Education Learning Issues

GIFTED AND STUTTERING. A gifted 16-year-old New Jersey boy who is taking two college classes described how his professor had asked  him not to speak in class because of  his stuttering. According to an article in The New York Times, about five percent of people stutter, and it is thought to have genetic and physiological causes. Find the article.  In response to the article, the Stuttering Foundation issued a response that includes eight tips for teachers; find it. (The foundation website also notes that for both Winston Churchill and James Earl Jones, "Stuttering didn't stop them. Don't let it stop you."

EDUTOPIA has a blog entry on its site titled "How to Support Gifted Students in Your Classroom." It notes the importance of identifying such students and of having a gifted, intuitive teacher to serve gifted students. Find the blog.

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES. We received an email directing us to a site by the name of Bytes Power Smarts, which is apparently deigned to help kids 8-11 "recognize and appreciate their strengths and talents," as manifested in the eight multiple intelligences recognized by Howard Gardener. The site contains stores for the children to read relating to those intelligences. Find it. (We recognized at least one name on the staff listing as being involved in the 2e community.)

OCD. CNN has an article on its website about OCD in children, and the article profiles two young people with different sets of symptoms. It describes how each young person has confronted the disorder. Find the article.

THE GIFTED DEVELOPMENT CENTER newsletter for October is out, and it brings news of the organization's move out of downtown Denver to more spacious quarters. (We visited the Center several years ago and would characterize their present space in an old house as pleasantly unique, but could see how they could use more space.) The newsletter also notes Linda Silverman's five decades of experience in the gifted field. Read the newsletter.

CURETOGETHER: ANXIETY. CureTogether, a site that provides information and support for persons with a variety of conditions, has posted information stemming from a 6200-patient survey on which treatments for anxiety work best and which are most popular. If you have a gifted child with anxiety, this will be of interest to you. The top three treatments in terms of effectiveness: exercise, Xanax, and then yoga. The treatments reported least effective: Wellbutrin, Amitripyline, and Paxil. Find the site.

EDUCATION WEEK published an article, available to non-subscribers, about the various types of reading problems (eg, phonemic awareness) and reading programs that work for those various types. Find it.

TEACHING BRIGHT FUTURE ENGINEERS? NASA has initiated a competition where high school teams will design software to program small satellites as a part of MIT's Zero-Robotics investigation. The first 100 teams to register by September 10th will be selected and then deliver proposals. Twenty of those teams will compete. Find out more.

NAGC IS MOVING. If you interact with NAGC, know that they'll be moving August 27th and back in business in their new location the following Monday. New address: 1331 H Street NW, Suite 1001, Washington, DC 20005.

SENG WEBINAR COMING UP. They're calling it a "SENGinar," and it will feature Jane Hesslein discussing "What Your Kids Want You To Know: Perspective for Parents and Teachers." The content is based on insights from gifted fifth-graders. Find out more.

COLLEGE ADMISSION AND LD. The Washington Post offered a blog on "navigating admissions with a learning disability," in which the president of Dean College provided seven pieces of advice for parents of college-bound kids with learning difficulties. Find the blog.

GIFTED STUDENT, GIFTED ATHLETE. A former high school co-valedictorian with a 3.55 grade average at Stanford is also the team's star quarterback. The interesting thing: the quarterback, Andrew Luck, is an architectural design major, presumably dependent on good visualization skills, and the job of quarterback would also seem to depend on a talent for analyzing visual patterns on the field. That's our interpretation, anyway. Read more about this athlete/scholar.

"ASPIRE" FOUNDED BY ASPIE. A UK young man with Asperger's, frustrated at not being able to use his degree in journalism in a mainstream job, has launched a magazine titled Aspire which is "specifically written by and for people on the autistic spectrum. Aspire provides a platform for the autistic community to discuss issues which affect them, their supporters and friends," according to an article about the publication. Read more.

DEPRESSION IN PRESCHOOLERS is the topic of a long article in the New York Times Magazine section last weekend. If you want one more thing to worry about in your young person, read the article.

READING PROBLEMS AND SELF-ESTEEM. A retired teacher in Canada who now runs a reading center describes the link between reading problems and self-worth, noting how the end result is often "acting out." Read the article.

We find items for this blog from our own reading, from press releases, and also from aggregators such as CEC SmartBrief, Science Daily, and EdNews.org.

PBS ENCOURAGES INNOVATIVE TEACHERS. Through March 12th, innovative teachers may enter a PBS Teachers contest. If you are a teacher and making a difference, check out the site for prizes and rules. If you know an innovative teacher -- hopefully one who has made a difference with your gifted child -- you might want to encourage that teacher to enter the contest.

SCIENCE COMPETITION FOR K5-8. Discovery Education and 3M have announced their 2010 Young Scientist Challenge. For the competition, middle school students residing in the United States are asked to create a one- to two-minute video communicating the science behind a possible solution for one of a list of safety and security issues that are present in everyday life. Deadline is May 27th. Find out more.

