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:

Hoagie's Gifted Education Page seems like a wonderful resource.

Gifted Canada has some great resources, including an "advocacy page" to use for your child.

This is a link to the Hollingworth Center for Highly Gifted Children, which is located in central Maine.  Excellent information on the needs of highly gifted kids, though, and good links also.

Dabrowski's theories of overexcitabilities. Here's a website about Dabrowski (including discussion groups.)  And it also contains a link to the original poem by Dabrowski, "Be greeted psychoneurotics!"

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
Here are some books for the gifted learner from New Horizons, a wonderful journal and website with great insights, resources, and pointers.

The two top books that I've heard of for gifted childre are:  Growing Up Gifted, and Gifted Children: Myths and Realities. Two good books that are specifically about parenting gifted kids are The Survival Guide for Parents of Gifted Kids, and Guiding
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?

Here's the Teacher's First overview.
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. 
It's not easy when your kid is "different."  No matter how.  Society, especially here in the silicon valley, has a real tendency to chew up and spit out the "different" kids.  Lousy.   The good news is that difficult experiences make interesting people.

See also these links.

Homeschooling the Gifted Kid

Mom's ADHD Page

Mom's OT Page

Mom's Media page




Giftedness and Gifted Education
The Anachronistic Mom's notes on