Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Dr. Suzy Carroll GT Advocate

I have to admit, I am so grateful to see so many parents and advocates of the gifted & talented population on this website! It thrills me to see how involved everyone is in their children's and students' education and well-being. After all my experiences working in Texas, advocating for the GT population, training GT teachers, researching giftedness, and working with exceptionally brilliant students at various summer camps, I am highly convinced that we need more people and more discussion boards like this in Texas. I promise to post thought provoking and educational posts online, however, up front, I would like to ask for your help.

You see, I am a GT individual. I have been a professor for the past five years, and I received my Doctorate in Educational Psychology from Texas A&M University with a specialization in Intelligence, Creativity, & Giftedness. This past semester (Spring 09), I realized that my heart is more in line with helping and advocating for this population, their parents, and thier teachers moreso than just teaching psychology courses. Thus, I submitted a letter of resignation to my college and decided to pursue my calling to dive deeper into the world of GT Advocacy. If anyone has any suggestions as to how I can market myself to this population (such as yourselves), please let me know.

This is a short version of me, yet, I feel like for you to trust me in my future posts, it's critical to know who I am. You are more than welcomed to view my website www.lifecoachdrsuz.com to get a better insight into myself and my heart.

Thanks up front,
Dr. Suz

There are a few things that come to mind immediately when considering marketing. Most parents of GT kids feel like they have very limited options when it comes to speaking with someone who actually "gets it". That's one of the reasons this site is so popular. The schools are signifigantly under educated when it comes to dealing with a HG or PG child. They tend to base most of their decisions on the social or emotional child rather than the academic child. Even though research is overwhelmingly in favor of acceleration for these kids, many of the schools still refuse. Educating the schools would be a good place to start!

Another issues that all parents of GT kids can identify with is the idea that having a GT child somehow means you have lots of disposable income! JHU and EPGY are great programs, but who can afford them? The cost of testing is phenomenal and for many when it's obvious that the only choice is to homeschool, it takes an entire income away from the household which many simply can't afford to do. It leaves you with a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that somehow you're sacrificing what's best for your child for the sake of the almighty dollar. But that's just real life at it's finest....

I think for those of us with children on the extreme end, you spend alot of time stumbling blindly, hoping and praying that you're making the right choices. I just agreed to skip my 6 yo to 4th grade next year. Will I regret it later? maybe, but there is no road map or instruction manual. If you have a child with a disability, the support is there. Disability, SSI and Federal and State money for the school to do whatever needs to be done to help your child reach their potential.

If your child is PG? "We'll he'll be fine, anyone that smart will be just fine" Is it any wonder why we're so far behind in terms of education with other countries? Gifted education should be level with SPED. Children identified should be given the flexibility in programs that they need and the schools should get the funding to do it!

I'm luckier than alot of the parents on here in that my local school is doing everything they can to keep up with my son. There are many parents on here who spend all of their time having doors slammed in their faces by people who claim to be educators but are in fact nothing more than bean counters, the beans being the SBA test scores.

This has gone from marketing strategies to a big old rant, so I'll stop now. I hope i've started your quest for ideas!

There are not enough providers who specialize in testing and identifying gifted kids in the west. I wish there were someone available in my area!

It would be wonderful for someone to help families navigate the school system or create appropriate homeschool educational programs for their children.

I agree w/ the previous posters. There is only 1 psychologist w/in 1 hr of me experienced in testing GT kids. He works for the school district so his after hours time is limited and he limits his time to his patients who need psychological help.

I so wish for a psych to do testing at a reasonable cost that is familiar w/ my school district and who the players are to aid me in setting up an educational plan.

Have you looked at http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/unwrapping_the_gifted/ , she seems very accessible and I'm sure would give you ideas on getting to know the schools.

Quite frankly, if you're going to market yourself, you'll want to decide upon the image you want to present. I'd suggest correcting all the misspellings in your site for starters in order to present a professional and polished image. I have to say that I would not choose an advocate who sports a "pop-psych" name like Dr. Suz. I'd frankly have more confidence in Dr. Carroll. Also, I'd have to wonder whether the public schools would/could hire you with an obvious religious side to your services. It just seems that you're trying to be all things to all people. A rather broad business plan - but then again, what do I know? Just a few things to think about - but at the very least, correct your grammar and spelling - particularly if you're marketing yourself to schools, teachers and the GT population. Hope this helps. It's intended kindly.

Hi Suz-e-Q,
Welcome!


Wow that was a big step!

Did you used to do some Advocating while you were a professor?

Fisrt thing I would do to reach parents 'like me' would be to develop some general mental guidelines for 'level of giftedness.' To say that you have gives me the idea that you'd 'ohh and ahh' over my child, which is so NOT what I am looking for. If you say that you have worked with Moderately Gifted, Highly Gifted and Profoundly Gifted children, then I think, ok now, this person can see my child as a 'normal' HG kid.

If I was going to go this route, I would try to look around at my region, and find out what are the availible services to MG,HG, and PG kids in your region, met that people who are already working in your field, and talk to the parents who you already know who are facing the kinds of challenges you want to help with.

I would consider myself a 'community organizer' of Gifties. Interview people. Work with any State organizations. Develop lectures that you can be asked to give at Parent Meetings or Schools. Write a book. Join SENG, and take their class in leading Parent-Support Groups, then lead some.

