Carrie Radke COE 8173 Counseling the Gifted To skip or not to skip grades- that is the question

Teachers, Counselors, and Student Affairs Scenario: A 11 year old in the 6 th grade is tested and found to have the mental age of a 15 year old due to their gifted abilities. The parents are trying to decide whether or not it would be beneficial to put their child in the 9 th grade, equivalent to her mental age. From your knowledge in your given area of study, what is your initial thought on the decision that would be best for the child?

Why Gifted Children need to advance in the classroom Psychosocial maturity of gifted children is closer to their academic mental age than their chronological age. Asynchronous Development: “out-of-sync”, your physical and mental abilities have disparities between them This means they not only think older, but they also feel older. So gifted children tend to be attracted to: - Older children - Other young gifted children - Adults (Silverman, L.K)

Advancement or classroom gifted programs? When the gifted child participates in the school’s pullout gifted programs, highest advanced classes possible in grades, summer gifted camps, and any other enrichment opportunities the teacher can find, but none of these things seem to be enough then advancement could be the answer. Iowa Acceleration Scale

Tool to help make an objective decision on grade acceleration for gifted students. Gives consideration for every factor that any parent, teacher, or counselor would consider, including size and motor coordination, behavior, social participation, even attendance, motivation, self-concept and attitude towards learning. All of these are put together. Interesting restrictions: IQs must be over 115 and if you have a sibling in the same grade or the grade you’re looking to advance to is an automatic fail for this test. (Assouline, S., Colangelo, N., Lipscomb, J., Luplowski-Shoplik, A.)

Prerequisites of Successful Accelerated Placement Cognitive Functioning Personal Characteristics Learning Preferences Interests “When a child displays multiple talents coupled with social and emotional maturity, they become an excellent candidate for radical advancement.” (Gross, 1993; Hollingsworth, 1942; Janos, Robinson, Lunneburg, 1989?

Options for Advancement Grade-Based Acceleration: decisions that shorten the number of years a gifted child remains in the K-12 system. - Grade Skipping - Nongraded Classrooms: progression through curriculum undifferentiated by grade levels - Grade Telescoping: rapid progress by building level (ex. finishing four years of high school in three) - Early Admission to College - Radical Acceleration : completes high school and college work in four years (Rogers, K.B)

Pros of Advancement Gifted children can begin to hate school due to the lack of challenging work can go back to loving work. There social skills improve due to being able to communicate more effectively with peers their intellectual age. Criticism from peers decreases because they are not as different from their older peers Anxiety and nervousness decrease with thoughts of not being perceived as “different” Schoolwork is overall improved

Worries of Advancement Social acceptance among older peers; now classmates Learning things out of their maturity level Discomfort in being so young Too challenging

What if I don’t choose to advance? Several studies have shown that children with high IQs, who stayed in an inclusion classroom or only advanced one grade experienced significant difficulties with peer relationships. They often have little to no friends and often underachieve because their stress of no friends puts a negative weight on their desire to do well in the classroom. (Gross, M.U.W.)

After advancement Counselors should encourage the family environment to stay positive for their gifted student. They should also monitor the student to make sure they don’t fall in the small percentage of student’s who fall back socially. Teachers shouldn’t treat a younger student any differently than others in the classroom.

Getting Ready for College “Asking the ‘Dumb’ Questions about College” Produce a list of questions with your gifted students they may have about upcoming college and invite college students to the classroom to give real life examples. Objectives: - Gifted teens learn college terminology - They learn about college life and challenges that they may face. - They learn about the financial aid and burden finances can be during college.

Possible Questions Activity: You will be the panel of students and think about how you would answer these questions to not just gifted 18 year old seniors, but to possibly 15 year old seniors. Give some experiences you had with homesickness, illness, loneliness, and finding friends. Adjustments to living in dorms and roommates. Social life, relaxing, finding people to eat with, alcohol/drug use on campus. Deciding on a major How you made the choice to attend your school. Time management: balancing jobs, social life, studying. Money: how much is enough, budgeting, book costs Class differences, learning and teaching styles, professors, getting academic help

Bibliography Assouline, S.(1998). The Iowa acceleration scale. Scottsdale. AZ: Gifted Psychology Press. Gross, M.U.M. (1993) Exceptionally gifted children, London: Routledge. Gross, M.U.M. (1998). “Fishing” for the facts: A response to Marsh and Craven. Australasian Journal of Gifted Education, 7(1), Hill, J.P. (1980). The family. In M. Johnson (Ed.), Toward adolescence: The middle school years. Chicago: National Society for the Study of Education. Janos, P.M., & Robinson, N.M. (1985). The performance of students in a program of radical acceleration at the university level. Gifted Child Quarterly, 29, Moon, S.M., Neihart, M., Reis, S.M., Robinson, N.M., (2002) Issues Deriving From Student Advancement Compared With Age Peers. The Social and Emotional Development of Gifted Children, Peterson, J.S. (2008) Asking “Dumb” Questions About College. The Essential Guide to Talking with Gifted Teens, Rogers, K.B. (1991). A best evidence synthesis of the research on types of accelerative programs for gifted students. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Silverman, L.K. (1993). Counseling needs and programs for the gifted. In K.A. Heller, F.J. Monks, & A.H. Passow (Eds.), International handbook of research and development of giftedness and talent (pp ). Oxford, England: Pergamon.