Academic Advocacy for Gifted Children: A Parent's Complete Guide

by Barbara J Gilman, Quinn O'Leary

Overview

The book is an essential guide to parent advocacy for gifted students. Parents and teachers can learn how to document a child's abilities and how to approach the schools to request reasonable educational options for that child in each academic year. This book also provides information on testing, score interpretation, curriculum, and successful programs for children in grades K-12. It is a practical and helpful guide written by a parent who learned how to advocate for her own son and who now helps other families advocate in their local schools to provide appropriate challenge for their gifted children.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780910707886
Publisher:	Gifted Unlimited
Publication date:	11/01/2008
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	378
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Barbara J. Gilman, M.S., is Associate Director of the Gifted Development Center in Denver, where she has worked since 1991. She holds degrees in Child Development and Psychology and has extensive experience assessing gifted children and making educational recommendations for them. She specializes in highly gifted children and gifted children with learning disabilities, ADHD, and underachievement issues. A mother of highly gifted sons, she is a veteran of gifted committees, helped create an accelerated charter middle school, and is a popular speaker for parents and teachers on advocacy and classroom accommodations for the gifted. Gilman devotes much of her time to school advocacy consultation, helping parents worldwide to document the unique instructional needs of their gifted child, find curricular options that meet the student's needs, and negotiate with school personnel for programming accommodations. As a member of the National Association for Gifted Children's Task Force on IQ Test Interpretation, Gilman has been writing and speaking extensively on the appropriate use and scoring of current major IQ tests with gifted children, as well as working with test companies to create tests capable of assessing our most highly gifted children. She penned the NAGC position statement Use of the WISC-IV for Gifted Identification.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Experience of Giftedness
Chapter 2. What Do We Mean by Gifted?
Chapter 3. Testing Considerations
Chapter 4. Curriculum and Instruction
Chapter 5. Underachievement: When a Child Is Too Advanced for the Educational Program
Chapter 6. Underachievement: Gifted Children with Learning Disabilities or Other Deficits
Chapter 7. Successful Programs for Gifted Students
Chapter 8. Models of Advocacy for Parents
Chapter 9. Teachers of the Gifted
Chapter 10. Charter Schools-In Principle and Practice
Chapter 11. Planning Your Child's Program-Year by Year

Afterword: The Call to Arms
Essential Resources
References
Endnotes
Index
About the Author

What People are Saying About This

Karen Rogers

"This book is a treasure. It provides the advice parents need...based upon Gilman's professional training, as well as her own experiences as a parent of highly gifted boys. The chapter devoted to teachers is among the best I have seen. If the advice in this book is followed, one could almost guarantee rewarding education experiences for a gifted child."--(Karen Rogers, Ph.D, Professor of Gifted Studies, University of St. Thomas, Author of Re-forming Gifted Education: How Parents and Teachers Can Match the Program to the Child)

Paula J. Hillmann

" . . . here are some great, research-based ideas for parents who are navigating through the maze of giftedness, schooling, and parent engagement in a talented child's pathway to learning . . . As a former teacher, school principal, and K-12 gifted education services coordinator - and now in private practice as an educational psychologist and gifted & talented consultant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - I am thrilled to have this book as part of the growing collection to our field of literature on parenting for high potential! I am already using it with families I work with and recommending it to parents as a 'must-have' in their quest for ideas and information on becoming an 'engaged' parent advocate. In the future I hope to use it as a foundation for one of my parent book study groups, too."--(Paula J. Hillmann, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Educational Psychology, President and Executive director, Advanced Learning Resources, Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

Christine Ohtani-Chang

"(Academic Advocacy for Gifted Children) has an acute sense of the gifted child's emotional sense of being. And as the introduction mentions, a parent's perspective lends a more in-depth and emotional tie to the child and their growth pattern. The social issues and emotional cues were good prompts to pay attention to, not only in a youth, but also in the adult."--(Christine Ohtani-Chang, Board Member, Hawaii Gifted Association)

Jacquelyn Drummer

"This book-a rare combination of intimate frustrations and joys, and the step-by-step action guide with many specific examples, is a much-needed resource for parents and for educators. As advocates for gifted students, we can no longer hope and wait. We must act."--(Jacquelyn Drummer, President, WI Association for Talented and Gifted)

Editorial Reviews

"The best book I've ever read about advocacy for gifted children. Gilman provides us refreshing nitty-gritty reality, equipping parents and teachers with specific skills to advocate for real children in real schools." Kathi Kearney, M.A., M.Ed. Gifted education consultant and nationally recognized expert in curriculum for gifted students, home schooling, and assessment of gifted students.

"This book is a treasure. It provides the advice parents need...based upon Gilman's professional training, as well as her own experiences as a parent of highly gifted boys. The chapter devoted to teachers is among the best I have seen. If the advice in this book is followed, one could almost guarantee rewarding education experiences for a gifted child." Karen Rogers, Ph.D Professor of Gifted Studies, University of St. Thomas Author of Re-forming Gifted Education: How Parents and Teachers Can Match the Program to the Child

"I like this book because it is about kids who are like my kids, but I love it for the expert information on advocating for them at school. For children who learn fast and differently, motivation to learn at all can be lost if they are held to the slow pace of regular classrooms. Why parents must advocate becomes clear through poignant examples both dark and hopeful." Ken Arenson Parent, activist for better education for exceptional learners, trial attorney, part-time woodworker, and father of gifted learners.

"All the priceless information that it took me years to collect, all in one easy-to-read book! Barbara Gilman pulls together the collective wisdom of decades of parents and professionals, from identification to accommodations to acceleration and beyond... This is the manual we all wish came with our gifted children!" Carolyn Kottmeyer, Hoagiesgifted.org

"The wisdom in this book is so important to know when planning for success for your child or student. This is a must-read for every parent or educator of gifted children. If there were only one book to read on the gifted, this is the one!" Joyce R. Schilling, parent and advocate, Denver, CO

"If you are the parent of a gifted child, you MUST READ this book! Author Barbara Gilman gently guides the reader through the maze that is educational advocacy...(to ensure) that gifted children receive an education appropriate for their special needs."
Nancy Golon, Highlands Ranch, CO

"I am a mom of gifted children and have read much of the literature available on giftedness. Two reasons to buy this book are: one, there is a wealth of knowledge offered here that is extremely helpful in understanding giftedness, and two, much of this information isn't readily available elsewhere. If you suspect your child...may be gifted, then this is THE book to buy."
Sarah B., Maryland

From the Publisher

From start to finish, Academic Advocacy for Gifted Children is not only a treasure trove of information and suggestions, but is also an obvious labor of love... all with the goal of helping children avoid miserable school experiences, while keeping their love of learning intact.

Connecticut Association for the Gifted eNewsletter

One could have all the intelligence in the world but it means nothing if it's not nurtured. Academic Advocacy for Gifted Children is aimed at parents of gifted children who want to cut through the piles of bureaucratic red tape and give their child the education they need to make the most of their gifted skill in the field of academics. It covers everything from other parents' experiences with gifted children to the definition of the subject, testing, classes, what to do about underachievement, and much more. (This book) is a solid and recommended guide for parents, a must for those who suspect their child is more than just the average student.

Midwest Book Review