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Showing posts with label intelligence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intelligence. Show all posts

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

ANXIETY is one of the conditions our subscribers are most concerned with when it comes to raising or educating twice-exceptional children. An article in the Vancouver Sun describes a researcher's efforts to develop a "screen" for anxiety in kindergarten, when kids are screened for vision and hearing. According to the article, about ten percent of kindergartners have anxiety at a level sufficient to interfere with school work or friendships. Read more. Separately, other researchers speculate that intelligence may have "co-evolved" with worry, noting that the two traits both correlate with certain brain activity. In subjects with generalized anxiety disorder, the researchers found a positive correlation between intelligence and worry; in "normal" subjects, high IQ had a negative correlation with worry. Find out more.
LD IN COLLEGE. A Chicago Tribune article explores why some college students eligible for special services in college may forgo those, and also looks at the kinds of services available to college students with LDs. Find the article.
AUTISM. Those with a stake in how the DSM-5 handles the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders might be interested in an article by a psychiatrist involved in the revision process. He explains the process and explains why the DSM's standards are so important. Find the article. Separately, NPR's Diane Rehm Show on April 11th considered the implications of recent research on our understanding of autism. Find the show. Finally, Harvard University researchers are developing a quick, simple, and supposedly accurate tool for detecting autism in young children. The tool involves a small set of questions and a short home video, and, according to a write-up of the research, "could reduce the time for autism diagnosis by nearly 95 percent, from hours to minutes, and could be easily integrated into routine child screening practices to enable a dramatic increase in reach to the population at risk." Find out more.
INTELLIGENCE MAPPED. A research team based at the University of Illinois has reported mapping the physical architecture of intelligence in the brain. The researchers used patients with brain injuries to infer how specific brain structures are associated with various cognitive tasks. Included in the map are areas associated with general intelligence and executive function; included with the study write-up is a graphic showing where those areas are supposedly located. Read more. 

APRIL 20th EVENT IN NEW YORK. An all-day event on April 20th at Nassau Community College in New York will focus on how educators can help twice-exceptional students succeed. The event is titled "Unlocking Potential": Cost-free Strategies to Improve Underachieving Students' Performance. Find out more. 
THE GIFTED HOMESCHOOLERS FORUM is now providing online courses for gifted and twice-exceptional students, according to the organization. The first two courses are scheduled to begin in September. Find out more. 
AND FINALLY, THIS. The company Zaner-Bloser, "one of the premier publishers of research-based reading, writing, spelling, vocabulary, and handwriting programs," has held and announced the winners of the 21st Annual National Handwriting Contest, in which over 325,000 students participated. Entries were judged on size, shape, spacing, and slant. This contest is of interest to us because of the sheer number of entrants, because based on our own sons' education experiences we weren't sure that handwriting was actually taught anymore, and also because we thought everyone now keyboarded instead of writing. Find out more about the contest.

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

ON IQ. Today we found three items concerning IQ, a topic of some interest to those who raise and educate gifted kids with learning challenges.  1. A UK study found links between higher IQ at ages 5 and 10 with higher-than-typical drug use at ages 16 and 20. Researchers' conjecture? Boredom or feeling different, "either of which could conceivably increase vulnerability to using drugs as an avoidant coping strategy," Read more.  2. The American Heart Association says that in men, a higher late-adolescence IQ score correlates with a lower waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) in middle age. A high WHR is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Read more.  3. Finally, a European study of breastfeeding and IQ indicates that preschoolers who had been breastfed longer had higher IQs. The conjecture: "It is the physical and psychological bonding and interaction between infant and mother during breast-feeding that nurtures development of an infant's cognitive abilities," noting that breastfeeding is not just a meal but "a dynamic, bidirectional, biological dialogue." Find out more.
SENG VINE. SENG's November newsletter is posted at Constant Contact. The issue's featured article is on parenting the gifted; it's by a woman who, as a girl, was featured in the movie Spellbound, about the National Spelling Bee.
RESOURCE. Education Week has announced that November 16-20 is an "open house" at its website, much of which is usually for subscribers only. Find the Education Week homepage.
THE SOCIETY FOR NEUROSCIENCE just concluded its annual meeting. A synopsis of some of the research presented at the conference is available at ScienceDaily; the synopsis features studies involving depression and schizophrenia. Another synopsis at ScienceDaily dealt with studies on ASD, Fragile X, and bipolar disorder.
AND FINALLY, THIS -- ON PARENTING. The New  York Times obituary section (we often learn interesting things there) noted the death of a Czech-born little person, 93, who had acted as a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. According to the obit, his father tried "witch doctor" treatments to make him grow, but then, when the child was 9, sold him to a traveling show. For his stint in Oz, he earned $50 a week, supposedly less than Toto was paid. Read a longer AP version of the obit.