KNOW A GIFTED TEENAGE WRITER? That person might be interested in inkpop.com, an interactive writing platform for teens. Here's how the website describes itself: "inkpop is an online community that connects rising stars in teen lit with talent-spotting readers and publishing professionals. Our social networking forum spotlights aspiring authors and the readers who provide the positive springboard for feedback. inkpop members play a critical role in deciding who will land a publishing contract with HarperCollins." The site includes access to popular projects, blogs, and personal profiles by the writers. Find it.

UNWRAPPING THE GIFTED. Tamarra Fisher blogs about gifted webinars coming up, including events from NAGC, SENG, the University of California, Belin-Bank, and the Center for Talented Youth. Read the blog.

NEW EDUCATION BLOG. Education Week has launched a new blog called "Teacher in a Strange Land." In one of her first posts, "Stuff I Used to Think," Nancy Flanagan, a 30-year teacher and one-time Michigan Teacher of the Year, provides a somewhat jaded view on educational issues such as FAPE, the teacher's role, equity, and the mission of public schooling. Find out if your views mesh with hers.

EDUTOPIA VIDEOS ON iTUNES U. We've mentioned iTunes U as a source for educational material. Edutopia is now offering free downloadable video content through the site. Some of the topics include social and emotional learning, case studies of particular schools, and teacher training. Find out more.

AID FOR DYSLEXIC READERS. A professor of digital design has developed a toolkit to to help educators more effectively assist children with dyslexia, The online tool employs sight, sound, and physical movement to increase the reading and retention abilities of children aged 9 to 11 who have dyslexia, according to ScienceDaily. The researcher says, "I want to deemphasize the 26 letters of the alphabet and emphasize the 44 common sounds of the English language. I do so by helping educators employ children's senses, from the visual to the kinesthetic." Find out more.

PROBLEMS FOR THE MIXED-HANDED. Research reported in the journal Pediatrics indicates that children who are mixed-handed, or ambidextrous, are more likely to have mental health, language and scholastic problems in childhood than right- or left-handed children. About 1 in 100 people are mixed-handed. Among the risks: twice the incidence of AD/HD. Read more.

GOT A PASSION and the urge to communicate it to educators or parents in the gifted or twice-exceptional field? The National Association for Gifted Children has opened up proposal submissions for its 2010 conference, to be held in Atlanta next November. Find out more and register to submit a proposal.

FILM CONTEST FOR GIFTED YOUTH. The organization Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG) is inviting kids to "creatively share what it feels like to be gifted -- in two minutes or less." Gifted kids under 18 may submit a video by posting it on YouTube and submitting an entry form to SENG. Deadline: Midnight, March 1st. Find out more.

MORE ON NEUROEDUCATION. Lately we've posted a few times on the topic of neuroeducation, using the findings of neuroscience to guide teaching methods in the ordinary, everyday classroom. An article in The New York Times from December 20th gave examples of how neuroeducation works with math in the classroom. For example, pre-schoolers can learn cardinality, and are able to do simple division when the concept is delivered appropriately. For example, one expert quoted in the article said, “If children have games and activities that demonstrate the relationship between numbers, then quantity becomes a physical experience.” Neuroeducation builds on innate abilities such as subitizing, using parts of the brain that instinctively judge quantity. If you're looking for an article that makes neuroeducation concrete, try this one.

BRIGHT, INTELLIGENT, AND STRUGGLING TO READ. A study to be published in January shows that IQ and reading ability in dyslexics are not linked over time and do not influence each other, as opposed to typical readers, whose IQ and reading ability track together and influence each other. The study's lead author, Dr. Sally Shaywitz, says in a Science Daily article that "I've seen so many children who are struggling to read but have a high IQ. Our findings of an uncoupling between IQ and reading, and the influence of this uncoupling on the developmental trajectory of reading, provide evidence to support the concept that dyslexia is an unexpected difficulty with reading in children who otherwise have the intelligence to learn to read." Read more.

OMEGA-3 AND SENSORY OVERLOAD. Also from Science Daily, research indicating that omega-3 fatty acids help animals avoid sensory overload. From the article: "The finding connects low omega-3s to the information-processing problems found in people with schizophrenia; bipolar, obsessive-compulsive, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders; Huntington's disease; and other afflictions of the nervous system." The study examined the role of DHA fatty acid in sensorimotor gating, which helps animals respond to stimuli, and suggests that the proper fatty acids might have therapeutic potential. Read the article.

VIDEO GAMES IN THE CLASSROOM. The Sunday supplement Parade Magazine describes a classroom in New York City in which educators use a curriculum entirely focused on video games. According to the article, students "study and explore subjects through role-playing activities and computer-driven interactive quests... They work together on game-like 'missions,' solving puzzles and completing challenges as teams. Their courses have been combined into multidisciplinary “domains...” And at semester's end? They reach the "next level." Find the article.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND. The January issue has been mailed and contents are online. Although the "meaty" articles are reserved for subscribers or those willing to buy the digital issue online, interested readers may find some "public" features of interest: "How Birth Order Affects Your Personality"; "Should Parents Spank Their Kids?"; book reviews; and other items. Go to the table of contents to see what interests you.

