I think the most essential thing is to communicate that gifted kids are not necessarily happy, productive, achieving kids. Many teachers and administrators think that gifted kids "will be fine" in a regular classroom, and many of us know to our regret that they are wrong. Making sure that teacher understand the difference would be my number one priority.
Yes! I second this.
I am currently back in school to become an Educational Assistant, and our literacy instructor was formerly the district gifted coordinator. One of my fellow students (a future EA!) asked her if gifted kids actually have problems. This student is an intelligent lady in her own right who's had an abundance of experience with atypical kids.
LOL my face went "O.M.G.!!!" It was pretty funny. The coordinator said "CCN that's part of the problem, though, isn't it? A lack of awareness of the struggles that accompany giftedness."
BINGO.
My approach for your presentation would be to describe it as a problem of curriculum mismatch: it is equally damaging no matter who is involved.
Here's one of the many many examples out there: a friend of a friend of mine has a gifted 9 year old son, who is currently in anger management counselling because his school won't grade skip him. Nice. If he had cognitive delays, on the other hand, the school would be happy to put together an IEP and lower the level of his curriculum. But a gifted kid? Nah, he'll be just fine. (sigh)
