Parents are the most important factors in a gifted child’s life yet have the fewest sources of information, according to Dr. James Webb, one of the 25 most influential psychologists in gifted education who discussed 11 key parenting issues for gifted children at the Redmond High School Performing Arts Center Tuesday evening.
Webb said the definition of “giftedness” includes high intellectual ability, specific academic aptitude, and leadership ability. Webb recounted that a child can be gifted in a variety of areas but that schools may not be responsive to all of them. He said schools commonly emphasize intellectual ability and specific academic aptitude as opposed to creative or productive thinkers, leadership ability, and visual or performing arts.
Webb also identified frequent problems among gifted children including power struggles, stress and perfectionism, existential depression, misdiagnosis and judgment that lags behind intellectual ability. Most common, however, is boredom and underachievement in school, he pointed out.
“A quarter to one-half of classroom time is spent waiting for others to catch up,” said Webb, who added that the Lake Washington School District is being more responsive to gifted children that others in the country.
Allergies, asthma, and reactive hypoglycemia are common diagnosis for gifted children, according to Webb.
The first of Webb’s eleven key parenting issues is the school climate. Webb claims that, “schools aren’t set up for gifted children” and that “out of each dollar for education, less than two pennies go to gifted education.”
Another issue is the social and educational environment that Webb says is drifting into a status where mediocrity is more valued than innovation and curriculum is “lock-step” with no flexibility to move ahead.
Webb encouraged parents to “keep alive the excitement about learning” in their children.
A pertinent issue is the ignorance, misinformation and bias about parents of talented able learners, he said. These parents are often criticized as exaggerating or being pushy. While Webb agrees that parents must help their children gradually learn to manage their issues, he supports the notion that parents “do have to be an advocate for your child.”
Four factors that influence the issues that Webb discussed were also introduced which included the level of giftedness, asynchronous development, overexcitability, and thinking and learning styles.
Webb stated there is a spectrum of giftedness and not all children are the same.
Asynchronous development is the increasing span in abilities of gifted children, while the child may be at a 14-year-old level in one area, they may be at an 8-year-old level in another area.
Webb’s goal was to “help you understand that your expectations of your child may need to be modified based on asynchronous development.”
Understanding thinking and learning styles, auditory-sequential versus visual-spatial, can help to better appreciate and communicate with a child. It is also common that visual-spatial gifted children are often misdiagnosed as ADHD.
In addition to being a psychologist, author, publisher and father of six daughters, Webb founded Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG), an organization that fosters healthy, supportive environments for gifted children and adults through education, research and theory development.
Parents of gifted children say it is a lonely experience, reported Webb, who also mentioned that SENG reaches out to the parents.
Webb commented that his work has allowed him to give a lot of workshops for educators but that “teaching can’t overcome uninformed parenting.”
The Lake Washington School District and the Gifted Education Advisory Council (GEAC) hosted this free event, sponsored by Northwest Gifted Child Association and SENG.
Before answering questions from the audience, Webb urged everyone to attend the SENG national conference next summer, July 15-17. The conference will take place at the Double Tree Hotel in Tacoma. For more information on the conference and gifted children visit www.sengifted.org.
