Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Session 1 - Question 2

Describe one characteristic of gifted children from Chapter 2 and one idea from Chapter 1 that were new concepts for you or was a needed refresher of past learning.

17 comments:

  1. Initial post: Chapter 1 Page 6, "Some individuals obtain scores that reach the ceiling of the IQ test or its subscales and these individuals would obtain even higher scores it the test allowed it. Their scores are actually depressed by the ceiling particularly on the newer IQ tests."

    Chapter 2: page 17 "Professionals are beginning to recognize that the brighter the child, the more sensitive he may be. A gifted child notices more in the environment and reacts more strongly. The child is often acutely aware of his feelings and may be very emotional...." Wow, until now, saying "she's too sensitive" was a common putdown. I love hearing it as a positive!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chapter 1 pg2: "Both the Marland definition and the NAGC encompass a wide range of abilities that extend beyond simple academic intelligence,..." We have gifted children in our class that might not be academically successful because they are not gifted in that area.

    Chapter 2 pg15: "Desire for reason and understanding: An extra dose of creativity can cause gifted children to question certain customs and traditions." They have a constant need for understanding of their environment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Response 2 to Adriana: I have noticed the constant need for understanding of the environment to be enormously helpful in the classroom setting. These students notice small, unspoken habits or rituals, and help me remember! One boy who has a severe language disability, has taken to reminding me to bring healthy stickers to lunch, and has taken over checking the doors for security. I'm catching on that there is a lot going on inside his mind.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Response to Melanie about Chapter 1, page 6:
    It was surprising as it was for you, and also a new concept for me. I didn't know that the IQ test might not be accurrately measuring the real IQ for those individuals who obtained scores reaching the test's ceiling, and that by extrapolating is estimated they could score as high as 180.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Chapter 1, Page 7: " The more highly gifted the child, the more out of sync she is likely to be within herself, with wide differences between areas of strenght and areas of relative weakness."... Eventhough I was aware of the asynchronous development of a gifted child, I had no idea that is likely to be proprortional to their level of giftiness. This is an eye-opening revelation for me and find it tremendoulsy interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Chapter 2, Page : "A Child with pshycomotor overexcitability has a particular high potential of being misdiagnosed as ADHD"... I find this issue very scary. My nephew was one of those children... Im' so glad my syster was able to recognize the giftiness of her child. Later on, during next school year, he was diagnosed as GT.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Chapter 1: People often believe that IQ and IQ testing is a very precise measurement, and it is an unchanging metric of intelligence. IQ tests may be a standard measurement to use, but there may be better measurements out there, especially for those at either end of the range IQ measures.

    Chapter 2: While reading about "Imaginational Overexcitability" (pg 23) I was struck by the thought that these very behaviors are the same ones we drug kids for demonstrating. Are we, perhaps, drugging kids who should instead be treated as gifted?

    ReplyDelete
  8. @AlvaradoO: I guess I should read the comments before I comment. It seems you've already encountered a GT kid being drugged instead of assisted. It makes me wonder how many more kids are in the same situation.

    ReplyDelete
  9. p.43 gives good insight as to "reflective listening' and a role play model of how this looks like with a child. This is something I will try to incorporate more in my classroom as well as my daily life with my own child. Another point of interest that struck me is how sensitive the gifted child can be, more so than a non-GT student. p.51 also talks about not criticising a gt learner but providing them with a safe environment so that they can try
    to explain what happened (too many cookies for the cookie jar) when they do something that might require reprimading.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Chapter 1: I often forgot that children can be gitted in areas other than academics and artistic ability. On pg. 2 it lists the areas of giftedness as being:
    General Intellectual ability
    specific academic aptitude
    creative thinking
    leadership ability
    visual or performing arts
    The one that I found most interesting was being gifted in leadership.

    Chapter 2: Pg 16 :Concern with social or political problems of injustices. "Because they are able to see the nuances and complexities of life around them, gifted children are concerned with "rules" of life much earlier than other children especially with the issue of fairness." I witnessed this characteristic first hand with one of my GT students 2 years ago. He was very capable of assessing a situation and knowing if it was fair or not fair and truly struggled overcoming things like understanding why the outcome of "Rock, Paper, Scissors" was an appropriate way to make a decision... if he lost.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Chapter 1 -" Environment plays an important role"
    Gifted children thrive in supportive environments I totally Agee with. In the right up-bringing all children will do better but knowing that you have a gifted child you could advance and support emotional & educational enrichment.

    Chapter 2 - table 2 Common Characteristics of Gifted Children was a great resource. Also in chapter 2 I didn't realize how emotional gifted students could be.

    ReplyDelete
  12. PV: I found the section on multiple intelligences a good refresher as it reminds us that all kids learn differently. In some cases, we become so used to doing things a certain way that we may end up neglecting the needs of others.

    ReplyDelete
  13. PV: I agree with Daryl D that the table listing the Common Characteristics of Gifted Children is a valuable resource.

    ReplyDelete
  14. PV: For Chapter 2, I was drawn to the particular characteristic of gifted kids having "Longer Attention Span" (p. 16). There are times when gifted kids become so engrossed in what they are doing that they lose themselves in the activity. To a simple outsider, this may be considered as daydreaming.

    ReplyDelete
  15. PV: I concur with the statements made by AlvaradoO and Dave A as regards gifted children who were mistakenly labeled as kids with behavioral disorders. These kids may not necessarily be challenging the authority but due to their advanced intellectual capabilities, are looking for avenues or outlets to release their creative juices.

    ReplyDelete
  16. @David A: I completely agree with you. I think we might misdiagnosing kids as ADHD because of their over excitability. In the case of my nephew who was recommended for "ADHD" and found to be GT later on, I was glad my sister informed herself before medicating him; she consulted me as a teacher and my brother who happens to be a doctor in our home country. She happened to be an educated person, surrounded by people who were able to help her to make an educated decision and refuse medication for her child. I wonder, as you do, how many gifted kids are being medicated and treated as ADHD?
    By the way, my nephew is 12 now, doing great at school, no ADHD is being mentioned by anyone anymore… he just needed patience and direction.

    ReplyDelete