Think of ways that you can 'give free samples' of yourself -
Book club for preschoolers? early elementary schoolers? By listing the books you can imagine a preschooler could read and discuss, you are signaling to me that you 'get' my life. If you are going to gush over a kid reading 'see spot run' before Kindergarden then you won't attract the parents of a kid who is reading Harry Potter at that age. ((My son wasn't an early reader, but he was an 'precosious listener' and wanted to sit and listen to me read Harry Potter for hours and hours at age 5 - I was shocked to see that other parents were reading 'Hop on Pop' to their 5 year olds before bed. I was still in denial.))

Alternativly, you could hold book discussion groups - say for the Percy Jackson Series, for any kid of any age who has read or heard the book in question, and have no age limit, or say, for ages 3-11. There are the little tip offs I look for.

I would offer Saturday enrichment classes in Art or Photography or Math or Writing or Chess or whatever you love to explore at a reasonable price, with perhaps a 'free coupon' for a single class in exchange for phone numbers and emails, and call each parent to get an idea what they were looking for when they brought their child.

I would offer low cost or free 'Parenting Talks' - perhaps one time only at first, where you have a topic like: 'So smart, but won't do their homework!' or 'How to disipline a budding Lawyer.' that might draw parents in. Maybe offer an activity the kids would enjoy while talking to the Parents.

I would spend lots of time in schools getting to know the local gifted coordinators, if your school have such. Have you acctually attended advocacy meetings with parents? The main thing that HG and PG kids need is for educational settings that are within their 'readiness level' not too easy and not too 'hard.' So helping parents actually solve that particular problem is much more important that dealing with the emotional fall out of the problem.

'Every child deserves to be thought about well.' Each kid is unique, with their own challenges and strengths.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

BTW - which books have you read, and which ones do you find the most useful?

All good posts here.

I'd add that this has to be about the kids and the parents and solving their problems. I cannot stress this enough. They are your customer and you have to perform. I'd look at others' sites who do this for a feeling of what they do. Another point is that its the women - mothers - who will be 90% of the decision makers on this. You need to focus on them. Just look at this site - almost all the posters are female.

Getting the gifties organized in Texas would be a big step.

I'd say that identifying these kids and giving parents some tools is another big step. Pediatricians are the first line to do this and could screen for this and then provide materials to parents. Our Ped ID'd Mr W almost immediately, but she did not point us anywhere.

Setting up an in-service/CE program for medical professionals and teachers would be a good track. Generating materials for both professionals and parents on their kids which would then point them to resources is desperately needed.

I really needed expert advice in homeschooling my 11 year old 2E child but could never find any, none that I could afford anyway. Our insurance finally approved testing at a child study center. My son with motor dyapraxia and hypotonia has fatigue issues and trouble doing physical things like writing, but he reads and seems to comprehend at a much higher level than most kids his age. He was given a neuropsychological assessment yesterday from 9:00 to 5:30 with an hour and a half for lunch. He was nervous about taking the test, had an upset stomach and spent too much time in the bathroom and this made us a little late to the appointment. Getting there was stressful because traffic was really bad.

Luckily, the neuropsychologist/professor and her student who did most of the testing while she watched, were able to put my son at ease and I think that is so important for my son. I think it went well for a while at least. Before the testing started, my son said he told the student that he was also interested in neuropsychology and that he had recently read an interesting magazine article in Discover magazine about how memories are formed and that each time you remember something you replace it with a slightly modified version so the more you use the memory, the more you change it. The student told him that going through the testing might be good experience for him if he decides to go into neuropsychology later on and has to test people. I think the fact that he talked to my son for a few minutes really helped.

During the lunch break he seemed happy and said it was fun, but closer to 4 he was getting tired and that is when they gave him a math test. He said he told them he remembered working on similar problems at home but he just couldn't think any more. He said he told them he was used to taking breaks after each subject but there wasn't time for him to do this except to go to the restroom. He was so tired that he didn't even want to talk about the test at all until today. He said it was hard for him to get that feeling of being watched on the two-way mirror and having them write down every little thing he said on their notepads out of his mind and he didn't want to think about it any more.

Lori H - that's a llloonnnggg day! I know my 9 year old would have pooped out long before. He pooped out at not quite 8yrs old on the WISCIV all in 1 sitting w/ only a 5minute break. I think it hurt his scores.

Shari, very well said. I had tears in my eyes reading your comments. Thank you. You spoke for me, and for many other parents of HG children, espcially those who simply can't afford the astronomical tuitions of those specialized programs.

Dr. Suzy I live in NY. I'm in a dire need for help to advocate for my HG son. He is in the 99.9th percentile with IQ score of 154 and at least two years above grade level. He attended a private school for the gifted in KG, but unfortunately we are unable keep up with their tuition hikes any more.

The local school district is extremely under educated when it comes to HG. They felt offended when I asked if they have any special program for the academically gifted chilren. "Who? we deal with all types of students in the classroom. It's a very well-diversified community" they said. Test results are way below average and school environment is deteriorated.

I tried to ask if my son can attend a neighboring school district, which has a program for the gifted, but all doors were slammed in my face. I wrote letters to local board of education, neighboring school district board of education and even the State office for the gifted. No response. Any advice?