GIFTED EDUCATION PRESENTATIONS

Lori Comallie-Caplan offers practical resources, relevant, insightful presentations and professional development opportunities for general education teachers gifted teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, parents, and support groups. These gifted education presentation presentations can be customized for your district’s unique needs.

CREATING ASAFE HARBOR:THE SCHOOL COUNSELORS ROLE WITH GIFTED STUDENTS

This presentation will educate school counselors on the unique social emotional characteristics of the gifted. Some of the most common counseling issues for school age gifted children are Underachievement, stubbornness, overreactions, peer relationship difficulties, intense sibling rivalry, poor self-concept, perfectionism, and depression. Overexcitabilities play a large part in the gifted child’s success or failure to ͞fit-in͟ at school. Overexcitabilities (OEs) can result in creative endeavors as well as advanced emotional and ethical development in adulthood. Because of this, overexcitabilities are a positive force for the gifted, as they feed, enrich, empower and amplify talent. This presentation will provide treatment strategies and resources for the unique social emotional needs of the gifted.

MISDIAGNOSIS/DUAL DIAGNOSIS OF THE GIFTED CHILD

Many gifted and talented children (and adults) are being mis-diagnosed by psychologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians, and other health care professionals. The most common mis-diagnoses are: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (OD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and Mood Disorders such as Cyclothymic Disorder, Dysthyinic Disorder, Depression, and Bi-Polar Disorder. This presentation will educate about these common mis-diagnoses and the role that specific social and emotional characteristics of gifted children play in misdiagnosis.

This session will explore the impact of unique social emotional issues such as perfectionism, asynchrony, overexcitabilities, stress and anxiety on gifted student’s achievement. We will also address strategies to reverse underachievement.

GIFTED GIRLS TO GIFTED WOMEN

It is not enough to raise the aspirations of gifted girls; it is necessary to help them overcome internal and external barriers and help them become deeply committed to fulfilling their dreams. Will their self-esteem, socialization and education shape them into gifted women? This presentation will assist gifted educators in helping gifted girls bear the responsibility for actualizing their potential.

STUDENT DRIVEN/STUDENT LED IEPS

This presentation will give participants the tools to develop and implement Student Driven/Student Led IEPs for gifted students. Ms. Comallie-Caplan will show the benefits of student involvement in their IEPs through helping students understand, develop and participate in their IEP process. The presentation will also include information on preparing staff and parents for Student led IEPs. Participants will be given the opportunity to develop appropriate lesson plans in instructing gifted students on self-advocacy and IEP participation preparation.

OVEREXCITABILITIES:AN EIGHT WEEK STRUCTURED GROUP FOR GIFTED MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

Counselors can help emotionally intense gifted children to accept their rich inner world of experience and to value it as a strength. If Overexcitabilities are presented positively to gifted children, they can be helpful in understanding and valuing their emotions. This structured 8-week therapeutic series helps students understand their unique sensitivities and intensities. Through support groups students will be empowered to express themselves in the world and use their gifts with confidence and joy. Participants will receive an eight-week session guide, Power Points and other materials to provide an eight-weekstructured group therapy program for gifted children.

TWICE EXCEPTIONAL SERIES : Understanding and Teaching the Gifted Student with Asperger’s

This presentation will cover the characteristics of the G/AS student as well as appropriate accommodations, differentiating the instruction and service needs. Participants will be provided with resources for successfully teaching the G/AS Student.

TWICE EXCEPTIONAL SERIES : Understanding and Teaching the Gifted Student with Emotional Problems

This presentation will cover the characteristics of the G/ED student as well as appropriate accommodations, differentiating the instruction and service needs. Participants will be provided with resources for successfully teaching the G/ED Student.

TWICE EXCEPTIONAL SERIES : Understanding and Teaching the Gifted Attention Deficit Student

This presentation will cover the characteristics of the G/ADD student as well as appropriate accommodations, differentiating the instruction and service needs. Participants will be provided with resources for successfully teaching the G/ADD Student.

