Parenting gifted children webinar
- 1. MCGATE Lunch-and-Learn Guest Expert: Dr. Stephen Schroth, Towson University July 15, 2019 12:00 – 12:45 PM Send us your BEST or WORST parenting advice for families with gifted children by July 19, 2019. Email us your entry at info@mcgate.org with "NPGCW" in the subject line. Winners will receive a one-year membership to MCGATE. Welcome, and thank you for joining us! President, Dr. Keri Guilbault
- 2. Parenting Gifted Children to Support Optimal Development Stephen T. Schroth, PhD Towson University MCGATE Webinar July 15, 2019
- 3. Why worry about it? • Gifted children’s development varies from that of their age peers • Teachers, physicians, and administrators will often be unfamiliar with gifted development • Most books on parenting do not include sections on gifted children
- 4. Characteristics and Development • Gifted children often exhibit different characteristics than their age peers • These require different learning interventions • Unfortunately many in education are aware of the characteristics and needs of gifted children
- 5. Characteristics and Development • Characteristics and needs of course vary by child • Somewhat dependent upon how one conceptualizes and identifies giftedness • Despite this, there are still certain characteristics that are common across the gifted population
- 6. Characteristics and Development • Gifted learners frequently demonstrate rapid learning rates • They can understand abstract and complex concepts (e.g., time, mathematics, etc.) • Gifted children often surpass their age peers in basic skills
- 7. Characteristics and Development • In order to address these characteristics, gifted children need exposure to new and challenging information • They must have access to rich and deep curriculum • Access to cognitive peers who demonstrate the same speed and depth of learning a must
- 8. Characteristics and Development • Gifted children often exhibit well-developed memories • They show intense and lasting interest in certain subjects • Gifted learners frequently possess and use critical and creative thinking, processing, and problem-solving skills
- 9. Characteristics and Development • Gifted learners benefit from programs and enrichment settings where these characteristics can be nurtured • Opportunity to set and evaluate own priorities when solving problems • Exposure to alternative methods of solving problems
- 10. Characteristics and Development • Gifted children benefit from exposure to tasks and problems that let them deal with abstractions and the consequences of choices • Gifted learners also need opportunities to draw generalizations and to test them
- 11. Characteristics and Development • Gifted children often use advanced thinking, processing, and problem-solving skills • Often demonstrate a high degree of motivation • Show flexibility and insight within their thought processes
- 12. Remember Their Chronological Age! • Gifted children are still children • They enjoy, and often benefit more, from age-appropriate literature • Attempts to hurry development can result in the loss of many of the pleasures of childhood • Use age-appropriate materials but focus upon critical and creative thinking
- 13. Sensitive Periods • Based upon work of theorists such as Bloom and Montessori • Those stages in time when a child concentrates mainly on one aspect of his or her environment or learning to the exclusion of everything else • Basic guidelines
- 14. Sensitive Periods • Movement (birth to 4 years) • Refinement of the senses (birth to 5 years) • Language (birth to 6 years) • Weaning (5 to 6 months) • Order (18 months to 2 years) • Manners and courtesies (2 to 6 years) • Numbers (4 to 5.5 years)
- 15. Sensitive Periods • Visual complexity (birth to 2 months) • Hearing (prenatal to 6 months) • Language (18 months to 4 years)
- 16. Sensitive Periods • Bloom suggested that moving through these sensitive periods early might indicate giftedness • For some gifted children, their intelligence might be represented by more extensive vocabulary and sentence structure • Similarly, some believe early reading may indicate giftedness
- 17. Family Dynamics • Gifted children’s cognitive, psychomotor, and affective skills develop in a variety of environments • Home, school, enrichment settings, other environments • None of these is more important than the home
- 18. Family Dynamics • Nature vs. Nurture • Interactions between parents and children, siblings, or others cause joy or tension • Less tension is the goal • Less stress means more brain function focused upon development
- 19. Family Dynamics • Parenting styles affect the home environment • Family dynamics improved if all members of the family modify their behaviors in ways that support the development of all children
- 20. Types of parenting • Uninvolved (Rejecting/Neglecting) • Permissive • Authoritative • Authoritarian
- 21. Uninvolved Parenting (aka Rejecting/Neglecting) • Parents make few demands upon children • Parents exhibit low responsiveness to children’s needs • Parents offer little communication to their children • Children’s basic needs are met, but parents otherwise detached
- 22. Permissive Parenting • Parents rarely discipline their children • Parents possess relatively low expectations regarding children’s maturity and self-control • Are more responsive than demanding • Tend to be non-traditional and lenient in approach • Encourage children to self-regulate and are non-confrontational
- 23. Authoritative Parenting • Demands that rules and guidelines be followed • Also responsive to children and demonstrates a willingness to take questions • Failure to follow rules followed by nurturing to increase likelihood they will be followed next time • Assertive, but not intrusive or restrictive • Allows children to feel supported and fosters communication
- 24. Authoritarian Parenting • Places high demands on children with low levels of responsiveness • Strict rules and harsh punishments • Little time is spent explaining why certain rules have been chosen or implemented • Parents seek obedience • Parents derive status from accomplishments
- 25. In Review . . .
- 26. Parenting Style Is a Choice • Greatly affects family dynamics • A child’s happiness, self-esteem, and social competence are greatly influenced by parenting style • Uninvolved lowest • Permissive perform poorly in school and have difficulty with authority • Authoritarian obedient and well- behaved but lower across all three
- 27. Family Composition • Each child is unique • All children benefit from parental support supporting their differences • Parents must differentiate in their parenting much as teachers differentiate instruction at school
- 28. Differentiation • Readiness • Interests • Learning Profile
- 29. Family Composition • Differences into type and amount of: • Supervision • Support • Discipline • Nurturing
- 30. Family Composition • All children need a home environment that makes him or her feel safe to become who he or she is destined to be • One child’s needs are not more significant than another’s • Accomplishments of all should be celebrated
- 31. Family Composition • Continuum of parenting support • Early age • Most time at home • Parks, libraries, museums, etc. • Later enters school • Outside the home • Ask about perceptions of and from these experiences • Tailor outings to interests • High school • Opportunities to work with cognitive peers
- 32. Programming Options • In school • Differentiation • Cluster grouping • Pull-out services • Special classes • Special schools
- 33. Programming Options • Early entrance to Kindergarten • Single subject acceleration • Child is highly advanced in one area • Advanced in that area • Remains with age peers • Grade skipping
- 34. Social and Emotional Needs • All children have these • Gifted children’s tend to be different • If counseling necessary, find someone with experience with the gifted
- 35. Perfectionism • Can be positive or negative • Enabling perfectionism is the drive for excellence that represents intrinsic motivation • Disabling perfectionism can be a barrier to achievement or performance
- 36. Enabling Perfectionism • Empowers the gifted child to do his or her best work • A sense of pleasure derived from the labors of painstaking effort • A motivator that encourages some gifted children to do an excellent job
- 37. Disabling Perfectionism • Gifted child may be plagued with feelings of depression, guilt, or shame caused by his or her work • To compensate, gifted children often engage in procrastination, self-deprecation, and other face- saving behaviors • Leads to underachievement
- 38. Underachievement • Discrepancy between expected achievement (IQ tests) and actual achievement (grades and teacher assessments) • Sometimes a consequence of other emotional, mental, or physical problem • Often caused by gifted child’s attitudes, motivations, and perceptions
- 39. Other Resources
- 40. Questions
- 41. Questions Stephen T. Schroth, PhD Early Childhood Education Department Graduate Program in Gifted & Creative Education Towson University sschroth@towson.edu