Improving Verbal skills: Bridging the Verbal Gap Finding the Right Words Blind and deaf since the age of 19 months, Helen Keller grew up and became the first deafblind woman to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree. Although she had already begun communicating with her family with simple signs by age seven, she was only [...]
Gifted Introverts: The Quiet Contradiction Inviting the Wallflower to Bloom If I had a nickel for every time a grown-up told young me to smile more, or asked me why I was so quiet, or if I was sad, well, I would have had enough money to wall them all out and be pleasantly alone [...]
Psychomotor overexcitability: Life as an Exclamation Mark in a World of Periods Don’t Say “Use Your Indoor Voice” Motormouth. Chatterbox. Hyper. Loud. Labels like these can lock people into uncomfortable and insecure relationships to the world, particularly when they overlook the real reason a gifted student can’t stop moving and talking: a psychomotor overexcitability. In [...]
Helping Underrepresented Students Overcome Failure with Self-Regulation One of my favorite “failure stories” is that of Michael Jordan. The boy who never made his high school basketball team went on to become one of the most recognized and accomplished athletes of the sport. He is the first to admit that he had to endure failure [...]
Motivating the Gifted Underachiever What to Do When Potential Gets Sidetracked Watching a monarch butterfly unfurl its iconic rust and black wings is a surprisingly profound experience. But, the moment shifts abruptly when it becomes clear that something went wrong early on. The wings are stunted; this stunning creature is not destined to make the [...]
Assessing Gifted Strategies: An Administrator’s Guide It’s Not Easy Being Dean...or Principal “There are two kinds of weakness, that which breaks and that which bends.” -James Russell Lowell It takes a special person to thrive in an administrative role. Not only does a school administrator have to make weighted decisions and mindful evaluations of their [...]
Is depression in gifted students suffocating creative genius? Idealism and Depression in gifted students Funnyman Robin Williams brought laughter and joy to to audiences all over the world with his antics in roles such as Peter Pan, Aladdin, and Mrs. Doubtfire. Behind all the joy he he spread to others was a secret that eventually [...]
Duck… Duck… Misdiagnosis The Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of the Gifted We have all heard the saying, “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” This statement implies that things are usually exactly what they seem to be. Do you agree with [...]
Great Teaching Starts with a Strong Foundation: Online Training for Gifted Teachers “Start from the very beginning,” by offering gifted teachers the best training available! One of my favorite aunts passed away a few years ago. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss her and wish she was still around. As a first [...]
Asynchrony in Teaching or Parenting A Gifted Child Social Emotional Dimensions of Giftedness and the Impact of Asynchrony “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” says the great and powerful Wizard of Oz as little Toto pulls back the curtain. But Dorothy doesn’t believe Oz when he confesses he is the wizard. He [...]