This covers all the topics that face raising a gifted child from the stressful to the stressed out !

1. CHALLENGES OF RAISING A GIFTED CHILD
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Dr Lakshmi Sharma Workshop on Giftedness Part 4
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2. Challenges
• Family & Friends
• Schooling & Education
• Bullying & Socialisation
• Stereotype
• Gender & Giftedness
• Relating to Your Gifted Child
• The Gifted Mind

3. I have just discovered my child is gifted !
Great news ……………………..!!!!

4. 4 months later !!!
I need
sleep!
Why do the other
mums shun me at
school
MMM Not such a gift after all …………………………………..

5. Problem !
•Most adults think this is what a gifted child is;

6. Family & friends
• Compare children especially within family – other parents feel inadequate
• Common response…Well you push her/him that’s why she/he knows so much
• Or ….I don’t believe in giftedness all children are the same
• Most gifted parents hide their children’s giftedness due to bad experiences
• Stressful dealing with school/parents/teachers

7. Misconception !
Gifted does not mean EINSTEIN

8. Schooling & Education
This is covered in workshop 5
Briefly though;
Special programmes for gifted
Grade Skipping
Home Schooling
High school
Primary school

9. Bullying
There are 2 causes of bullying:
• Socialisation Difficulty:Highly gifted low social skills
• Jealousy:Too clever & stand out
Constant monitoring is essential
If not dealt with child withdraws & acts dumb to hide the intelligence

10. Socialisation
• Many gifted children have low social skills
• Tend to make one close friend find it hard in groups
• However gifted children in groups of gifted children socialise well
• Need to find local groups for gifted kids
• Gifted children need support and understanding
• Monitor their friendship circle ensure they are not isolated
• If at school report to teacher immediately any issues

11. Stereotypes
Must be aware of this !
• Teachers & parents stereotype as little Einsteins
• High expectations
• Child highly pressurised
• Child fears failure due to labelling
• Gender stereotypes….

12. Gender & Giftedness
• Girls hide giftedness (STEM) more than boys
• Girls tend to dumb down to fit in with classmates
• Boys better at STEM – society –complete rubbish!
• Boys & girls equal
• Boys owing to society – masculinity - hide giftedness in music & art
• Be aware & deal head on

13. The Gifted Mind
• Education – often Gifted children not challenged enough at school
• Home is for study, school is for play
• Encourage Strategic Games – high order thinking
• Chess, Scrabble, crosswords
• Encourage Geometric partial reasoning & creativity
Origami, lego etc
• Encourage creativity – pottery/ art classes
• Encourage musical instrument & sport
• Encourage Language

14. Just in case you were wondering ….?
• No listening to Mozart does not raise your child’s IQ!
• IQ game claims …… complete rubbish!
• Give a kid a cardboard box & pens and their creativity flourishes

15. Relating to your gifted child
Believe me we have all been there !
Do not feel guilty that you are not doing enough – you are !

16. Common Parental Woes
• Short sleep time & high energy
• Emotionally draining – gifted children highly sensitive
• Constant explanation of the child’s questions –non stop
• Child has constant need to expand knowledge thinking
• Constant battle with school to get child’s needs met

17. Parents
• Gifted Parents constantly feel lost and inadequate
• Common Theme - How do we as parents keep this child fulfilled & happy.
• We are doing everything and nothing’s working.
• Conflicting advice from people
• All gifted kids are different there isn’t one solution
• Have faith & keep going – remember you are the expert on your child !

18. A gifted child must be challenged

19. Solutions !!!
• Just have to employ tactics
• Knowledge - questions – self learn – effective
Answer their questions - what do you think? Enable that high order thinking
Get them to write an essay on it
Make them responsible for their educational issues – in the long run will
save you so much time

20. Solutions cont’d
• Sensitivity – talk it through – try & relate
• Hyperactive gifted kids very common
• Have calming games or creative activities at hand– origami for me is sensational, cards & even pen & paper
• Many parents look to the tablet/ipad however this is a mistake & will pay for it later
• Ipads & tablets – difficult to withdraw child from & have to deal with temper tantrums & bargaining
• Also makes some kids more hyperactive & the added screen time difficult to calm child down.

21. Keys ideas that allow you time & kid
expanding knowledge!
• Learning Journal/Diary –Ask the child to write what they have learned that day then or draw a picture
• Give them an article to read & get them to think about the issue.
• Give your child a newspaper/article to read (whatever their interest is in ) – ask them to create a poster
on it.
• Most kids love cooking ….get the cooking books out and ask them to create their own recipe with
specific ingredients- kids love this! Then get the child to write up the recipe – then collect all recipes
and produce a book (online books quite cheap). Then cook together with the child.
• Wordsearches and crosswords are fantastic kids love them !
• Books – what I found most appealing is getting a book that has a series – oh my goodness the kid
cannot stop reading. My child sat for hours reading all of Roald Dahl’s and Harry Potter series.
• Link book to activity ! My child loved Harry Potter & after reading the books then went and made spell
books kept her occupied for ages !!!!! Thanks J.K. Rowling !!!!

22. Warning
From my experience:
• Gifted children’s literature doesn’t really exist
• Reading age of 15 but child 9 – very difficult !
• Check literature – at 15 book subject focusses on teenage angst
• Inappropriate reading for that young age
Difficult to find high level vocab with innocent storyline!

23. HOPE YOU LIKED THE WORKSHOP !
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