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 How We Miss the Boat!

 

An excerpt taken from Michelle Brown-Stafford's new book entitled..

"First Came College, Then...Puberty!"

 

My lack of experience as a young mother prevented me from spotting some very valuable learning opportunities with my first child.  Never mind the quite noticeable indications given by Martinique (seen in photo above at age 11) when she quickly tired of her first reader books by age 3.  That would have been the supreme occasion to present advanced reading material but ignorance prevented me from interpreting her cues accurately.  I must concede that from time to time that bothered me, given the vast difference in outcomes with my children individually.

Even to this very day, I believe...better yet I've come to KNOW that my missing the boat in moving Martinique along in academics according to her natural ability and her predominant traditional education may have slowed up development of her true potential; although she always assure me how happy she is with the results.  She’s probably right however!  Being 13 years-old in high school was truly about as much as Martinique could personally handle!

 

Since my son was homeschooled most of his life, my head would have had to be completely in the sand to overlook his signs of cognitive leaps.  Though Marti's cues were noticeable to me, Stephen's were just as obvious and I must admit, that given my fears surrounding the academic plight of young African-American boys, my senses were a lot more "heightened" with Stephen than they were with my daughter.   

At any rate, this fear I had for Stephen was what shoved me into full-time homeschooling and if I were to make working with Stephen a success, I had to go with the flow, which simply meant  adjusting lesson plans and the curriculum to suit his changing needs. Voila!  Stephen was effortlessly working several grades ahead…humming along at his own velocity.   I didn't know it at the time but that kind of flexibility in a traditional school setting is most impractical given the number of students in a classroom. And Marti was among the number of kids who would be on the receiving end of it...even if I did work to to minimize the affect with some measure of supplementing her classroom experience. 

 

And friends...my example with my daughter is a great indication of how we as parents neglect to take advantage of opportunities to bring our children up to speed with their true potential for learning.  Many of us begin "missing the boat" during that early childhood phase where the most important grid work is done or worse, fail to take steps to bring our children, who are students of conventional education, in line with their natural learning pace.  Can you imagine what it's like to have your thinking processes "slow down" for the benefit of others who aren't up to speed?

 

But back to that critical age group of preschoolers!  Unfortunately as a result of the child’s energy level and the rapid brain development, uninformed parents make the mistake of quickly slapping a label of ADD or ADHD on their very young children which certainly isn’t wise; particularly because the behaviors of young preschoolers may mirror ADD or ADHD symptoms.  Do the research!  This is the chief reason an overwhelming number of child psychologists refuse to administer an I.Q. test to children under the age of 5! 

One day, I had to run an errand to the local post office to send off a package when I noticed this cute, rambunctious preschooler vigorously investigating everything that was at his eye-level.  His exasperated mother and I were making small talk in between her incessant recalls for him when she jokingly remarked how he acts as if he has something like ADHD. 

Finally I asked her about his education – if she was doing anything with him at home.  She responded that she bought him a computer and how he had already taught himself to use it.  She said that he clicked away - all day long on his computer and at times tried to teach her a thing or two!   “Taught himself?!...all day long?” I wondered.   I gently replied how I was once in her shoes when my son was three and that she could do a lot of things with him at this age namely, direct a lot of that energy towards learning through some fun manipulatives...seeing how he likes to learn with his hands. 

I went on to explain that in the intervals of his pivoting on the arm of the sofa, she could really teach him a few things in a fraction of a minute.  I told her to Google my name and my son’s name and espoused that she may be interested in my work.  I gave her my business card, encouraged her to e-mail me if she had any questions and went about my way.

 

But just how can parents identify when their child is experiencing what they call, cognitive leaps or mental surges?  Symptoms vary for each individual child but these are some consistent warning flags that astute parents have reported about their children.  One particular note, these occurred before the age of 6!...

• Restlessness.

• Increased pace in learning/acquiring a new skill or information.

• Incessant questioning (try not to give in to the knee jerk reaction to tune them out).  

• Quickly tire of playing with an object and replacing it with another.