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

LD ON COLLEGE APP: TELL OR NOT? A New York Times blog explored the issue of what to reveal on a college application about one's learning challenges. According to the article, whether to disclose might depend on the impact on performance of the LD; students with strong grades might not want to disclose. Also in the article: a pointer to sources of information about colleges supporting students with LDs. Read more.
COULDN'T MAKE IT TO NAGC, wrapping up this weekend? Tamara Fisher blogs about her experiences there at "Unwrapping the Gifted."
DEBORAH RUF, in  her e-newsletter, pointed us to "Nobel Conference 47: The Brain and Being Human." Not only does the conference site offer resources for each presenter's topic, but it also provides a video archive so that site visitors can view videos of presentations. The topics are more general than 2e- or LD-specific, but brain mavens might want to check out the site. Thanks, Deborah. 
MATT COHEN, special ed attorney who has written for 2e Newsletter, has an article in his November e-newsletter titled "Beware the IQ Score," discussing challenges to the common belief that IQ is constant. Find the newsletter or download the article (as a Word document) from the Monahan & Cohen website.  
ATTENTION RESEARCH UPDATE, David Rabiner's newsletter, has been posted for October. The subject: what's important to families as they make decisions in seeking treatment for AD/HD in a child. Find the newsletter. 
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR READERS. An article in the most recent edition of 2e Newsletter mentioned Bookshare, a tool to help struggling readers by providing books in a way that can be both seen and heard on the computer. Bookshare is free for schoolchildren. Got a problem reader? Find out more about Bookshare.
BOOKS FOR DYSLEXIC KIDS. The Telegraph of London published a column in observance of Dyslexia Awareness Week, noting books from a British publisher devoted to bringing out works for struggling readers. Find the column. Separately, The LA Times noted research from Stanford University indicating that intelligence is unrelated to dyslexia -- "evidence of dyslexia was shown to be independent of IQ scores." Read more.
THE AUTISTIC ADVANTAGE? A Canadian researcher "has strongly established and replicated the abilities and sometimes superiorities of autistics in multiple cognitive operations such as perception and reasoning," according to ScienceDaily. As in an item in one of our recent blog posts, the researcher notes that standard IQ tests can be inappropriate in gauging the strengths of the autistic mind. Read more.

