| Subscriber Alerts
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A new subscriber would like to share information with other parents of 2es, particularly those who have chosen to not go through a full traditional high school program. "Our son will be going to college/has already earned college credits at age 16, without ever getting a high school diploma. I would really like to be able to communicate with others who have tried this/are doing this. I would love to meet others in the Denver, CO area who have taken this approach or any other alternative approach. In particular, I would also like to talk with others who have tried the online honors courses from Johns Hopkins, Northwestern U or Stanford EPGY. I have a great private teacher for math learning 'disabilities'/differences to recommend." If you'd like to share information with this subscriber, please let us know and we'll facilitate an exchange of email addresses.
Carolyn K (webmistress of Hoagies' Gifted Education Page) and Sally Lyon (Our Gifted Online Conference) have won 2007 Top Online Educator Awards.
Past cover quotes from 2e Newsletter are now online. These quotes offer insight into who twice-exceptional children are and what they have the potential to be.
We're writing up the results of the survey we conducted in March and will make the results available as quickly as possible.
Next issue of the newsletter: early May. (Not yet a subscriber? Go here.) Back issues of 2e Newsletter are available.
Feel free to pass on this briefing to others you might know with an interest in raising or teaching high-ability children with learning differences. |
In the News
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MAYBE YOU WERE RIGHT ABOUT THOSE VIDEO GAMES. New research by Iowa State University psychologists provides more concrete evidence of the adverse effects of violent video game exposure on the behavior of children and adolescents, according to the university. The researchers share the results of three new studies in their book, Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents (Oxford University Press, 2007). It is the first book to unite empirical research and public policy related to violent video games.
ANTIDEPRESSANTS FOR KIDS: USE THEM OR NOT? The New York Times reported on a new analysis which indicates that the benefits of antidepressants in children outweigh the risks. Published in April by the Journal of the American Medical Association, the analysis includes studies not available when the FDA issued its warning about antidepressant use in children.
AD/HD AND PRENATAL SMOKING. A study of 782 families with 1540 twins has provided more information on the link between genetic predisposition to AD/HD and the environmental risk factor of mom's smoking while pregnant. Genes alone lead to a modest increase in the risk of AD/HD in the child, and smoking alone leads to similar elevated risk, BIT the combination of genes and smoking led to a three- to nine-fold risk, depending on whether one or two predisposing genes were present.
AD/HD AND ASTHMA. The University of Virginia says that "families with asthmatic children not only report higher incidences of AD/HD, but also of depression, anxiety, and learning disabilities." The more severe the child's asthma, the higher the incidence of the co-morbidities. The study used information on over 100,000 children. More.
AD/HD AND MOM'S DEPRESSION. A study at the University of Maryland linked depression in mothers of AD/HD children to conduct problems in those children. Conversely, positive parenting of children with AD/HD was found to be a protective factor. The researchers noted that approximately 20 to 50 percent of children and 44 to 50 percent of adolescents with AD/HD experience severe conduct problems. (David Rabiner analyzes the study in his current Attention Research Update; see below.)
ONLINE LEARNING. eSchool News passed on the results of a survey of the usage of online learning in K-12 students, noting that about 700,000 students studied online in 2006 and that almost two-thirds of school districts had at least one student learning online. The survey was conducted by Hunter College and Babson College and funded by the Alfred P. Sloan foundation. Find the article in the April issue of eSchool News; find the complete survey results here.
EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE A NO-GO? The Washington Post reported on the results of a US Department of Education study on educational software, saying "the long-awaited report amounts to a rebuke of educational technology." While the US DOE concludes that products from the $2 billion-a-year industry have no significant impact on student performance, the Post said that "industry officials played down the study." Study at http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20074005/
2e EDUCATION AFTER HIGH SCHOOL. Beginning in the spring of 2007, twice exceptional students will be eligible to participate in a post-secondary educational program at Nassau Community College in New York, according to the college. The Achilles Project, named after the mythical Greek warrior known for both his great strength and his vulnerability, uses a holistic educational approach, addressing students' academic and social-emotional needs, as well as their areas of strength and weakness. Special education accommodations, tutoring, and teaming are provided as supports to differentiated instruction in small classes instructionally enhanced for students with different needs. Social skills and support groups/counseling, faculty and peer mentoring, and career-related internships are offered. For more information about The Achilles Project, contact Wendy Eisner, PhD, Program Coordinator, at 516-572-7451 or eisnerw@ncc.edu.
