At first, I had this page in the medical section, but I moved it. What was I thinking? That's like looking up composers by symptom (which might be interesting, actually). But here you go. When I was in school (and often the only gifted kid in my (very small) school), I thought that the gifted program was a hoot. One year, my "gifted program" entailed sitting in the principal's office for an hour a week with a speed reading machine. Hooweeeee! Now it's experiences like THAT which turn people into intellectuals!
I am stumbling into some gifted education stuff now, but don't know where I put it! I'll find it eventually and will put it here. I promise. If you'd like me to add information to this page, feel free to send it to me at moretoastplease (at) yahoo.com.
For now, here are:
Gifted Canada has some great resources, including an "advocacy page" to use for your child.
The Eide blog is very cool. They are two doctors who blog on current developments in neurolearning. Here is their summary page on giftedness.
Books
the Gifted Child. There's a new book out called Hothouse Kids, which is interesting, but it's a lot about how parents push their kidstoo early. Might be good for context.
You might also find some useful information on the following websites:
National Association for Gifted Children - http://www.nagc.org,
The Davidson Institute for Talent Development - http://www.ditd.org/
Additionally, AnnMarie Roeper, who is one of the foremost researchers on giftedness, now lives in El Cerrito, and I believe she still has a consultation business. http://roeperconsultation.com/.
Take This Test!
Have you seen all of the "do it yourself" tests for ADHD and other "flavor of the month" disorders? Then you probably know that if your child is disorganized, it might be (horrors!) an indicator of ADHD!!! Ridiculous.
Here's a little quiz on the opposite end of the spectrum. It talks about the positive and the negative aspects of gifted child behavior. Let's work to get this included in the discussions - it's certainly more positive than imagining that we need to drug every fourth child! Golly. We could ... challenge them instead! Quelle rebellious.
Working with Gifted and Talented Kids
The Teachers First website is very good. One of the things that it does is outline an entire hands-on approach to the concepts and skills that you should be testing your [gifted] child. But you know what? I don't really buy the "just for gifted" label here. What, the other kids should be left alone, to practice endless grammar repetition and drool into their orange juice? I don't buy it. Let's call this "ways to mentally engage kids who use their brains." And you know what? Even the "non-labeled" kids can use their brains and do cool stuff - if they're interested. I came up through the "gifted programs" and frankly, have always thought them a bit ridiculous. Why don't we just make schools better?
They suggest that Bloom's taxonomy, a model of critical thinking and a theory for developing higher levels of thought, is a good one to use with kids.