NEUROSCIENCE AND READING. The Dana Foundation has posted an excerpt from the book Reading in the Brain, by Stanislas Dehaene. The chapter is titled, "Brain-based Suggestions for Teaching Reading." After the caveat that "neuroscience is still far from being prescriptive," the author describes what neuroscientists know about the process of reading and offers tips on effectively guiding children to achieve their reading skills. An example of classroom advice: "At each step, the words and sentences introduced in class must only include graphemes and phonemes that have already been explicitly taught. Reading lessons provide little room for improvisation." (The author also notes the difficulty of the English alphabetic writing system in terms of learning to read.) Read more.

SOCIAL DIFFICULTIES IN ASD. Scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered that the brains of individuals with autism are less active when engaged in self-reflective thought. Using brain imaging techniques, the researchers examined activity in an area of the brain known to be active when people think about themselves. Says the lead researcher: "This new study shows that within the autistic brain, regions that typically prefer self-relevant information make no distinction between thinking about the self or another person. This is strong evidence that in the autistic brain, processing information about the self is atypical." Find out more.

EQUITY IN GIFTED EDUCATION. Education columnist Jay Matthews uses billionaire Warren Buffett's early disenchantment with school to opine on equity in gifted education -- who should get it -- and also on dumping gifted education in favor of simply letting students find their talents. From the column: "I have interviewed many successful scientists, educators and entrepreneurs, and few of them were slotted into gifted programs based on a second-grade test. Our schools try to help kids like these, but many of their parents tell me they do better if they are home-schooled or, like the restless teenage Buffett, given as much time as possible to pursue their own interests..." Read it.

FOR YOUR CLEVER BUT DEVIOUS 2e CHILD? Science Daily reports that scientists have discovered the physiological mechanisms in the brain that underlie broken promises. Patterns of brain activity even enable predicting whether someone will break a promise. This begs the question: Will parents someday have available portable brain imaging devices to help them tell when a child's promise is real -- or bound to be broken? Find out more, and dream on.

THE BRAIN AND AUTISM. An article and video on a Philadelphia TV station's website explains recent findings about how the brains of Aspie and autistic children work. One study has found that autistic brains respond in a delayed fashion to sounds or speech, which can lead to difficulties in recognizing the sound. Another study shows underactivation in areas of the brain that understand faces and expressions. Go to the site.

BRAIN-MACHINE INTERFACE. Researchers using electrocorticography (monitoring signals from the surface of the brain) have allowed patients to "communicate" a letter to a computer via brainwaves. The computer first recorded the patients' responses to viewing particular letters. Then, when patients concentrated in their mind on a particular letter, the computer could read their pattern of brain waves and bring up the letter on the computer screen. Read more.

THE BRAIN AND READING. Carnegie Mellon University scientists Timothy Keller and Marcel Just have uncovered the first evidence that intensive instruction to improve reading skills in young children causes the brain to physically rewire itself, creating new white matter that improves communication within the brain. As the researchers reported in the journal Neuron, brain imaging of children between the ages of 8 and 10 showed that the quality of white matter -- the brain tissue that carries signals between areas of grey matter, where information is processed -- improved substantially after the children received 100 hours of remedial training. After the training, imaging indicated that the capability of the white matter to transmit signals efficiently had increased, and testing showed the children could read better. Read more from the Carnegie Mellon article/press release. Or, listen to an NPR program about the research findings.

BRAINY HIGH SCHOOLS. We see that US News has released its third annual report on "America's Best High Schools." You can find that report, along with other lists such as "Top IB Programs," here.

YOUR BRAIN ON LEAD. Science Daily reports that young adults with higher blood lead levels appear more likely to have major depression and panic disorders, even if they have exposure to lead levels generally considered safe. Cigarette smoking affects blood lead levels, and smoking elevated the risks even further, 2.5 times for depressive disorder and 8.2 times for panic disorder. The article explains that lead may disrupt brain processes involving the neurotransmitters catecholamine and serotonin. Read the article. (Note that the most recent issue of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter contains three articles on the biomedical/biochemical view of certain 2e conditions and treatment.)

HEALTHY BRAINS. Well, actually, this is about a new resource for healthy children in general, although we notice that the site does include dozens of articles about brain-related topics. The American Academy of Pediatrics has just launched -- just, as in today, December 10th -- a site providing pediatrician-approved health information for parents. According to the Academy, parents may browse sections such as:

• Ages & Stages: Information on the health issues of infants through adolescents, including interactive content on developmental milestones
• Healthy Living: Up-to-date guidance on fitness, sports, oral health, emotional wellness and nutrition
• Safety & Prevention: Preparing for health scenarios that occur at home, school and on the go, as well as in-depth information on the immunizations children need to stay healthy
• Health Issues: An exhaustive, A-to-Z list of more than 300 health care topics.