INTERVIEW WITH PUBLISHER FOR GIFTEDNESS. On April 25, EdNews interviewed Joel McIntosh, publisher of Prufrock Press, "the nation's leading resource for gifted and advanced learners." McIntosh discusses the materials he publishes, his purposes, and the origin of the company's name. (For those of us who were not English majors, it's from a theme in TS Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.")
AUTISM IN THE NEWS. April saw lots of articles on autism. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology released the results of work on the development of the folds on the outermost layer of the brain, and indicated that the research team is now collecting MRI images from patients with autism to compare their folds with the "normal" development of folds. CBS News interviewed Dr Kenneth Brock, coauthor of Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, AD/HD, Asthma, and Allergies. The Chicago Tribune reported on "a major study" for an "unproven treatment" for autism, hyperbaric oxygen therapy. And an editorial in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine covered emerging genetic research that may help scientists recognize children with autism at a younger and potentially treatable age. Finally, Newsday reported on a Kennedy Krieger Institute effort to create an online registry for families of children with autism; the registry involves completing a questionnaire and offers the chance to be connected with experimental studies on the topic.
MORE CURRIKI. The New York Times gave an update on Sun Microsystems chairman Scott McNeally and the launch of his open-source education site http://www.curriki.org. The goal: "to lower the barrier to basic educational materials as more students get access to the Internet worldwide."
UNDERACHIEVEMENT REVERSIBLE? A study in NAGC's Gifted Child Quarterly examined whether highly gifted students' attitudes toward their schools would predict underachievement in a rigorous summer educational program. The findings: no. The implications, according to the study: that programs designed specifically to address the needs of the gifted may reverse underachievement behaviors in a short period of time.
Note: Some of these news items came to our attention through ScienceDaily.
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From Press Releases
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BIGGEST "MIXED MESSAGE" OF THE PAST MONTH. "Taking advantage of how teens prefer to communicate, The Century Council, an organization funded by distillers dedicated to fighting drunk driving and underage drinking [italics ours], is launching its second annual safe prom campaign using text messaging as a creative way to remind teens to make smart decisions and not to drink alcohol during prom night or throughout the year. In order to send the text message, family members and friends only need to do the following: Visit http://www.prmtxt.org/. Register the teen's cell phone number, date of prom, and zip code. On prom night, teens will receive the message: 'Have fun 2night. Stay safe. Don't drink. Luv u.' Participants can also receive a confirmation that evening that their message was sent." |
From Other Newsletters and Digests
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Attention Research Update. The April issue analyzed a study of connections between factors of early childhood and conduct problems in young children with AD/HD. The study indicates that maternal characteristics such as depression can influence the development of significant conduct problems in AD/HD kids in the target families. Read it. (The article may not be posted yet.)Edutopia. An April article called "A Depressing Trend" examined mental illness in teen students and what schools and health professionals can do in response.
LD OnLine Monthly Report. The April issue featured accommodations for testing, plus articles on dyspraxia, how parents can write letters that get results, and how teaches can instruct on social skills.
SchwabLearning. Material offered online at SchwabLearning in recent issues included articles on assistive technology (April 3); helping children reduce test anxiety (April 17); and an article called "LD from the Inside: Children's Voices on the Internet, where researchers analyzed thousands of kids' e-mail exchanges to gain insight on life with LD. (April 24).
Wrightslaw. On April 10, Wrightslaw offered articles on homework refusal and school failure; how to solve school problems and protect parent/school relationships; and drafting IEPs. The April 17th edition featured bullying in schools and victimization. |
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Resources
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Edutopia's "Spiral Notebook" pointed us to Open Educational Resouces, a site that aggregates collections of resources that are free to use and offers a way to find, rate, and review the resources.
Edutopia has also posted the results of its "Readers' Survey 2007." Find the best site to download free lessons; the best virtual field trip; the best blog for educators; how much your peers (other teachers) spend out of pocket each year for classroom supplies; and much, much more.
The US Surgeon General has released a report on mental health that includes a chapter on children and mental health. Topics in the chapter include normal development, risk factors and prevention, AD/HD, depression and suicide, other mental disorders (including autism and anxiety), service interventions, and service delivery. It's downloadable in PDF form.
