Why and Who
Overview
If you have found yourself stumbling across this resource, chances are you are either well versed in the lack of support gifted children often face in a traditional learning environment and if not, then consider this your 'aha' moment. Parents, educators, and other support service personnel can use this free resource to find local and national resources to academically and socially-emotionally support gifted children ages 5+. While the local resources are targeted specifically to the Triangle Area, the state and national resources can be used respectively. Here, you will find a comprehensive collection of organizations, academic enrichment opportunities, gifted testing providers, and online networking opportunities to ensure your child is supported academically and social-emotionally both at school and home.
Research Explains Why Gifted Children Need More
Baer, J., Kaufman, J., Kim, K. H., & Sriraman, B. (2013). Creatively gifted students are not like other gifted students: Research, theory, and practice (5). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Dabrowski, K. (1966). On authentic education. Unpublished manuscript.
Here, you will find a comprehensive collection of organizations, academic enrichment opportunities, gifted testing providers, and online networking opportunities to ensure your child is supported academically and social-emotionally both at school and home. In brief, for gifted students to reach their academic potential they innately possess, support from teachers, parents, and other personnel must be consistent and ongoing. With only limited resources (funding, trained professionals, etc.) available to support students with learning differences, the gifted students become the last priority. This results in gifted students' full potential to be in jeopardy, not to mention the list of 'snowball effects' in other areas, such as behavior and peer relationships. You will see one commonality among all resources: creativity. All resources incorporate outlets for students to express their creativity and uniqueness in a variety of ways. Research has shown that teachers categorize creativity as an extra-curricular, a separate entity entirely from academic instruction. With creativity being one of the six possible indicators of giftedness, researchers have urged for creativity to be a responsibility of all educators, on par with academic instruction (Baer et al, 2013). The late Kazimierz Dabrowski, a polish psychologist, psychiatrist, and physician widely known for the development of 'Positive Integration', argued that children's potential should be seen n all aspects of their personality, not solely academics and, most importantly, not only at school. He continued to press the importance of evaluating children's performance and behavior within the classroom, at home, and in general society (Dabrowski, 1966). SENG (Social Emotional Needs of the Gifted) and TECA (Twice Exceptional Children's Advocacy) are two resources specifically for intended parents, teachers, and other personnel who work specifically with twice-exceptional children. Twice-exceptional is defined as, "students who have outstanding gifts or talents and are capable of high performance, but who also have a disability that affects some aspect of learning (NEA). When using the word 'disability' when referencing twice-exceptional students is not intended to address these students' weaknesses, but to highlight the need for equitable support services as non-gifted peers diagnosed with the same disabilities. Disabilities that define students as twice-exceptional include physical, sensory, Asperger Syndrome, emotional and/or behavioral disorders, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and learning disabilities. The last disability category, learning disabilities, is the most contradictory, in terms of providing services equitably among diagnosed students. Many students in this last category are denied services either because their disability does not impact academic performance or because their giftedness and disability work in tandem, resulting in average academic performance masking their twice-exceptionality (NEA, 2006). The resources available for access each provide creative, unique ways to support gifted and twice-exceptional children, ages 5+.