Tag Archives: gifted

News and Updates

January 25, 2012 By in speaking Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment

Life has been busy, in a good way, so here are some quick updates and links until I have time to write a more meaty post.

ADHD Diagnoses in Young Gifted Children

As a board member for SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted), I am eager to promote our new global public awareness campaign to education pediatricians and others about the complexities of ADHD diagnosis in young gifted children. Please share and read our news release and list of resources, and watch SENG’s video on The Misdiagnosis of Gifted Children:

If you have your own story to share, please feel free to do so in the comments.

New Psychology Today Post: Many Ages at Once

As part of the SENG effort, my newest post at Psychology Today focuses on the out-of-sync development of gifted children and the science that supports what parents and teachers have long known from personal experience: that very bright children develop on a different timetable.

“Parents often describe these children as being many ages at once. A five year old, for example, might read third-grade books, lack the small motor coordination necessary for kindergarten art projects, have lengthy conversations with adults, and struggle to communicate effectively with age peers—all at the same time. Asynchronous development becomes less of an issue as children grow up, but the challenges can last well into adolescence.“ Read More

Psychology Today image

Summer in Colorado! The 10th International Dabrowski Congress

I am looking forward to attending and giving a presentation at the 10th International Dabrowski Congress, sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development and hosted by R. Frank Falk, Ph.D and Linda K. Silverman, Ph.D. This year’s theme is From Conflict to Peace: Globally and Personally. I hope to see some of you there.

That’s all for now. Enjoy the rest of January!

Be thankful for regret

December 10, 2011 By in motivation, the writing life Tags: , , , , , , , , , 7 Comments

No one likes the feeling of regret, whether as large as deathbed regrets or as small as the “Reply All” regret that Kathryn Schulz discusses in this TED Talk:

 

Kathryn Schulz:

“[I]f we have goals and dreams, and we want to do our best, and if we love people and we don’t want to hurt them or lose them, we should feel pain when things go wrong. The point isn’t to live without any regrets. The point is to not hate ourselves for having them.

The lesson that I ultimately learned from my tattoo and that I want to leave you with today is this: We need to learn to love the flawed, imperfect things that we create and to forgive ourselves for creating them. Regret doesn’t remind us that we did badly. It reminds us that we know we can do better.”

One of my areas of non-fiction interest and writing is Kazimierz Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration, a theory of personality development that tells us, among other things, that we can’t grow if we don’t fall apart once in awhile, and that what we think of as negative emotions are invaluable in the journey of personal growth. Of course, falling apart isn’t the only necessary ingredient. We also need to be aware of our emotions rather than ignoring or masking them, especially the difficult ones, and use them as clues to what aspects of our lives we want and need to change. Regret is, after all, a mature emotion. Very young children can feel sad and angry and even put upon, but only with time and self-reflection can they feel true regret.

The problem is that, rather than use regret to our advantage, we are often tempted to identify with it or wallow or, as Kathryn Schulz tells us, hate ourselves for feeling regret at all.

Writers, especially, often allow regret for past actions (or, more often, past inaction) to overwhelm them, to take the place of moving forward. Regret for not writing—rather than writing—becomes an activity in itself.

Instead, if we can distance ourselves from our regret a bit and look at it squarely, questioning it for what it can teach us, regret can help us to live in such a way today so as to minimize feelings of regret tomorrow.

That’s really all we need to do.

What aspects of your Writing Life do you regret, and how can you use that regret and move past it to shape the Writing Life you want now?

30 Resources to Understand Giftedness in Children and Adults

December 7, 2011 By in the writing life Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

What do you care about so much that you happily go out of your comfort zone to support?

I spend a good chunk of my free time (what is free time, anyway? a topic for another post) volunteering for an international non-profit organization that helps parents, teachers, and others understand the social and emotional needs that accompany giftedness: SENG – Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted.

Giftedness is a topic that I find resonates with most writers, who, even if they have never thought of themselves as gifted, remember vividly the feelings of being out of step with the rest of the world—whether in decades past or yesterday—or who watch their own children struggle to manage extreme sensitivity, perfectionism, and an innate intensity of experience.

This intensity is why we write, after all, but it is also often a challenge to understand and to live with.

What if, when you were a child, someone had understood the intensity that set you apart, had helped you to understand yourself, and had encouraged you to view your differences as positive rather than negative? That’s what SENG does for children and families all over the world.

reaching handAs a member of the SENG Board of Directors, I am sharing on my Annual Appeal Donor Page links to 30 free resources published by SENG in 2011, from columns written by our Directors, to interviews by our Editor-in-Chief with experts in the field, to original features by people such as Christine Fonseca and Spellbound documentary subject Angela Aniverar.  There is even a free ebook!

