Supporting a gifted child
is often challenging.
As parents and educators, it can be difficult to understand how best to meet the complex needs of gifted children. During the school year, IEA offers complimentary monthly Gifted Support Group meetings featuring professionals who are experts on various aspects of gifted youth. These meetings provide support and community, a venue for shared discovery, and a space to exchange resources and ideas. Sharing experiences with other parents and educators who interact with gifted children has proven to be enormously helpful.
In order to assist the widest range of families, we will be livestreaming the meetings on our Facebook page, unless otherwise noted.
Speaker: Rebecca Gotlieb, Educational Psychology PhD Candidate
Thursday, January 31st • 6:00 p.m.
540 South Marengo Avenue, Pasadena, California 91101
Social-emotional imagination is key to helping propel gifted students to realize fully their potential and to identifying a broader range of gifted students. Rebecca Gotlieb will present converging evidence from across research in education, psychology, and neuroscience that suggests that strategic shifting between outward and inward focused attention underlies giftedness. She highlights the benefits of and strategies for cultivating gifted students’ reflectiveness, perspective-taking, curiosity, meaning making, and ability to imagine their futures.
Speaker: Dr. Amy Gaessar, Ph.D, Yunasa Fellow and Assistant Professor of School Counseling at Purdue University
Tuesday, February 12th • 6:00 p.m.
540 South Marengo Avenue, Pasadena, California 91101
This event will not be livestreamed.
Many gifted and talented individuals experience stress. For some, it can be a source of creativity and insight; for others, a limiting force of elevated anxiety. Given the multi potentialities and demands on gifted students, brain-based research has important applications for understanding the impact of stress and anxiety on gifted individuals, illuminating effective strategies to best support academic growth, social and emotional development, and stress management. Additionally, recent research on an innovative, proactive stress management technique, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), has demonstrated a significant reduction in anxiety for gifted students. EFT can be easily incorporated into daily routines, providing gifted youth and those that serve them with greater ease in handling daily tasks, managing hectic schedules and maximizing their potentials. Session attendees will better understand the biological and cognitive effects of stress and anxiety, as well as how to use EFT to counter them.
Speaker: Dr. Jim Delisle, IEA Yunasa Fellow, Author, Distinguished Professor (Retired), Kent State University
Tuesday, February 12th • 6:00 p.m.
Mirman School, 16180 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90049
Parents of gifted children and teens have many questions about how best to meet their intellectual and emotional needs. They want to know what giftedness is and the label’s impact on other family members. They want to know how to advocate for their gifted child in a school setting mired in “bringing up the bottom” rather than “raising the bar” at the top. They want to know how to set expectations that are appropriate and attainable. And they want to know how to juggle the wide range of emotional intensities that often “comes with the territory” in raising gifted kids.
Speaker: Tessa Lamb, BEd, BFA, MFA, Author, Literacy Support & Orton-Gillingham Instructor
Thursday, February 21st • 6:00 p.m.
540 South Marengo Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90049
Having a child with asynchronous development can offer many unforeseen challenges and incredible moments to reflect on as parents. This presentation will offer ideas and strategies so you can create a path for your child to move past surviving to thriving!
IEA Gifted Support Group Meetings
Benefits:
• Learn the theory and application of a holistic approach for gifted children
• Meet, share with, and learn from educators and other parents of gifted children
• Get in-depth information on a variety of topics related to gifted youth and education
Past topics have included:
- Giftedness Identification & IQ Testing
- Homeschooling Parent Panel
- Accelerated Gifted Education
- Enhancing the Emotional Functioning of Gifted Children
- Exploring Non-Traditional Education Options in a Standardized World
- Gifted Resource Swap and Play Date
- Twice-Exceptional Parent Panel
- Emotional Freedom Therapy
To see upcoming gifted support group meeting topics and details, please visit the Upcoming Events page of our website. Questions or would like to suggest a speaker or topic? Email Niña Abonal at nabonal@educationaladvancement.org.
