cases, emotional underdevelopment also adversely affected productivity and creativity.
How can we help our children to attain their optimal emotional growth? To begin with, children often need help identifying what is happening to them. "You look like your feelings are hurt?" can clarify what may be a confusion of reactions.
Undoubtedly, we should start early to build a child's emotional vocabulary and understanding of what causes feelings. Specifically linking a reward to positive behavior makes a good start in promoting emotional learning. Example: with a smile/hug, "That was good sharing to let Joey play with your new toy." It is equally important to identify negative feeling, e.g., "You sound grumpy." The parent's calm recognition and sympathetic acceptance of negative emotions can go a long way to establishing trust and respect. Several studies have shown that children who were often talked to about feeling and saw parents involved in benevolent acts rated the highest in empathy, caring and helpfulness.
Helping a child to make use of emotional awareness for problem solving is a potent way to build emotional and thinking skills. Parents can utilize movies, books and TV by interpreting feelings of characters, suggesting alternative acceptable behaviors in dealing with their situations: "I think he is not taking charge of his angry feelings. He should use his feelings to make things better, not worse." This encourages the child's own speculations about acceptable behaviors and could be a start to applying thought to emotions.
Reassuring children that there will be no penalty for disclosure will often ease their difficulty in communicating their feelings. The most common obstacle to a child's communicating is fear of reprisal for feeling angry at someone who is important to them. Another effective encouragement for communication is a parent's candor (appropriate for the child's emotional tolerance) and explanation of his/her negative feelings.
There is much more to be considered about this important area of parenting. In addition to interesting Saturday parent discussion meetings and parent seminars already scheduled, the Society welcomes suggestions as well as provides for individual consultations. Please feel free to write or call the Society to express your views and needs. Also, your questions will be welcome for response in this column.
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The Gifted Child Society held a Parent Conference for Families with Gifted Children on September 18, 2005 at the Marriott Glenpointe Hotel in Teaneck, New Jersey. Dr. Susan M. Baum, a professor at theCollege of New Rochelle where she teaches graduate courses in elementary education and the education of gifted and talented students, gave the keynote address - "Gifts Come in Different Packages: Focusing on Individual Differences". A wide variety of workshops presented parents with an opportunity to learn more about their gifted children and exchange ideas and ask questions.
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MISSION: "To establish a charter school for elementary grades that offers an educationally challenging curriculum to high ability students."
We had planned to include the entire mission statement in this newsletter but recently passed legislation, signed by Governor Whitman, makes that obsolete.
Here is an excerpt from this legislation:
"A charter school shall be open to all students on a space available basis and shall not descriminate in its admission policies or practices on the basis of intellectual or athletic ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, status as a handicapped person, proficiency in the English language, or any other basis that would be illegal if used by a school district; however, a charter school my limit admission to a particular grade level or to areas of concentration of the school, such as mathematics, science, or the arts. A charter school may establish reasonable criteria to evaluate prospective students which shall be outlined in the school's charter."
The hardworking ad hoc Charter School Committee did its best to persuade sponsors of the legislation and members of the education committees of both Houses to change the legislation to make it possible for us to start a school but, unfortunately, without success. Here is a quote from a letter this office received from New Jersey Commissioner of Education Leo Klagholz:
"The issues you raise are important ones but the wording on Page 4, Section #7 is to prevent a 'creaming off' of the best students in a district into a Charter School. In doing so, it focuses on preventing restrictive admission requirements. However, Charter School founders could still create a school with a highly challenging curriculum."
The charter school topic will be on the agenda of the next board meeting. It is possible that the board will pass the legislation to one or more of our lawyer members to see whether it leaves room anywhere to try for a charter school for the gifted.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our truly outstanding ad hoc Charter School committee for its hard work. We assigned "homework" at each meeting and, whether a specific member was able to attend the next meeting or not, the "homework" was always sent in. That was a first in my 30 years with the Society. Thank you again. It was truly a pleasure to work for you, in spite of the frustration.
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