Visit my SENG Donor Page to see the list of links.

And, while you are there, considering helping SENG to change the lives and futures of children and adults, maybe even your own, one story at a time, with whatever tax-deductable donation you can give, or by forwarding the page to someone you know can help.

  • Lisa: 1     Comfort Zone: 0

Bookmarkable Friday! Free biography, learning to drive, self care, and being alone

March 18, 2011 By in blogs & blogging Tags: , , , , , , , 5 Comments

Happy Friday, everyone! It’s been a delicious week of spending time with our son who is home for spring break. We watched the original Star Wars trilogy (the original theatrical release), played game after game of Magic: The Gathering (well, he played and I pretended to understand most of the time), and enjoyed our favorite family meals that work much better for three than for two. I made a point of not taking on freelance index projects during this week so that I would not be pulled in too many directions, and I’m so glad I said “no” when I did so that I could say “yes” when I wanted to.

Below are some blog posts from the past week that I want to share. What bookmarkable finds have you made recently?

Free Leta Hollingworth Biography from Great Potential Press

Leta Hollingworth was a fascinating woman whose work has been a great influence on my own understanding of gifted education. She was born and raised in Nebraska and lived for awhile in Valentine, a town I know well, just across the state border from where I grew up. At age sixteen, she entered the University of Nebraska and went on to get her doctorate from Columbia University, where she began her pioneering work in the fields of gifted education and psychology.

Don’t miss this opportunity from Great Potential Press to get a free copy of her biography:

cover of Hollingworth biography In honor of Women’s History Month, we are giving away a free copy of A Forgotten Voice: A Biography of Leta Stetter Hollingworth with every order placed online. To receive your free copy of the book, you must enter the promo code “FV0311″ when placing your order. … Read More

via Great Potential Press

Penny Jar is back! And she’s learned to drive.

I’ve greatly missed E. Victoria Flynn’s Throw me Thursday memoir pieces, but now she’s back, and better than ever. :)

I don’t know why, how, or what, but Past Me was brought out to show Current Me how lame she was. “That hair was definitely 80′s,” Sister’s Friend said. “You should have seen her when we taught her how to drive,” Sister said. “She was the worst driver I’ve ever seen.” Read More

A Lovely Post on Self Care

Nadine’s post on learning to care for herself touched me this week:

There are days when I want to push down whatever I’m feeling and just keep moving. Some days I don’t splurge on the extras, because I’m still very careful with money. Some days I could do all the right things and still not feel right. But I think this is all natural. Overall, I’m learning how to best take care of myself, and I’d be in a worse place right now if I weren’t making this effort. Read More

At about the same time, I read a post from Debbie Smith that included a video I’d first found through another friend a few weeks ago. It is the perfect follow-up to Nadine’s thoughts:

May you enjoy your weekend, alone or with others, and care for yourself always.

Helping Children Cope with Disaster

March 13, 2011 By in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , 2 Comments
Helping Children Cope with Disaster

The following two resources may be useful in helping children to manage their feelings as they learn about the extent of the earthquake in Japan and the resulting tsunami:

Helping Gifted Children Cope with Global Disasters (by the National Association for Gifted Children)

“Recently, I asked these children to tell me what they felt was important to them about understanding the Tsunami. They all agreed that understanding the science behind it helped them to process what had occurred. They felt empowered because if they ever visit a location at risk for Tsunamis, they knew the causes and the warning signs. They expressed the wish that someone had taught the people in Indonesia what to do in case of a Tsunami. One student noted that it was important to know that no one had caused it (unlike the terror of 9-11), ‘you didn’t need to feel angry’ on top of feeling sad. Others said, ‘If I didn’t know about it I would be scared it would happen to me’ and ‘It is very sad that it happened, but now that people know it can happen there, they can prevent so many deaths from happening again’.” Read More

Global Disasters: Helping Children Cope (by the National Association of School Psychologists)

“Highlight people’s compassion and humanity. Large-scale tragedies often generate a tremendous outpouring of caring and support from around the world. Focus on the aid being provided by governments, non-profit aid agencies, and individual donors. Discuss the truly Herculean logistical process of getting aid to the most impacted areas and the cooperation between leaders and people of so many nations.” Read More

Japanese flagAnd below are links to ways to help from reputable resources:

Help Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Victims Without Getting Scammed (from PC World)

Resources from the New York Times

Resources from MSNBC

Resources from CNN