Conversations on Twice Exceptional Homeschooling
I have been trying for a long time to figure out a quick and easy way of explaining the complex interaction of ADHD and Giftedness.
It’s actually caused a lot of sleepless nights, courtesy of my own ADHD, hyperfocus, and the inability to actually finish anything!
Hopefully this actually makes some sense. Continue reading “ADHD and Giftedness: It’s Complicated”
Boost: 12 Effective Ways to Lift Up Our Twice-Exceptional* Children, by Kelly Hirt is a book for parents and teachers who want to find ways to communicate and teach kids who think differently.
In an easy to read format, it has concrete strategies to help by respecting all communication styles and putting the parent and teacher firmly in the learning seat.
By stressing the importance for adults to adapt and learn how neurodiverse kids think and communicate, I believe it will help create real and authentic learning, tailored to the needs of their children and students.
*Twice-Exceptional (2e) children are gifted children with disabilities.
**Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own!
Continue reading “Review – Boost: 12 Effective Ways to Lift Up Our Twice-Exceptional Children”
What does inequality in gifted education look like? This is the story of a boy and a canoe.
Continue reading “The Boy and the Canoe”
In the last few weeks there have been ‘shocking’ headline articles [1] in my state of Victoria about a gifted education provider used by at least 30 schools. The ‘shock’ is due to the founder’s unusual non-mainstream, non-scientific (and pretty out-there) ideas which were taught without either their parents or the school’s knowledge.
There were a lot of very upset people – both in the medical establishment, in the schools and in the general public – pulling their hair and wailing about standards, speculating about the ‘reasons’ [2] and generally lamenting about ‘woo’ being taught without reflecting on how this incident revealed and illustrated some of the deeper issues that currently plague gifted education in most Victorian schools [3].
Sadly, that this happened isn’t really a surprise. It was almost inevitable. Because, when it comes to gifted education, almost all schools already deal in woo.
Continue reading “Gifted Education and ‘Woo’”
“I’ve done lots of reading. I’ve looked at the standard definitions. I listened to the niggles and ‘problems’ that different people – my GP, a friend, my child’s teacher etc. have mentioned. I know my child’s quirky . . . But, is my gifted child autistic?”
It’s a question almost every parent of gifted kids I have ever talked to has brought up at one time or another (particularly the parents of highly to profoundly gifted children). And though it seems there should be an easy answer to this question – a quick test, a definitive way of putting a yes or no to this question, the answer is actually much, much more complicated.
Having travelled down this rabbit-hole for a long while now, I’d like take you on a trip into the world of giftedness and autism.
Continue reading “Is My Gifted Child Autistic?”