Prufrock Press says that Creative Kids is looking for students to participate in their advisory board. "We love getting input from kids like on new features and changes to the magazine. We are looking for a few good kids, ages 8-14, to help us make Creative Kids the best magazine by kids, for kids! Our ideal advisory board members will be creative, proactive, and outgoing." For more information.
Dr. Liza Cardona of Smart Kids PR has announced a new educational blog which will cover a different topic each month. Cardona says that Smart Kids PR focuses on parents as educators, gifted children, teaching children with special needs (autism, AD/HD, learning disorders) home-school links, family learning, education for parents, and related topics.
The Homeschool Teachers Lounge recently posted an article called "Gifted and Learning Disabled: A Homeschool Perspective," based on the author's personal experience. It notes how being able to adapt the curriculum to your child's needs is a real advantage of homeschooling, along with the opportunity to create self-esteem through real achievement. Our favorite part of the article came as the author recounted telling a school that her child was gifted but also had a learning disability called dysgraphia. The school's response, according to the author: "Oh no, it's against district policy to be both. You'll have to choose one or the other."
Samsung Fresh films, a national teen filmmaking program, is accepting applications from teenagers aged 14-19 until May 14, 2007 via http://www.fresh-films.com/; no experience is necessary. According to the company, after the call for entries closes May 14th, a panel of producers will read the thousands of submissions and select 99 teenagers to be part of the 2007 program. The selected teens will be divided into nine teams, each team representing a city (L.A., New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Detroit, Dallas, Atlanta and Kansas City). Film crews have only seven days to cast, shoot, edit and produce their film before the final cut version is viewed by the jury. This year each film crew will be assigned one of three genres: comedy, drama, or action/thriller. In 2006, the program received more than 6,000 entries.
You know those stationary bikes at the health club that offer virtual rides? The New York Times describes the $100 Smart Cycle from Fisher-Price, an exercise bike for pre-schoolers that blends mental and physical education, hooking up to the TV and allowing a child to "steer down a virtual stret, matching letters, numbers, or shapes, or steering into a pit stop to play one of six early learning games with the onboard joystick." More info from Fisher-Price. |
Events
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The month of May, Our Gifted Online Conferences with Mary Ruth Coleman. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OGTOC/ for info.
June 29-July 3, PG Retreat, Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center, Denver, Colorado. Family camp for families with highly and profoundly gifted children, featuring kids activities including a game room, art activities, science experiments, swimming, more! Daily symposiums. Info: http://pgretreat.com/
July 13-15, Annual Conference of SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted), Overland Park, Kansas. For educators, parents and grandparents, mental health professionals, and gifted children, young adults, and adults. Information at www.sengifted.org.
July 29-August 3, 11th Annual Edufest, Boise State University, Boise, Idaho. For educators of gifted and talented children, but includes a parents' day and an administrator's institute. Information at www.edufest.org.
August 5-10, 17th Biennial World Conference, Warwick, England. By the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children. For educators, parents, and clinicians. More information at http://www.worldgifted2007.com/.
October 11-13, New England Conference on Gifted and Talented Education, "New Developments in Gifted Education." Holiday Inn by the Bay, Portland, Maine. Keynotes: Sally Reis, Robert K. Greenleaf, Nadia Webb; Information at http://www.necgt.org/
November 7-11, NAGC 54th Annual Convention, Minneapolis, Minnesota. For educators, other professionals, and parents. Information at www.nagc.org.
November 7-10, 19th Annual Conference on AD/HD, Crystal City, Virginia. By CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder). Information at www.CHADD.org.
For state association conferences relating to giftedness, see www.hoagiesgifted.org/conferences.htm on Hoagies' website. For additional conferences on learning differences, see the website of the Council for Exceptional Children. |
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Forwarding, Subscribing, Unsubscribing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Next edition of this briefing: early June. Feel free to forward it to a friend, colleague, teacher, or parent. To subscribe to the briefing, e-mail us at E2e@2eNewsletter.com with "subscribe" in the subject line.
To check out sample issues of 2e Newsletter, go to 2eNewsletter.com. To subscribe to 2e Newsletter, go here, print the subscription form, and fax or mail it to us along with payment. Or give us a call: 630.293.6798. We'll be happy to hear from you. Copyright 2007, Glen Ellyn Media, PO Box 582, Glen Ellyn IL 60138-0582. | |
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