Raising Bright Sparks- Book 1. Parenting Gifted Children

By Michele Juratowitch

Parents sometimes wish their child had arrived with an ‘Operator’s Manual’ to assist with the process of parenting. Unlike a car or household appliance, children are not standard items so any accompanying manual would have to carefully consider the type of child involved. Those with specific learning and support needs – such as gifted and twice-exceptional children – require a highly individualized parenting approach to address the child’s specialized requirements. Parents of these children also need to be constantly adjusting parenting strategies in order to respond to their child’s ever changing developmental needs. This is especially so when their child’s needs are out of sync with the needs of other children at a similar chronological age.

No standard manual, book or program is ever going to be sufficient; however parents who develop an understanding of the broad issues associated with their child’s giftedness and their different needs are in a much stronger position to be able to review their child’s development within this context and adjust to their child’s specific learning and support needs.

The following collection of articles focuses on the needs of gifted children and provides some of the information parents of gifted children need to know in order to support and guide their children’s development.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michele Juratowitch
• Release date: Aug 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9780992288211

Michele Juratowitch

Michele Juratowitch is Director of Clearing Skies and supports gifted children, parents, institutions and organisations through a range of services, including counselling and education programs, professional development, project management, consultation, advocacy, research and resource development. Through her work with GERRIC, at UNSW, Michele lectured in postgraduate courses for teachers, delivered and managed programs for parents and students. She was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study the needs of gifted children. Michele presents at conferences, writes articles regularly, wrote Study: The Simple Facts, co-authored Make a Twist: Differentiating curriculum for gifted students and Releasing the Brakes for High-ability [e-mail]

Book preview

RAISING BRIGHT SPARKS

BOOK 1

Parenting Gifted Children

by

Michele Juratowitch

Published August 2020

Copyright © Michele Juratowitch 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or copied in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by Gredbrook Pty Ltd

Contact Clearing Skies at [e-mail]

http://clearingskies.com.au

ISBN 978-0-9922882-1-1

Parenting Gifted Children

CONTENTS

Introduction: ‘Operator’s Manual’

Exponential Growth

Alert and Sensitive Babies

Young Gifted Children

The Dynamic of Talent Development

Gift Giving

Dear Santa

Asynchrony

Automaticity

Families of High Achievers

The Gift of Family

Imaginative Play

Advanced Readers

Fitting In and Standing Out

Developmental Advancement

Developing Languages

Talent Development

Transforming the Gifted Child

Equity and Justice

Forming Positive Habits

Habits of Thinking

Well-being

Parental Involvement

Continuous Learning

Adjusting to Change

Timing

Igniting Bright Sparks

Inner Voice

Interventions

Striving for Optimal Learning

Advocating for Your Gifted Child

Introduction: ‘Operator’s Manual’

Parents sometimes wish their child had arrived with an ‘Operator’s Manual’ to assist with the process of parenting. Unlike a car or household appliance, children are not standard items so any accompanying manual would have to carefully consider the type of child involved. Those with specific learning and support needs – such as gifted and twice-exceptional children – require a highly individualized parenting approach to address the child’s specialized requirements. Parents of these children also need to be constantly adjusting parenting strategies in order to respond to their child’s ever changing developmental needs. This is especially so when their child’s needs are out of sync with the needs of other children at a similar chronological age.

No standard manual, book or program is ever going to be sufficient; however parents who develop an understanding of the broad issues associated with their child’s giftedness and their different needs are in a much stronger position to be able to review their child’s development within this context and adjust to their child’s specific learning and support needs.

The following collection of articles focuses on the needs of gifted children and provides some of the information parents of gifted children need to know in order to support and guide their children’s development.

Exponential Growth

From the moment of conception, changes take place within the zygote or single-cell embryo which contains the chromosomes that will shape a baby and future adult. This single-cell zygote divides, through mitosis, within the first twenty-four to thirty hours. The blastomeres, formed as a result of this initial cell division, continue to divide independently at an astonishing rate; however because of the process of compaction, the size of the embryo does not increase for some time. Embryonic cells continue to divide and multiply at an exponential rate, with a significant seventy-seven percent increase in size of the fetus between the ninth and tenth week but there may still be no obvious physical signs of a pregnancy at this time. At the end of the first trimester, with good nutrition, there is another fifty-eight percent increase in the size of the fetus. The most significant development occurs during the early stages of the pregnancy – before enlargement associated with pregnancy is observed by others. Exponential cell growth and fetal development results in the birth of a baby approximately nine months after conception.

There are some parallels between the ‘hidden’ growth of a fetus and the remarkable growth of Chinese Bamboo. With persistent watering and despite no signs of growth, a patient farmer is finally rewarded with sprouts of bamboo above the ground, five years after planting bamboo seeds. Although nothing appears to be happening for an extended period of time, some species of bamboo grow ninety centimetres per day once the bamboo sprout breaks the surface of the ground. The exponential growth pattern of Chinese Bamboo can result in this plant reaching twenty-seven metres in height, within six weeks. This phenomenal growth rate of Chinese Bamboo is combined with extraordinary compressive strength, greater than concrete, and tensile strength, similar to steel. In order for the bamboo to grow at this extraordinary rate, there must be root development occurring below the surface long before there is any visible indication of growth above ground.

Patient, aware adults understand that much development occurs before a baby’s presence is evident; likewise, brain development occurs though exponential neural growth, prior to there being clear evidence of cognitive maturation.

Alert and Sensitive Babies

"That’s not a smile; it’s just wind!"

"She’s not looking at you; babies’ eyes can’t focus at this age."

Many parents of newborn babies have noticed their alert baby smiling, making eye contact and visually tracking within a few days following birth. These babies’ behaviour, indications of advanced development and unusual alertness, are often dismissed by experienced hospital staff and relatives visiting the new baby.

Child development researchers have identified a range of ‘normal’ behaviours and listed the ages when these are expected to occur, creating charts of developmental milestones which are published in books, on websites and become the touchstone that anxious parents frequently return to when checking that their child’s development is normal. As parents and other interested adults observe a new baby’s development, their expectations tend to focus upon reassurance that the baby is exhibiting normal, expected rates of development. Concerns might be expressed if there are any indications that a child may be delayed in reaching expected stages of development. A baby might be referred to as ‘alert’ by proud grandparents; rarely is there broader acknowledgement when a baby is unusually alert and developmentally advanced.

It is important for parents and care givers to note (and not to dismiss) behaviours that seem to be more advanced than the norm for babies of this age, as these may be the earliest indicators of giftedness. Barbara Clark, Nicholas Colangelo and Michael Piechowski, researchers and authors in the field of gifted education, have emphasised that giftedness has a biological basis and as such, there is evidence of giftedness in infancy. Early advancement is often not acknowledged until a parent is asked to recall their older (identified) gifted child’s early development. Numerous anecdotes and examples