Defining Giftedness  -  Education Alternatives  -  Learning Styles
Testing  -  Teens and College  -  Living With Gifted Children
Special Challenges/Twice Exceptional (2e)  -  Book Reviews and Interviews
Professionals

 

- Defining Giftedness
Why "giftedness" is more than test scores or academic achievement.

- Education Alternatives
Providing an appropriate education for a gifted or twice exceptional (2e) child often means thinking outside the box. Sometimes a traditional classroom setting is a good match, but it's not for everyone. Many families choose various methods of homeschooling (secular, religious, unschooling, eclectic, carschooling, and so on), while other families prefer charter schools, independent study programs, part-time homeschooling or other alternatives.

- Learning Styles
Here is where you can read about visual spatial, auditory, sequential and kinesthetic learning styles. We include articles regarding Dabrowski's Overexcitabilities (OEs), learning organizational methods and other executive function skills.

- Testing
How do you know if your child is gifted, or has unidentified learning differences? Many families seek assessments (qualitative or quantitative) in order to understand how their child's brain works. The full scale score can be handy, but the subtest scores - when tests are administered by qualified and experienced testers - can be eye-opening. Testing is not necessary for every child, but when behavioral issues indicate unknown obstacles (no, they're not just being a pain!), an assessment can be a good way to determine if a child is so skilled at compensating that the surrounding adults are unaware of the effort being put forth in this regard.

- Teens and College
Should you allow your child to begin college early? How early? Which college? If your child does not have a formal high school diploma, how can you get them into college? What if your child does not want to go to college right now? How do homeschooled children perform in advanced educational settings at any age? Browse through these articles for more insight into this complicated issue.

- Living with Gifted Children
Let's face it, living with gifted and 2e children is complicated. Jokes about duct tape and soundproof closets aside, it can be helpful to understand what your child is feeling, how they are developing, and what they were thinking when they asked that unusual question or performed that dangerous experiment alone out in the shed (and how do you explain the damage to your neighbors?).  These kids are asynchronous, intense, and endlessly fascinating to live with. The articles here give some perspective to those of us raising such children and reassure us that we are not alone.

- Special Challenges/Twice Exceptional (2e)
Twice exceptional children are both gifted and have learning differences, resulting in an extreme asynchrony that can increase parenting challenges exponentially. Some of these exceptionalities may include autism or Asperger's Syndrome; auditory and visual processing disorders; dyslexia and dysgraphia; sensory integration dysfunction; ADD or ADHD; bipolar disorder; OCD; Tourette's Syndrome; and myriad other dual diagnoses. Some families have found ways to deal with the challenges in their family that make their homes run relatively smoothly; others describe their family lives as akin to "the bar scene from Star Wars."

- Book Reviews and Interviews
As you might expect, these are book reviews, interviews and articles relating to topics near and dear to GHF members.

- Professionals
What do you want your friendly neighborhood therapist, pediatrician, teacher or coach to know about your child or how your child thinks or behaves? As a professional, what would help you to understand the children you work with and their families? What are some of the issues you may face repeatedly, and which are indicators of giftedness or twice- exceptionality that is either "normal" or pathological? Why are these families homeschooling instead of sending their children to school? These articles will give you clues about what to look for in children who present along this continuum in order to best assist them in developing their potential.



Articles in highlighted text are original contributions to the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum (GHF) web site. Articles in plain text are links to external web sites.

    A homeschool physics class at the Tech Museum in San Jose, CA

   
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