• Questions why things are the way they are or question the judgment of authority figures.
• Child’s curiosity at times was more intense than others.
• Incessant talk about things that were of interest to them; elaborating on ideas and concepts methodically.
• Grasping more advanced things easily during certain times than others.

 

Again, at first glance many would indeed label these as ADD or ADHD symptoms.  I would recommend that you research the phenomena of "cognitive leap" or "mental surge"then be alert as to when to really engage your child's curiosity...realizing that you are indeed doing very valuable work regarding their ability to learn.

Now don't despair if you have indeed missed that "window of opportunity" to work with your child during the preschool years.  It’s not to say that a child can’t pick up anything afterwards but only  that it may require more effort.  But the time to act is now...the longer you wait, the more your child disconnects to education and the more time (and effort) it may take to redirect interest.  The last thing you want is to have to resort to one mother's action of having your high school student stand on the corner for hours wearing a sign indicating at 1.2 grade point average.

 

To inspire you to take action and stay the course, consider that your child will be sitting alongside peers whose parents may have taken advantage of their critical (or sensitive) periods and may already be equipped to learn more advanced material.  Your child may be left behind with other under-prepared children to struggle to acquire the skills and material reserved for their grade/age-appropriate curriculum.   Kind of put things into perspective doesn’t it?

 

Now that you are armed with information, be alert to these indications of rapid cognitive leaps in your youngster and then use this precious time to incorporate many of the age- appropriate suggestions that are contained through the Gifted-Spirit articles or even in the videos posted on Gifted Spirit's Youtube Channel.  You may also want to follow up with my Art of Acceleration E-books series that specialize in acceleration methods.

 

There are other resources available as well and with a little fine-tuning, you will have an impressive arsenal to work with your child.  The objective here is to make sure the child is challenged; to find that equilibrium of presenting work that isn’t too easy or too difficult and in a way the child finds gratifying.  

Even some small degree of difficulty that isn’t too out of reach for the child would be beneficial during this development period.  Their brains are quickly expanding so if this material is presented during and after “surges” – the material is likely to be mastered within a short period of time and they will most definitely be ahead of the game.

 

To your child’s success…

 

Michelle Brown-Stafford

Parental Involvement Advocate/Gifted Education

www.gifted-spirit.com

Mocha Charm, Inc.

P.O. Box 391502

Snellville, GA 30039

678.278.8424

 

 

 

 

The NEW Business of Being Gifted!

 

One morning, during the wee hours of quiet reflection, I contemplated what to contribute to another one of my online communities via my Facebook status.  I was in my “parental involvement” mode, perhaps because of the media blitz surrounding my work that awaited me the next day.  The thought came easily…it was consuming yet effortless to convey.

 

The quote above was born out of several factors:  the observation of my own children; working with the children of other parents; listening to the stories of other families with similar children and of course the personal accounts of people society has come to label as geniuses or powerful creators! 

 

Incidentally the findings of past studies were meticulously considered, but if someone had told me that during my lifetime I read where my experience and opinion would align with recent expert conclusions about “giftedness”, I wouldn’t have believed it!   Finally, evidence to support that being gifted is not some “static” state of being; that it is more malleable than originally thought. 

 

First we’ll start with the evidence that has caught my attention as of yesterday!  Through the dramatic “upgrade” in science’s new understanding of genetics, it is now believed that genes are more reactive to environment[1] than performing the static, mechanical role originally assigned to them.  In fact, the “leading edge” words uttered from the very young 14 year-old college student Stephen Stafford during one of his speeches about I.Q. tests, ring in unison with experts. 

 

The piece “Is There a Genius in All of Us?” goes on to explain that while “the notion of a fixed IQ has been with us for almost a century, the original inventor of the IQ test, Alfred Binet, had quite the opposite opinion, and the science turns out to favors Binet.”[2]  

In 2005, Robert Sternberg from Tufts University concluded after several decades of research that, "Intelligence represents a set of competencies in development.”   Likewise, Stephen Stafford has personally concluded and consistently asserts when asked about his I.Q. score that “I.Q. tests to me aren’t all that important.  They tend to measure how much you already know but I believe that intelligence is more your ability to learn.”

