Guidance and Counseling of the Gifted: Day 3

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Guidance and Counseling of the Gifted Day 3

• Resiliency and Empathy through Literature
  Psychosocial Needs Social Skills Advocacy for
  the Gifted Problem-Solving and Decision-making
• Dr. Cindy Lovell Oliver
• Stetson University

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Course Objectives

• 7. Understand risk factors and resiliency as
  related to gifted students.
• 8. Demonstrate knowledge of referral processes
  and resources available to assist students with
  psycho-social needs.
• 9. Demonstrate knowledge and use of group dynamic
  and social skills to assist gifted students in
  interacting with gifted and non-gifted students.
• 10. Acquire and refine the knowledge and skills
  needed to advocate for gifted students.
• 11. Identify and apply problem solving-strategies
  and decision-making techniques appropriate with
  students who are gifted.

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Objective 7

• KEY QUESTION You have been teaching for several
  years and feel you really know your students.
  Many years later, you learn that one of your best
  students, unbeknownst to you at the time, was
  going through some extremely difficult times
  while she was in your class. What might you have
  done to foster resiliency in an at-risk student
  if NO KNOWN RISK FACTORS were evident to you?

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Resiliency, Risk, and Literature
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Why literature?

• Gifted students often identify with literary
  characters. Sometimes its nice to know there
  are others who share their experiences. Other
  times it provides insight into the lives of
  others. Teachers can use literature to foster
  resiliency and promote empathy. Each student
  brings a unique self to school each day.
  Substance abuse, domestic violence, neglect,
  poverty, and incarceration are just some of the
  conflicts faced by many students. Literature
  provides a place to escape, to identify, to think
  and to hope.

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School

• School can be a refuge.
• Can they leave their troubles outside the
  classroom door?

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Gifted Students

• Can be especially sensitive to the plight of
  others (Dabrowskis overexciteabilities)
• Can be especially good at presenting a façade
  when they are the ones at risk
• Can be looked to by society as the ones who will
  effect lasting change that can impact many of
  these situations

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Whats going on?

• Poverty
• Abuse/Neglect
• Violence
• Alcoholism
• Incarceration
• Homelessness
• Illness

• Religious Beliefs
• Substance Abuse
• Gender Issues
• Ability/Disability
• Ethnicity
• Language
• Culture

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Anne Frank (in her diary)

• We all live with the objective of being happy
  our lives are all different and yet the same.

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Literature provides

• An escape from the stress of their reality
• A vicarious experience to walk in someone elses
  shoes
• An authentic voice
• An avenue of empathy
• An opportunity to experiment with ideas
• An example of hope

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Resiliency

• Resiliency is the term applied to children
  exposed to severe risk factors who nevertheless
  thrive and excel the ability to spring back
  from and successfully adapt to adversity.
• (ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted
  Ed., Dec. 1999)

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Empathy

• Empathy is the action of understanding, being
  aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously
  experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and
  experiences of another of either the past or
  present without having the feelings, thoughts,
  and experience fully communicated in an
  objectively explicit manner also the capacity
  for this (Merriam-Webster)

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Feelings, thoughts, experiences

• Fear
• Hope
• Reticence
• Eagerness
• Shame
• Pride
• Pain
• Pleasure

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The Nature of Resilience

• Social competence
• Problem-solving skills
• Critical consciousness

• Autonomy
• Sense of purpose
• (Benard, B. 1995)

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Social competence

• Responsiveness (especially the ability to elicit
  positive responses from others)
• Flexibility (including ability to move between
  different cultures)
• Empathy
• Communication skills
• Sense of humor

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Problem-solving skills

• Ability to plan
• Resourceful in seeking help from others
• Ability to think critically, creatively, and
  reflectively

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Critical consciousness

• Maintains a reflective awareness of the
  structures of oppression (an alcoholic parent, an
  insensitive school, a racist society, etc.)
• Creates strategies for overcoming them

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Autonomy

• Having a sense of ones own identity
• An ability to act independently and to exert
  control over ones environment
• Sense of task mastery
• Internal locus of control
• Self-efficacy
• Development of resistance (refusal to accept
  negative messages about oneself)
• Detachment (distancing oneself from dysfunction)
  protects autonomy

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Sense of purpose

• Belief in a bright future
• Goal direction
• Educational aspirations
• Achievement motivation
• Persistence
• Hopefulness
• