Looking for Information on Exceptionally Gifted Children

[PrincessX]

If anybody has been identified as exceptionally gifted or is parenting such a child, or has any valuable information on the topic, please help!
Especially looking into ways to manage the standard school environment and social issues stemming from being different.
Right now it is frustrating for one of my children, who is at 99.8% of her cohort according to 2 psychologists.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Parenting highly gifted children: The challenges, the joys, the unexpected surprises

Exceptionally Gifted Children: Different Minds SENG

Raising A Profoundly Gifted Child SENG

http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/siegle/tag/Digests/e477.html

48 Essential Links for the Parents of Gifted Children | OEDB.org

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/parenting.htm

http://www.greeleyschools.org/cms/lib2/CO01001723/Centricity/Domain/747/Chapter10_ParentingGiftedChildren.pdf

 

[PrincessX]

Thank you, David.

I never fully realized the implications of such identification until my child's needs started to exceed the regular gifted class instruction.

I have a lot of reading and work to do.

 

[amazingmouse]

I don't get it! I have a kid who basically refuses to study Math at home, does the minimum required work at the gifted school and got in the first 5% on the National Math Olympics! It was hard to make her participate, and she states she does not really like Math, but what an achievement! We are so proud, at the same time, it is sad that she does not really feel drawn to Math. We always get the same comment "Math is boring". Instead, she enjoys Arts and Sports and devotes a lot of time to these activities. I do not know if it is a lack of stimulation, because we make her compete at her grade level, or it is just the desire to feel challenged in things that she might not be as good in.

 

[Melpub]

Brain,Child magazine had a piece about a mother with a gifted child--in that particular case, I believe she would have preferred to have had the child in a regular classroom--she thought he started to have an exaggerated sense of his own importance. But I would just Google around. Mine are smart, and have also suffered from being better than their teachers in English. We live in Germany (my husband's German) but we speak English at home. One of mine skipped a grade, but in the long run, I'm not sure it was good for him. I think every case is different. But I do think it's often good for kids to be in a classroom in which they do not feel that they are the smartest. Classrooms for gifted children may offer good academic challenges, but when they give the kids the feeling that they are better, they fail. Possibly the best option is just the best school you can find--not one specifically for the gifted.

 

[amazingmouse]

Actually the approach is modified, they use different strategies to teach in the gifted class than in the regular class. I have tried an IEP in a regular class and it was a waste of time, as the teachers would simply not accommodate a gifted learner. A child who is behind has a bit better chance of being accommodated in a regular class, which is happening with my other child. For gifted, you want them to have different kind of assignments, sometimes at a different level, so that they feel challenged. Also, working in a group of similar minded peers is more rewarding.
I absolutely do not agree that it leads to an exaggerated sense of own importance. The kid must be able to differentiate abilities and achievements from her/his value as a person. Gifted kids learn to do that. Also, being gifted does not guarantee a glamorous career or success or anything. It is just a learning exceptionality, which at times presents challenges for the children. It doesn't make the child any better than other children, and children learn that.
I guess that the main point is to teach your child that having a high IQ and academic aptitude does not make the child a good or bad person, it just makes them a person with a high IQ and academic aptitude.

 

[Melpub]

Agree, agree--it's just that I've seen cases of truly gifted children being told many times, "You are so gifted," and this can inhibit the kid or give him or her a swelled head. I've seen them bored to tears in a regular classroom but I've had the luck to have at least one teacher find ways to help. As always, it's the people you are dealing with--some teachers are great and others are limited.