DYSLEXIA GOES TO COLLEGE. An event at Stanford University for college admission deans was intended to help colleges appreciate dyslexic applicants. Organized in part by expert Sally Shaywitz, the event featured speakers who shared their experiences with dyslexia -- Charles Schwab was among those. Also covered: topics such as the effect of dyslexia on the testing and admissions process; accommodations in college; and tips for dyslexic students on choosing the right college. Read more.
COMPOUNDING THE PROBLEM. Research by Autism Speaks notes that more than half of the young people in their registry also show symptoms of either attention problems or of hyperactivity. Researchers noted that the AD/HD symptoms further burden children with autism, and stressed the importance of identifying AD/HD symptoms so that they could be addressed. Read more.
TREATING OCD. An article in Time Magazine noted the effectiveness of a therapy called exposure and response prevention (ERP) in reducing OCD symptoms, especially when used in combination with medication. Among kids in a JAMA-reported study, about 67 percent of kids treated with a combination of medicine and ERP reduced their OCD symptoms by a 30 percent benchmark. Find out more.
GIFTED STUDENTS AND ONLINE LEARNING was the topic of an Education Week online chat this week. Interested persons may find the chat at the Education Week website.
GIFTED ISSUES DISCUSSION FORUM. The Davidson Institute maintains a free public forum for the discussion of gifted issues at http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/. Some of the threads deal with twice-exceptional topics, such as giftedness and AD/HD, or low working memory, or visual processing  issues.
AD/HD AND STIMULANTS. About 2.8 million children  in the United States were prescribed stimulant medicine for AD/HD in 2008, up from previous years. The study covered the years from 1996 to 2008. Usage is higher in boys and children not of color; usage is lower in Western states. Find out more.
BEST STEM HIGH SCHOOLS. Want to find out which high schools rank highest in the teaching of science and math? US News can tell you.
SMARTS AND PROCESSING SPEED. Adolescents become smarter (as measured on intelligence tests) because their processing speed increases, according to a new study. Read more.
BRAIN RESOURCE. Healthline has a cool interactive tool for visualizing the brain. You can turn it, split it, see different layers, identify components, and read about them. Find it.
AND FINALLY, THIS. You can buy your child a pair of $40 sunglasses with a hidden video camera inside. According to a reviewer, the set-up includes  a battery, 128MB of RAM, and a USB port for downloading the video to a computer for viewing and editing. Read the review or go to the vendor's website.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID. Last Friday we posted about a column refuting the belief that the fast pace of society "causes" AD/HD. Today, The New York Times printed three responses to that column, including one pointing out a character in Jane Eyre who likely had AD/HD, and another from the book Distracted that might have inspired the column in the first place. (The NY Times letters are always such a forum for civil, informed discourse, don't you think? :-)) Find the letters.
GOT SENSORY INTEGRATION ISSUES in that bright young person you raise or teach? The magazine S.I. Focus is moving to all-electronic distribution starting in January -- and at a lower price. Check it out.
VIDEO GAMES AND VIOLENCE. Exposure to violent video games or television is not a predictor of aggression in youth, according to a study from Texas A&M -- but depression is. The study contradicts earlier findings -- but read it if the issue concerns you.
HOW CAN SUCH A SMART KID NOT GET IT is the title of an article in the current issue of Gifted Child Today. One of the authors is Nina Yssel, the coordinator of a cool summer camp for 2e kids at Ball State University in Indiana, unfortunately no longer in operation (the camp, not the university). You can read the article if you have a sub to Gifted Child Today or are a member of Encyclopedia Britannica Online Premium; otherwise you'll have to settle for an excerpt.
IEPs... SPECIAL ED... ADVOCACY... PRETTY FUNNY. Wrightslaw has put together an issue of Special Ed Advocacy focusing on the humor in it all. The edition includes the following disclaimer: "If you are one of those humor-challenged individuals who believe there is absolutely nothing funny about children with disabilities, we urge you to stop reading now, and go back to biting your nails down to your elbow." Find the issue, including a Dr. Seuss parody "Do you like these IEPs?"
THE iPAD AS ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY. LD Online offers hints and pointers; find the column.
PREDICTING WHICH DYSLEXICS WILL READ. Researchers have used brain imaging to predict which teens with dyslexia would be able to learn to read. The key was extra activity in the part of the brain known as the right inferior frontal gyrus. Find out more.
ASD AND SEARCH SKILLS. A study of the comparative abilities of ASD kids and typical kids has found that ASD kids were less successful in searching a test room for a hidden object -- possibly because they failed to pick up on a pattern, that 80 percent of the objects were hidden on one side of the room. The researchers suggested that "ASD children have a hard time applying rules of probability to larger environments—especially those in which they have to physically orient themselves and navigate." Find the article.  
INTELLIGENCE. In a New York Times interview with a string-theory/cosmologist physicist, the topic of intelligence came  up. The interviewer whether the physicist thought that SAT scores defined intelligence. He replied, "No. They define the capacity to answer questions on an SAT test." Then he provided his own definition of intelligence, which you can read here.  
AND FINALLY, THERE'S THIS. Madame Tussauds is opening a US Presidents Gallery in Washington, DC, which "will be the only place in the world where people can see and interact with US presidents." (Now, if only we could get the members of the US Congress to interact.) Actually, Madame Tussauds has built a curriculum for educators focusing on the history of US presidents, for use when visiting the attraction with students.  Get a preview on YouTube. Or visit the museum's site.
 

