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Feel free to post comments, questions, concerns, resources, or personal testimonies on this blog!

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Parenting a Gifted Child: Interview - Garret Smith, Parent of Lily Smith (GATE Student at Woodsboro Elementary in Anaheim Hills)

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Parenting a Gifted Child: Interview - Garret Smith, Parent of Lily Smith (GATE Student at Woodsboro Elementary in Anaheim Hills)

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How does it feel to be the parent of your child?

Parenting a gifted student has its highs and its lows. I love that my child is bright and competitive and pushes herself to be her best, however, it is hard having a child who is a perfectionist. Sometimes she feels as though her best isn't good enough because the other students in her class have different strengths.  I feel very proud to be her mom, but it breaks my heart to know how hard she is on herself when I know how special and smart she is.

How  is your child developmentally the same and different from other children at the various ages?

My child is cognitively more developed than her peers. In her class, most students have mastered the state standards in math and reading for their grade level.  My child makes connections between content areas and asks me questions constantly. My child is social with other kids at school. The collaboration that happens in her GATE classroom can be seen
on the playground as well. I personally see a difference in her problem solving and conflict resolution skills that are needed to be a socially healthy child. I think that her maturity shows with her relationships with other students and adults.

What professionals or agencies do you deal with?

My child is placed in a GATE classroom at school that is led by a specially trained teacher. Many students in her class are trained in competitive sports and have specialists who train them in private lessons. My child is trained in private piano lessons, she has a Chinese language tutor, and is on an elite gymnastics team. Academically, she receives tutoring at Kumon because she is motivated to be on track to be in Algebra by 7th grade.

What services are available to you and your child?
At school, there are no federal funds that specifically go towards funding gifted and talented education. GATE classes can continue only in communities that have enough local funds to support GATE classrooms without federal help. Because of this, I send my child to the local GATE magnet school that attracts students from the district who qualify. I have to drive my child twice the distance to get to school, but I believe the services she receives there are worth it.

How did you find out about the above services?
I looked at the state department of education for information regarding Gifted and Talented Education. I contacted the district about my child taking the GATE placement test in my district.

What financial burden, if any, are you experiencing?
It is more expensive to commute my child to their school.  The daily route takes twice as long that it did to get to her original school.  It is also expensive to have the technology that is required for the GATE classes.  The GATE program assumes that children have access to a devise and the internet for catching up on classwork and homework. Most of the children in her class are also involved in expensive after school activities.

What other information do you want to share?
I would say that the resources and opportunities that are given to my child have been outstanding. My child is in an atmosphere that encourages her to perform at her best. It is, however, difficult to keep up with the pressure of advancing my child in every academic context. It sometimes feels as though I am not doing enough when some of the other kids are learning multiple languages, receiving tutoring, music lessons, competitive sports coaching, and other academic enrichment opportunities. Sometimes my child feels stressed and copes with anxiety because she is constantly comparing herself to her peers. I would want parents of gifted children to understand the commitment that is required for this type of program, and to understand the extra emotional support they will have to give to their child throughout their academic experience.

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1.  This website provides parents and educators with current laws and regulations that pertain to gifted education programs.  It provides information about their district’s testing and identification processes for gifted programs.  The website also provides additional resources and specialized programs that may be available to the child. Lastly, state standards and gifted standards are available for comparison.

http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/gt/

2.  This website provides teachers with accommodation strategies for gifted students, provides resources for teacher training, gives information about pull out groups, grouping, accommodation, and compacting curriculum

http://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/gifted-education-practices/accommodations

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1. This website helps parents with strategies to cope with or support their child’s emotional needs that come with being gifted.  The website provides resources, seminars, and support groups that parents have access to.

http://sengifted.org

2.  This book talks about the strengths and challenges of gifted children and it helps parents support their child’s needs and effectively cope with their problems.

Perfectionism and Gifted Children., Rosemary Callard-Szulgit. (2003). Lanham., MD: Scarecrow Education.

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1.  This resource provides intellectual engagement strategies for teachers. The author talks about how nonfiction texts should be incorporated into the early years of education.

Hertzog, N. n., & Kaplan, S. (2016). Intellectual Engagement.  Gifted Child Today, 39(3), 133.

2.  This pdf resource differentiates the common core state standards for gifted students.  It provides a document that recommends standards for Gifted students, and accommodations for gifted learners in GE classrooms.

https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/cagifted.site-ym.com/resource/resmgr/docs/ccss-gate_cde_website.pdf

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Three specific strategies that teachers can use to accommodate GATE children are increasing engagement, accelerating curriculum, and compacting curriculum.  GATE students need to stay engaged in lessons and activities and need to be challenged.  It is easy to lose their focus due to boredom or anxiousness.  Incorporating movement and participation activities are necessary for keeping student’s engagement.  Teachers should keep GATE students challenged by accelerating and compacting curriculum.  Pull out groups are often recommended for math subjects because students can accelerate foreword into topics that they are capable of mastering without staying at the pace of the class.

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GATE Student: GATE stands for Gifted And Talented Education. Gifted students are identified based on their district’s requirements for qualification.  At Woodsboro elementary, GATE students are identified based on a cognitive skills test, and the students must read two grade levels above their current grade.  “Achievement, intelligence quotient (IQ), ability, and other test scores; motivation; parent/guardian, student, and teacher recommendations; classroom observations; and portfolio assessment” are the factors that are considered when identifying gifted students (CDC, 2016.) Gifted learners are usually curious, opinionated, motivated, self-critical and competitive with themselves, competitive with others, inquisitive, and they make appropriate connections between content matter and ideas.