TWICE EXCEPTIONAL SERIES:Understanding and teaching the Gifted Student with Tourette’s

What happens when a profoundly gifted child (PG) also has Tourette’s syndrome (TS), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? Where does a psychomotor Overexcitability end and hyperactivity start? Where does an intellectual Overexcitability end and obsessive thinking start? Are symptoms a blessing or a curse? Do these students have the right to accommodations in advanced and AP courses? All these questions will be answered and more. In this multimodal presentation, participants will learn about the symptoms and successful educational treatments for PG, TS, OCD, and ADHD.

PRESENTATIONS FOR PARENTS SUCCESSFULLY PARENTING YOUR GIFTED CHILD USING THE SENGFORMULA

Raising gifted children brings great joys and also great challenge. The key to raising gifted children is relationship. A parenting relationship devoted to nurturing the unique social emotional needs of their children. When gifted children may feel out of step with the rest of the world, it is essential that their home and relationships with the family become a safe haven. This session will be an interactive discussion on the challenges of parenting gifted children through their unique social emotional issues such as asynchronicity, motivation, self-discipline, intensity, perfectionism, and idealism. The facilitator will provide and elicit from session participant’s strategies for parents to use to help their gifted child with stress management, communication skills, underachievement, and peer and sibling relationships. Special attention will be given to the challenges of disciplining gifted children. The facilitator will also educate parents on finding the right mental/medical health provider for their gifted child and the potential for misdiagnosis of gifted children. Resources for parenting such as SENG, NAGC, and Hoagies will be provided as well as participant suggestions for resources.

HELPING YOUR GIFTED CHILD SOAR

Gifted children are children first. Academically gifted children are out-of-the-box, unusual thinkers. As long as gifted children receive reasonable opportunities to explore, think, and create, their intellectual gifts can thrive. This presentation will explore the ten traits and aptitudes of giftedness. We will familiarize ourselves with the kinds of teaching and learning activities used, so that you can be your child’s strongest advocate. We will learn about the most important traits teachers need to have in order to be a good match for gifted students and the best options for providing a curriculum of depth and complexity. Strategies for teacher parent teamwork will be offered to address the whole gifted child.

THE GIFTED CHILD AND THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE FAMILY

The most devastating impact of divorce on children is not the divorce itself, but the manner of how the breakup occurs, the degree of ongoing conflict between parents and/or lack of cooperation in co-parenting. This presentation focuses on the impact of divorce and separation on the gifted child. It will explore how the gifted child’s unique constellation of traits, such as intensity, sensitivity, idealism and perfectionism can actually place them more at an emotional risk during the disintegration of the family. Ten strategies for reducing that risk will be shared.

HELPING GIFTED CHILDREN COPE WITH TRAUMA

Gifted children are highly sensitive and whether the tragedy is happening in their own backyard, across the community or on the other side of the world, they may personalize the effects. They may cry, mope around, worry, not be able to sleep or concentrate on school work or chores, or they may be irritable all the time, preoccupied about what is happening. Trauma is personal and can run the gamut from divorce to natural disasters. This presentation provides families with strategies to assist their child in developing adaptive coping skills.

TRUE PEERS-GIFTED FRIENDSHIPS THROUGHOUT THE LIFESPAN

Gifted children have been quoted as saying that they feel like they don’t fit very well in this world. Statistically it is much harder to find someone that is compatible with a gifted person’s personalities, intellect, overexcitabilities, and interests when gifted people make up such a small percentage of the population anyway. This presentation will explore the social-emotional connections, intensities, and barriers that cause great stress or immense joy in our relationships with friends and partners throughout our lives, and provide ideas, skill building activities, and support for gifted children, teens and adults, including journaling, reading resources, videos, technology resources and more.

UNDERSTANDING THE NEUROLOGY AND OVEREXCITABILITIES OF THE GIFTED

Neurobiological evidence suggests that the types of cognition most heavily courted in schools – learning, attention, memory, decision making, and social functioning – are both profoundly affected by and subsumed within the mental processes of emotion. This presentation explores the differences in neurology of the gifted and its impact on the social emotional world of the gifted. Strategies for working with the challenges of these unique social emotional needs will be provided.