Developmental psychologists are also taking on a differentstance on “being gifted”.  The American Psychological Association released a book called The Development of Giftedness and Talent Across the Life Span in which its very language shows the concept of giftedness as being more “fluid”.  According to one reviewer, one would be hard pressed to find references to “the gifted,” implying a “fixed” state of being.  

Carol S. Dweck, who authored the book’s foreword asserted, “The essence of this book, and the reason I found it so exciting, is that it is moving away from this idea of talent as something that some people have and some people don’t. It’s showing talent as something developable.”

It is quite interesting how this premise continues to play out in so many research studies.  One of my favorite studies is the one from Harvard and the testing of 1600 random kindergarteners for divergent thinking revealing that 98% of them scored in the “genius” range; only to have the ability diminish as they approached high school.  

And finally, the acknowledgement by educators that it is fairly common for children who gain admittance into their school’s gifted program to experience periods of moving in and out of the program throughout their school years due to standardized test scores; again, proving that “gifted ability” tends to ebb and flow in accordance with various factors.

 

For my personal experience, and those of many teachers who have since approached me regarding this subject, this makes perfect sense!  It would explain why children when given access to talented and inspired teachers excel well beyond expectations; and according to their performance on standardized tests given within the same year, display “gifted behaviors” in subjects once thought to be their weakest!  

 

 

I have long espoused that when children are given an easy path to connect to the material in their own way, they begin to realize their true ability and tend to become more inspired.  They also tend to stay with the process hence demonstration of “gifted-behaviors” then becomes a by-product.

 

Talent researchers Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Kevin Rathunde and Samuel Whalen agree.   "High academic achievers are not necessarily born 'smarter' than others," they write in their book Talented Teenagers, "but work harder and develop more self-discipline."[1]  In addition to the “work harder” and “self-discipline” virtues, the longer one stays focused on a subject can also yield genius.  Einstein himself, who was considered far from a genius as a youngster stated, "It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”     

Thomas Edison has been quoted many times exclaiming, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”  This behavior of persistent focus corroborates the accounts of mega-talented people or “geniuses” who speak of having begun their journey either as young children or have initiated an intense interest that has been to the exclusion of virtually all other interests.

So…what of children that many perceive to have been “born smarter” or “born gifted”?  Well, it is not unfathomable to conceive that these children had realized their personal power or strengths early on in their lives…long before or even despite of being “trained away from it”. 

This could take many forms:1) undue pressure or criticism from a parent or other adult; 2) circumstances or an environment that minimize the child as a person; 3) abuse in any form; or 4) the neglecting of or downplaying the child’s gifts/talents for other reasons…in other words, any such occurrences that hinder the healthy, optimal development of the child.

Even for the child who has in so many opinions, been born gifted…it still takes guidance and direction on the part of an astute and highly perceptive adult to “develop” the child’s gifts/talents where it is realized in a way that can be “measured”; this is where the home environment is so very crucial.  Dr. Benjamin Bloom among others recognized that the home environment in the cases of talented children studied for nearly a decade was the driving force behind the success of such children.  

 

As the subject is on the development of young minds, make sure that their home environment reflects where they stand academically as much as possible.  Be prepared for fluctuations in their performance because after all, children mature and evolve and so will their emotional and psychological make-up; even their preferred learning styles will (be) subject to change.

The overall point…given the right conditions, all children (perhaps barring physiological barriers) are capable of expressing “gifted behaviors”. It is simply a matter of certain variables: how soon one begins to teach the child; the consistency, fluidity and rigor of personal instruction; and how much inspiration is used to properly educate.  Our children would be well-served if the adults in their lives would embrace this universally.

To your child’s success…

 

Michelle Brown-Stafford

Parental Involvement Advocate/Gifted-Education

www.gifted-spirit.com

Mocha Charm, Inc.

P.O. Box 391502

Snellville, GA 30039

678.278.8424

February 7, 2011