PARENTING FOR HIGH POTENTIAL

Below are three sessions that address adult giftedness. PHP highly recommends you fit at least one of the sessions into your schedule on Saturday!

My Gifted Child Wants More Friends: What Can I Do?

Saturday, 8:30 – 9:45 a.m.

Presenters: Agnes Meyo, PsyD, and Dan Peters, PhD

Many gifted children complain that it is hard to find friends like them. Often parents sympathize but wonder how to help them. Even though the gifted are few, many strategies can enhance their ability to find friends. First, myths regarding their socialization will be dispelled. Next, this presentation will present a step-by-step procedure for enhancing opportunities for the gifted to develop friendships. Come learn how increasing socialization could not be easier!

Agnes Meyo, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist who specializes in the counseling and testing of gifted children and adults. As the president of the 2e Parent Support Group, Gifted Resource Council, and the St. Louis Association for Gifted Education, she also works to enhance community resources for the gifted. Dan Peters, PhD, psychologist, is the founder and clinical director of Summit Center, which helps children and families realize their potential.

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Raising African American and Hispanic Gifted/High-Ability Children in America Today:

Telling Our Own Stories

Saturday, 10 a.m.–11:15 a.m.

Presenter: Joy Lawson Davis, PhD

Culturally diverse families who are raising gifted children have experiences similar to all families. Often, however, their experiences in gifted education programs are unique due to cultural differences. During this session, the presenter will share brief overviews of (anonymous) essays featuring African American and Hispanic American families of gifted children. This monumental project is set for publication as a series of autobiographical sketches of the lives of these remarkable families.

Joy Lawson Davis, PhD, author of Bright, Talented, and Black: A Guide for Families of African American Gifted Learners, is an assistant professor of education at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she teaches courses in diversity education and gifted education. She chairs the NAGC’s Diversity and Equity Committee and is a columnist for Teaching for High Potential. Dr. Davis is also a consultant to school districts nationwide and with the International Gifted Education Teacher Development Network (Iget-Network), providing professional development support for educators in the Caribbean and South Africa.

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Intensity Through the Ages: Giftedness from a Lifespan Perspective

Saturday, 10 a.m.–11:15 a.m.

Presenter: Lisa Rivero, MA

Understanding gifted intensity—intensity of the intellect, emotions, sensations, imagination, and physical movement—can help us with the challenges of perfectionism, stress, and feelings of not fitting in with the rest of the world. By understanding what intensity looks like in young children through adolescence and beyond, we can begin to have more realistic expectations for ourselves and our children, and stop trying to change what are our greatest strengths.

SENG Director and Editor-in-Chief Lisa Rivero lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where she is a writer, college teacher, speaker, and parent. Her professional interests include education, creativity, literature and the humanities, and the challenges faced by all families in this fast-paced and often perplexing 21st-century life.

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A National Organization for Gifted GLBTQ Youth: An Informational and Listening Session

Saturday, 10 a.m.–11:15 a.m.

Presenter: Terry Friedrichs, PhD, EdD

The media are increasingly covering stories related to gifted gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (GLBTQ) youth. Through recent news articles, this presentation explains three challenges faced by the nation’s youth, their parents, and their educators. It then describes how NAGC’s new GLBTQ Special Interest Group (SIG) addresses each group’s unique challenges and joys. Finally, it asks attendees about other efforts that the SIG might undertake for gifted GLBTQ youth and their parents and educators.

Terry Friedrichs, PhD, EdD, is an assesser, tutor, and school consultant in suburban St. Paul, Minn. His specialties include gifted youth with learning disabilities, ADHD, emotional challenges (including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), and Autism Spectrum Disorders (including Asperger’s Syndrome). He supervises teachers in St. Thomas University’s Twice-Exceptional Certificate Program.

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Finding and Claiming Your Adult Giftedness

Saturday, 1:00 p.m.-2:15 p.m.

Presenter: Lisa Erickson, MS, LMHC

This training describes four steps adults can use to integrate giftedness into their life, especially if the awareness of giftedness has been forgotten or just recently discovered. Coming out gifted is about personal growth and hope. Growth comes from trusting yourself, which helps you to move forward on your path, and hope comes from embracing who you really are. Maturity comes from managing your giftedness in ways that work for you, your family and community.

Lisa Erickson, MS, LMHC, is a psychotherapist in Seattle, WA, who specializes in working with gifted adults. She has over 30 years experience helping people as a therapist and as a teacher of therapists and other adults. You can learn more about her at her website http://www.lisaerickson.net.

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“My Child Is Gifted, Not Me!”: Parents Coming to Terms With Their Own Giftedness

Saturday–2:30-3:45 p.m.

Presenter: Dan Peters, PhD

Parents of gifted children are often on a quest for support, guidance, and a better understanding of their child’s needs. This often challenging process involves an exploration of their child’s characteristics and experiences, as well as parents’ concerns for their child’s social and emotional adjustment and acceptance. It is during this process that parents of gifted children often find themselves unexpectedly reliving their own past through their child’s present. This talk will discuss the process of discovering one’s giftedness as a child and as an adult; the importance and impact it has on raising a gifted child; and finding meaning in one’s life as a gifted adult.

Dan Peters, PhD, psychologist, is the founder and clinical director of Summit Center, which helps children and families realize their potential.

SENG 2012 is packed with valuable sessions on a variety of topics, from analogies of giftedness to radical acceleration, and even a session on the elderly gifted. The two sessions that we’ve chosen below as Saturday’s MUST HEAR sessions address critical topics that every single parent needs to be aware of, by speakers who have dynamic presentation skills.

Giftedness, Misdiagnosis and the Changing Medical Field

Saturday, 8:30 – 9:45 a.m.

Presenter: Marianne Kuzujanakis, MD, MPH

In January 2012, SENG began a national public awareness initiative about mental health misdiagnosis in the gifted population. But the roots of the initiative stretch far further back. In this session we will discuss the swirl of activity that led to SENG’s public initiative, as well as the events which have come since. We will discuss how changes to medical practices may lead to better support for all gifted individuals. Planned to be available will be take-home materials.

SENG Director & Medical Liaison Marianne Kuzujanakis, MD, MPH, is a pediatrician with a masters degree in public health from Harvard School of Public Health. She has long-standing interests in parent and clinician education.

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Laying Waste to the Elephant in the Living Room: Solutions for the Anxious Gifted Child

Saturday, 1:00 p.m.-2:15 p.m.

Presenter: P. Susan Jackson, MA, RCC

For a gifted child at-risk, anxiety-based disorders are the “elephant in the living room”: a malady that eludes easy diagnosis, masked entirely or eclipsed by more obvious signs of distress such as perfectionism, underachievement, hyper-vigilance and depression. This interactive presentation provides parents, educators and mental-health professionals with information about the etiology of and powerful strategies for combating anxiety-based disorders. Dabrowski’s TPD and extensive clinical experience combine with cutting-edge anxiety research oriented toward the gifted experience.

P. Susan Jackson is a psychotherapist, author and consultant and the founder of The Daimon Institute in White Rock British Columbia Canada. The Daimon Institute provides psychotherapy and educational consulting to support the overall development of highly and profoundly gifted persons. Patients are all ages, 3-75, and reside throughout the world.