HELP EXPLAINING MATH. An online column from The New York Times might be of help to parents attempting to help their bright children with math. Steven Strogatz says of his column, "I’ll be writing about the elements of mathematics, from pre-school to grad school, for anyone out there who’d like to have a second chance at the subject -- but this time from an adult perspective. It’s not intended to be remedial. The goal is to give you a better feeling for what math is all about and why it’s so enthralling to those who get it." Find the columns here.

LEARNING STYLES, ONE MORE TIME -- and probably not the last. In a thoughtful article in Teacher Magazine, a psychological scientist and husband of a classroom teacher provides his take on the controversy between those who insist that learning styles exist and those who deny it, and tries to explain how basic cognitive science can apply to teaching. Read it.

ALL KINDS OF MINDS is an organization that has focused on turning research into educational practices to meet the needs of all students. The organization has announced its list of "Schools of Distinction" that "exemplify how schools can build expertise in learning in order to develop individual intellects, talents, and creativity through innovative teaching; implement a wide range of creative learning concepts that take into consideration students' strengths, affinities and challenges; and help solve problems through addressing student learning issues." Find the list.

MAYBE NOT VACCINES, BUT TOXINS, along with genetics, are the cause of autism, writes Nicolas Kristof. He describes current scientific thinking on the topic, and provides some practical advice on what to avoid -- such as phthalate-containing personal care products. He worries about sensationalizing the risk -- as happened with vaccines -- but says, "On the other hand, in the case of great health dangers of modern times — mercury, lead, tobacco, asbestos — journalists were too slow to blow the whistle. In public health, we in the press have more often been lap dogs than watchdogs." Read the column.

THE CLUSTER GROUPING HANDBOOK is the topic of an interview by Michael Shaughnessy with authors Susan Winebrenner and Dina Brulles. The interview covers how the book can help gifted students, the inclusion in the book of professional development plans and a CD of tools such as interactive lesson plans, and how to "sell" cluster grouping. Find the interview. (2e Newsletter's May, 2009, issue included an article by Brulles and Winebrenner on cluster grouping. Subscribers may read that in the subscriber-only area of the 2e Newsletter website.)

LD RESOURCES. On Feburary 26th, The New York Times published two articles dealing the learning disabilities. One article deals with ways to make sure a child is getting the educational help needed, for example by knowing rights granted under IDEA. The second article offers resources for parents of students with LDs.

EDUTOPIA's current online issue features parent participation at school -- what it can accomplish and how to encourage it.

THE G-FACTOR might not reside in a specific area of the brain, but rather in a network of regions across the brain, according to a study reported in ScienceDaily. One of the reasearchers says, "...the particular regions and connections we found are quite in line with an existing theory about intelligence called the 'parieto-frontal integration theory.' It says that general intelligence depends on the brain's ability to integrate -- to pull together -- several different kinds of processing, such as working memory." If you're into the nuts and bolts -- the neurons and synapses -- of intelligence, read the article.

MONTHLY BRIEFING. Many of the items posted here make it into the free monthly email briefing from 2e Newsletter. Readers who want to make sure they don't miss the content from blog postings may sign up to receive the briefing here.

