"The Development of Giftedness and Talent Across the Life Span" Horowitz, Subotnik & Matthews- has anyone read this book and if yes, did you find it helpful? It was suggested by my ds tester/psychologist.

I've never read it, but it looks interesting. I've read 'Being Smart about gifted kids' by Matthews, and though it made a lot of good point, but is definitely pitched towards the 'top 10%' definition of gifted.

Hi Magna!

Grinity

Grinity, thank you
Can you please explain this.

Oh, well, as you know, there is no standard, agreed upon definition of the word 'gifted.'

So I wrote 'top 10%' defintion as a shorthand to say, that there are many speakers and writers who write about gifted kids and use the definition 'top 10%' of the population academically-speaking. Not that we can every really know exactly who these kids are, becuause IQ tests are perfect, and 2E issues, and everyone can have a bad day, but - for example - Mattews writes that she isn't a fan of gradeskips for gifted kids, and in a tiny footnote backs up and says, well, of course, if you are truely unusually gifted, the rare kind, then yes, one or more gradeskips is exactly whats needed. If one wants to sell books, then writing for the top half of a percent might be percieved to limit the audience for those books, yes?

I'm not a fan of gradeskiping kids who have an accurate IQ of 123 either, so I don't disagree with what she is saying, but I don't happen to share her definition of giftedness.

HTH,
Grinity

Thank you for this explanation.

We have done one grade skip. The problem that I am trying to deal with is that the psychologist believes that his main reason for boredom in the classroom is a combination of strong language-based input processing + very high visual/spatial skills. The way I understand it his learning style does not match the standard classroom teaching style. Although the psychologist provided some recommendations on how to engage him more in the classroom, I am looking for more resources. I am not sure that this book will help me with that.

...the part about "across the lifespan" piques my interest. Looks like my library system doesn't carry this book. I'm also interested to see if anyone else here has read it.

Try Hoagie's Page
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/highly_gifted.htm
for more info on kids who are 'unusual in the top 2%'

I love that there are books aimed at the 'top 10%' - I strongly believe that the author needs to state- on the cover -who they are talking to. And that will probably include some numbers to be clear:
Some possibilities:
'Kids who score in the top 5% on State grade-level exams'
'Kids who are rare in the population - top half a percent if IQ tests reflect them clearly'
'Kids with a few areas of learning strength who are ordinary in other learning areas.'
'Kids with GAI over 135 and WM/PSI under 115'

Smiles,
Grinity

Our local library has 'Interlibrary Loan' so I often request books before I buy them, and in a few weeks I they arrive.

Did you find '5 Levels of Giftedness' by Ruf helpful?

Are you thinking of homeschooling? Looking for a new school? Trying to get the teachers to modify their approach? Thinking about a further skip?

I also like http://www.susanwinebrenner.com/ and her books - not that I've much been able to influence teachers to modify their approach beyond:
'He doesn't get sarcasm, don't use it on him.'
'Don't stop the reading test because he reached a level higher than a 4th grader ever has reached - keep going until you find his level, so we'll know.'
'If you are doing group work, and don't want him to have a tantrum in class, pair him with as bright a student as possible.'

Peace,
Grinity

No further grade skip at this point. Homeschooling is not an option this year. I would love to do partial homeschooling, but this is not an option either. I am skeptical about being able to get his teacher modify her teaching approach. Right now I am just trying to read and understand as much as I can, so that I can find ways to work with him and challenge him at home.
Thank you for suggesting these other resources.

I'm coming late to this conversation b/c we've been out of town for the past week, but I wanted to go back to this b/c it resonates with me. I find myself struggling at times with feeling elitist in wanting to restrict what is defined as gifted b/c defining it so broadly muddies the water so much that there is no way to adequately say "here's was a gifted child needs" when gifted means so many different things. I find that our local definition falls more into the "kids with a few areas of learning strength" area b/c most kids who are ided as gifted are ones who hit the 95th percentile in any one area in achievement (like an SRI lexile score in the 95th and all other achievement scores not that high).

However, I do like the idea that there can be many boxes that can be called gifted as long as one is clear as to which box we are using for the individual child. Has anyone read Jim Deslisle's article arguing for a more restrictive definition of gifted (http://www.giftedteam.org/pdf/links/Understand_What_Giftedness_Is_and_What_It_Is_Not-Delisle.pdf)?

I think that as we talk more to friends and neighbors we'll be able to have a more nuanced conversation about what gifted kids might be and what they might need.

As for the elitist part - if the gifted program is a pull out 45 minutes a week for kids to go on special field trips and make videos and do 'fun stuff' because 'they are our hope for the future' - well, count me out.

I think we have to be clear that some kids have special educational needs that aren't routinely and reliably met in the regular classrom. If all children could benifit from the content of a gifted class, the give it to all kids. The learning environment in the gifted class should be 'not developmentally appropriate' for the normally developing kid.

I love the idea of a palate of options for all the kids in all my above catagories. I think if we focus on our children's learning needs, then the elitism charge melts away.

Love and More Love (and welcome back Cricket2)
Grinity