Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Gifted Development Center reviews?

First, you don't need to convince me that the eminence model is lacking and that Silverman's contributions to the field have been numerous and worthwhile.

As for links--I'll list some below.

Indigo children:

http://www.awarenessmag.com/novdec3/ND3_CHILDREN_OF_NEW.HTML

http://www.byregion.net/articles-healers/Indigo_Children_Facts.html

Also, pages 112-114 of the book Hothouse Kids by Alissa Quart

Vision therapy:

This may have been discussed on the TAGPDQ list. The contention was that the GDC suggested vision therapy to a disproportionate number of clients. The people discussing it were skeptical of VT and thought that the GDC was being fringe-y for recommending it. Disclaimer: They suggested it for my son, and they were right--he needed it.

SB L-M:

The controversy here was over the use of an extremely outdated instrument. Again, I think most of what I know about this came from the TAGPDQ list. It's not clear to me that the GDC even uses the L-M any more.

Again, pages 112-114 of the book Hothouse Kids by Alissa Quart

There is also this New Yorker article, which discusses some of these issues: http://positivedisintegration.com/newyorker.pdf

It's good, I think, for future readers here to understand that we are not bashing Silverman.

Thanks for sharing the links... it's good to have a source for the information which builds our views.

Regarding SB L-M, I think that was used prior to extended norms, and possibly also to help gauge scores on newer IQ test instruments as they were being developed?

We had seen two different neuropsychs (one specializing in 2e and widely regarded, SENG, etc.) for one of our daughters. Both said either mildly gifted (just hitting the 130 mark) and maybe slight adhd. School does nothing but complain to us. One night watching a youtube of Dr. Silverman I came across on the internet in my attempt to figure out what was wrong with my daugther, I swear she was speaking about my daughter in her presentation. I called her and faxed her my daughters medical records and prior neuropsych testing. She called me back, told me to follow up with neuropsych #2, gave me the info to tell him. She says that doc #2 didn't calculate WISC test correctly. Told me what to tell him. She also says the testing demonstrates dyslexia and possible auditory processing issues. Suggests I get a consult..gives me a few names of docs local to my area. Doc #2 comes back with a new report with now an IQ of 20 points higher, still no dx of dyslexia.

We then decide to go have testing with Dr. Silverman. She confirms PG and dyslexia. Local Dr. that she referred us to identifies auditory processing issues. Dr. Silverman recommends we find a local dr. who can help with dyslexia and local resources. We find a local doc who does additional testing and confirms Dr. Silverman's dx of dyslexia. We are now doing OG to help with spelling and seeing improvements. If it had not been for Dr. Silverman, we would have wasted more time trying to find out what was wrong with our daughter. There may be some controversy about her but in science there is always disagreement about validating, testing, treatment. What I know is for our family, Dr. Silverman was the critical resource for us to help our daughter and I will be forever grateful.

Especially for those who are on the leading edge or looking at something from a new direction.

Your story sent a chill down my spine. So good to hear of breakthroughs and encouragement to think outside of the box, go above and beyond, and be persistent.

Future readers of this thread may be interested to view this youtube video, The unique inner lives of gifted children, featuring a keynote speech by Dr. Linda Silverman.

We have done testing at the GDC very recently. Had couple phone consultations prior to that. Prior to testing we were recommended to do VT. It took us about 9 months of hard work, but the results were phenomenal. The testing itself was very thorough. It included WISC IV with extended forms and an achievement test. The report was very long and detailed. It felt like a many pieces of a puzzle put together into a coherent story that describes our 2e child. We got several useful recommendations and I would say that traveling to the GDC was definitely worth it. It is amazing how important it is to get evaluation from a place that has experience with gifted. It is just a simple statistics, if there is less than 2% gifted kids in the population and 0.1% PG, plus if there is a very small population of kids with some particular learning disability, you end up with an extremely small set of of 2e children in the general population. Even if a specialist in your area claims she/he has experience with 2e children, it cannot be a large sample if the unconditional probability of such a child in the general population is less than 0.001%. Therefore, it is natural to see an equilibrium outcome in which many parents with 2e children travel to one specialist who truly has a large sample and experience. It becomes a stable equilibrium because the more families travel to this specialist, the more experience she gets, and that makes other families even more likely to travel as sell. It just turned out that the GDC were there long time ago and they took on themselves this role. For them gifted kids are their average client and they are not surprised by seeing HG, EG or PG kids. If you want to check whether your local specialist has a real experience with PG kids, ask them whether they know about PG Retreat. If they don't, it means you need to book your travel to the GDC.

Good Luck with your testing!