TALK TO YOUR KID. New York Times columnist Jane Brody just published a column called "From Birth, Engage Your Child with Talk." The co-publishers of 2e Newsletter discussed this at dinner tonight, and one of the co-publishers was a little irate. "Of course we talked to our babies. How could you just wheel them around and ignore them?" That's what bothers Jane Brody, who recently personally congratulated a young mother for engaging her child with talk. Read it.

ATTENTION RESEARCH UPDATE. David Rabiner has posted his most recent issue, titled "Are College Students with AD/HD Misusing their Medication?" And, if they are, who's doing it and what are they doing it for? Got a gifted AD/HD kid and worried? Read the column.

WRIGHTSLAW. The current edition of Wrightlaw's Special Ed Advocate contains an article called "Master of DeceptIon" about kids who don't do homework and conceal their inaction. Is that your bright but underachieving child? Read the article.

FREE WEBINAR. Fearless Sally_L, of OGTOC fame, says that thanks to presenter Deborah Ruf the upcoming webinar titled "Ruf Estimates of Levels of Giftedness" [pun there] will be provided at no charge, although donations to help recoup costs are welcome. You can find registration information here. Find information about the presenter here. And, in our experience, you can probably be certain that you won't be able to stump Dr. Ruf with a question about the assessment of intelligence.

From the Week of August 9th

CALIFORNIA SCHOOL FOR KIDS WITH LDs. An article in the San Diego Union-Tribune featured Winston School, a small (100-student) private school in Del Mar. According to the article, students at the school have LDs that include AD/HD, dyslexia, and Asperger's. All of the students graduating from Winston this year have evidently been accepted at two- and four-year colleges. Read the article.

LD AT U OF T. The University of Texas' Daily Texan says that 1262 students at the school are registered with the office that provides services for students with LDs. The article quotes the director of that office as saying, "Many of them, although they may have areas of relative weakness, are incredibly bright and gifted in the areas that they do excel at." The school provides resources and one-on-one assistance from instructors. Find out more.

SMART INFANT, SMART ADULT. From the news center at Case Western Reserve: "Infants who excel at processing new information at 6- and 12-months-old typically excel in intelligence and academic achievements as young adults in their 20's, according to a study directed by Case Western Reserve University Psychologist Joseph Fagan." The results stem from a longitudinal study of infants tested in their first year of life. Find the news item.

GET INVOLVED WITH THAT GIFTED KID, DAD. It's not just a mom's job. A University of Illinois expert in early childhood education claims that mothers and fathers play different roles and make different contributions to a child’s upbringing, but a father’s influence upon a child’s academic success later in life is felt the most when he’s involved from the very beginning. Brent McBride also says that fathers and father figures can have at least as much of a unique impact on a child as mothers do, and therefore should be seen as co-equal partners in parenting. Find the UI news release.

ANOTHER WEBINAR FROM OGTOC. Sally_L has scheduled another webinar, this one on September 14th and titled The Art of Gifted Advocacy. It features Barbara Gilman of the Gifted Development Center in Denver. Gilman is author of Academic Advocacy for Gifted Children. Find out more.

GRADE SKIPPING FOR THE GIFTED. In Education Week, Laura Vanderkam and Richard Whitmire revisit acceleration for gifted children as an "obvious, easy, inexpensive solution" to nurturing gifted students. Read the article.

ADVOCACY SUMMER SCHOOL, PART 3. Are you participating in the Wrightslaw Summer School for Advocates? If so, this week's lesson covers how to use information from tests to track your child's progress. Go to school.

AN INTERESTING LD RESOURCE came across our desk a short while ago. NCLD has issued "The State of Learning Disabilities (2009)." Here's what NCLD has to say about their effort: "NCLD offers this publication to policy makers, education professionals, media, parents and others to ensure that there is access to key LD data to and expand awareness about what LD is and whom the condition impacts." For that one "e" in your child's 2e equation, this report might offer perspective and statistics. Find the PDF.