PARENTING THE TWICE EXCEPTIONAL CHILD:MORE THAN JUST ASYNCHRONOUS

A student is considered twice-exceptional when he or she is identified as gifted/talented in one or more areas while also possessing a learning, emotional, physical, sensory, and/or developmental disability. Twice-exceptional children need a safe, nurturing home environment because school can be such a frustrating experience. Home must be a place where children can regroup and recharge.This presentation will help parents understand the interaction of their child’s gifts and disabilities as well as provide strategies for successful experiences both at school and at home.

MOVING PAST PERFECTIONISM AND PROCRASTINATION

Children who are perfectionist have a need for achievement that does not allow room for mistakes. They have high expectations for themselves and for others. They are the children who erase the page until there is a hole in the paper, or those who fail to turn in homework for fear of a mistake being revealed. To the teacher or the parent these children appear to be unmotivated when, in fact, they may be afraid of failure. The fear of failure is actually more motivating than the completion of the task. For much of the early years, schoolwork is often so easy for gifted children that they never learn what it is like to be challenged. When work comes easily and perfect scores are often achieved, they come to expect perfection from themselves. They learn to be perfect and are rewarded for perfection by good grades, parental and teacher praise, and accolades from classmates. They do not learn how to take risks, possibly fail, and then learn from their failures. When finally faced with a daunting task, gifted children may not have the tools to deal with the challenge. This presentation will assist parents with understanding their perfectionist child as well as provide strategies to help them move beyond their perfectionism. MOTIVATING THE UNDERACHIEVING GIFTED CHILDGifted students are a lot like snowflakes; no two students are alike. While one student might need very little encouragement to excel, motivating the next might feel like trying to wring sap from a tree with bare hands. There’s no sweeping answer to motivation, but there are prescriptive strategies that can help to encourage the gifted underachiever.

IDEALISM AND DEPRESSION IN THE GIFTED CHILD

Imagine the frustration of being diagnosed, labeled, and even called ͞crazy͟; when you’re actually a perfectly ͞normal͟ genius. Mental health and behavioral disorder diagnoses are a hot topic in education, and for good reason. Diagnosis and medication rates are skyrocketing, and gifted students often fall victim to misdiagnosis due to the complex, every-day functioning of their brains.This workshop will help you understand the difference between depression and existential depression as well as provide strategies for the remediation of both.

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL DIMENSIONS OF THE GIFTED AND THE IMPACT OF ASYNCHRONY

Social and emotional needs of gifted children is a hot topic right now; and for good reason. Our gifted students are more than just little (or big!) brains. They require nurturing and development of both their hearts and their minds. So what do we do when that social/emotional development doesn’t keep pace with the cognitive development? This workshop will assist parents to assist their children with understanding their personal profile.

PRESENTATIONS FOR GIFTED ADULTS FROM BUD TO BLOOM:NURTURING THE SOCIAL EMOTIONAL NEEDS OF THE GIFTED ADULT

Who are the gifted adults? Are they the ones who have gained eminence in their field, who were considered prodigies or who were identified as gifted as children? Some who were identified as gifted children, now believe their special abilities have somehow expired, who never were appropriately identified as gifted or educated about what giftedness means, and who suffer from anxiety, depression or relationship problems that are unknowingly related to lack of information and support as a gifted person. This presentation will explore the traits of gifted adults including: Divergency, Excitability, Perceptivity and Entelechy. We will also discuss the theory of Positive Disintegration and Developmental Potential.

ADULT PERFECTIONISM:BLESSING OR CURSE

Most people would consider having high standards a good thing. Perfectionism involves a tendency to set standards that are so high that they either cannot be met, or are only met with great difficulty. Perfectionists tend to believe that anything short of perfection is horrible, and that even minor imperfections will lead to catastrophe. Striving for excellence can show that you have a good work ethic and strength of character. High standards can also push you to reach your peak level of performance. This workshop will help you recognize your perfectionism and provide tools to overcome your perfectionism.

TEN RULES FOR GIFTED WOMEN

As a gifted woman, ask yourself these questions: Am I living a joyful, purposeful life? Can I say no without feeling guilty? What is the difference between a gift and a skill? Am I living in my gifts? This workshop will help you find the courage to take the first step in a new purposeful life.

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