What is Gifted? You believe your child might be gifted. Now what?
Welcome to Vanguard Gifted Academy’s educational Blog. I am Elizabeth Blaetz, the Head of School at Vanguard Gifted Academy. This is our sixth article, and today I want to talk about the major question people have once they figure out they have a gifted child. “What do I do now?” This is a tough question that often comes up because parents don't know what to do next or where to go for information. Parents of gifted children typically don't have a big community of other parents to ask. When you're potty training your child, you've got lots of parents that have advice on potty training, but there isn’t a large community of parents to give you advice on what to do when your child is socially isolated because she thinks about more advanced ideas. So let me share some helpful information.
Giftedness is often evaluated with IQ testing, but IQ testing is most valid after the age of five so don't have it done too early. It is valuable, however, to get testing for older gifted children. Be sure to talk to the psychologist afterward. Ask her what she thinks is going to be a good educational fit for your child. Understand that she will say your child needs a higher learning level, but she probably won't specifically say “gifted education”. When I read the results of an IQ test as a teacher, it helps me understand what is going to be your gifted child’s strengths and what will most likely be more challenging for him.
There are lots of programs in which you can enroll your young child to help her explore different learning opportunities before the age of five. At Vanguard Gifted Academy, we enroll children for kindergarten before age 5. This will not happen in public school, but we understand that some young gifted learners are ready to be in a full educational program all day long.
A higher level of education doesn't automatically come with a private school. So you really have to do your leg work. You have to go to the schools and talk to them to find out what they know about gifted and how they serve gifted learners. Remember that your child will spend six hours a day, five days a week, in school, so finding the right fit is really important! As you're looking at schools, be sure to visit multiple classrooms. If the school is teaching to the higher level needed for gifted learners, the questions will be much more open-ended. They should sound something like:
How would you react in that situation?
Have you ever seen this in your life?
What did you think about the topic?
What do you think will happen next in a situation?
These are open-ended questions, which require analysis rather than just fact recall. If you're in a classroom and you hear these types of questions, the teacher is reaching for higher-level thinking from the learners in the classroom.
Remember, your child is going to attend school every day. She doesn't have a choice. When you're in a job that you don't like, you can leave and find another job. Similarly, if a school is not a good fit for your child, make the choice to take her out. If it's not a good fit, it really isn't serving your child and it is likely harming her instead. For everyone’s well-being, find a better fit.
One option you may consider is homeschooling. If you feel like that's something you could do, it can be very fulfilling to work with your child and let him learn at whatever speed he’s willing to learn. It's important to recognize that it can be very challenging to play both the role of teacher and parent for your child though, so know and accept your personal limitations.
A lot of schools will say they serve gifted or they have a specialist in the building for gifted learners. This usually refers to a pull-out program the child attends once or twice a week. I always say, “If you're gifted, you're gifted 24 hours a day, seven days a week, not one hour a week.” I don’t personally believe that these programs really serve the needs of a gifted child.
I wholeheartedly believe there's a huge advantage to attending a gifted school where gifted students are with intellectual and developmental peers and have teachers who understand how to serve their needs. I have a story I’d like to share to support my opinion: I spent a year on the phone talking back and forth with a concerned mom. She started to talk about her boy and what he was going through. How the teachers were identifying all his shortcomings and not realizing he was gifted. I knew the story by heart. I'd heard it so many times before. As our conversations continued she said he was not himself, not even at home because he tried so hard to fit into a school that didn't recognize who he was. She shared that the school called and emailed her on a daily basis about his behavior. Sadly, he could not tolerate the classroom situation so he ran and hid. They'd have to lock down the school and search for him. You can understand the problem the school was having, but it wasn’t because the boy was “badly behaved” it was because his learning needs were not being served. This mom came for a tour and then she brought her boy to visit for the day. At the end of the day, I reported to this mom, he's just such a delightful boy! His mom could not believe her ears. She also couldn’t believe that he wanted to come back to school at Vanguard. This little boy enrolled and within the first week his shoulders were two inches lower and his smile was broader. It was heartwarming! By the end of the week, his mom came in and said:
“Thank you very much, Mrs. Blaetz, for getting my son back! He's happy. He wants to go to school. He knows the other kids appreciate what he has to share. He knows the teachers will help him with the things that are hard for him and will let him run the race as fast as he wants to in learning the things that he is passionate about.” She said, “This is the school for my child because he is recognized for who he is.”
Raising a gifted child is a journey, and it's been very fulfilling for me to hear from families about their journeys. If you are interested in learning more about a specific topic related to giftedness, let us know; we’d love for you to tell us what you'd like to learn more about.
In the meantime, here’s another helpful resource that provides information about gifted topics that you may want to check out: https://crushingtallpoppies.com/
Until next time, thank you so much for joining me at the Vanguard Gifted Academy educational channel.
Resources:
Raising Poppies: Supporting Parents of Gifted and Twice-Exceptional Children, a community managed by Colleen & Caitlin
Family Resources: https://www.verywellfamily.com/gifted-kids-4157326
Resources about gifted, activities, and information about schools: www.hoagiesgifted.org