TEXAS AND GIFTED. An article in the Dallas Morning News described the plight of gifted education in Texas -- no requirements of teachers to take graduate education programs in gifted education, few districts that pay teachers to take such programs, and no higher pay for teachers who do. Read about the state of gifted education in Texas here.

MORE ITEMS as the week goes on...

From the Week of July 19th

TECHNOLOGY IN INSTRUCTION. In the July/August issue of 2e Newsletter, we featured the use of technology in educating twice-exceptional students. The New York Times, on July 22nd, reported on "The School of One," a summer school pilot program in a New York middle school in which students use laptops to work their way through a math program that consist of online quizzes, games, and worksheets. The students' progress on any given day determines the next day's curriculum. The superintendent of New York schools says that the program tailors lessons to student strengths, weaknesses, and interests. Read more.

NATURE VERSUS NURTURE -- A NEW PERSPECTIVE. Science Daily reports on a newly published research from the University of Iowa that calls for burying the "nature versus nurture" debate in favor of a systemic, multi-causal perspective. The research team rejects the idea of genetic expression as a one-way, deterministic mechanism. Instead (from the article): "The UI team believes genes are expressed at every point in development and are affected all along the way by a gamut of environmental factors -- everything from proteins and chemicals to the socioeconomic status of a family. These ideas are unified by a perspective called developmental systems theory." Find the article.

DISABILITY AWARENESS. Easter Seals has released Friends Who Care, a disability awareness curriculum to help presumably "normal" children understand what it's like to have a disability involving vision, hearing, AD/HD, autism, and others limiting factors. Find out more.

ASK AN ASPIE to anticipate another person's state of mind -- and the Aspie may be able to respond correctly to the prompt, even though many with the condition don't spontaneously "read" the mental state of others -- that's the message in a short piece in Scientific American. Read it.

POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS -- BAD FOR IQ. A study reported in Science Daily links environmental pollutants by that name (also called PAHs) to lower IQ test scores in children who are exposed to high levels of those pollutants prenatally. Exposure led to a difference of 4.31 points on full-scale IQ scores and 4.67 points on verbal IQ scores, as compared to less-exposed children. PAHs come from burning coal, oil, and other organic substances (including tobacco). Chalk it up as another one of those things that affect us beyond our control. Read the article.

ADVOCATING FOR THAT 2e CHILD. Wrightslaw, in its newsletter Special Ed Advocate, is offering a refresher course in effective advocacy. Find the first lesson -- along with a link to an advocacy resource directory -- in this week's edition.

LEARNING IS COMPUTATIONAL, SOCIAL. Science Daily reported on research converging to "create foundations for a new science of learning," according to the article. The research, from the University of Washington's Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, notes that infants "learn the sounds and words of their language by picking up probabilistic information as they listen," that they are calculating statistically. But the researchers also emphasize the social aspect, noting that babies need other people to learn, not just a TV screen. That said, the article also covers the role of technology in learning. Read the Science Daily article. (To read more on the research, find the June 17th edition of the journal Science.)

MONTGOMERY COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Washington Post columnist Jay Matthews reviews the book Leading for Equity: The Pursuit of Excellence in Montgomery County Public Schools. While the book emphasizes process and can seem academic, implies Matthews, he urges those interested in education to take a look. To encourage such a look, Matthews offers some lessons titles from a key chapter, titles that might entice those with a stake in 2e education. One sample lesson title: "Implementing a strategy of common, rigorous standards with differentiated resources and instruction can create excellence and equity for all students." Does that sound like what a 2e kid needs? Readers of 2e Newsletter know that MCPS has a reputation for serving 2e kids well; this book about the schools and its leaders may offer reasons why that's so. Find Matthews' article.

MORE NEWS AND RESOURCES as the week goes on.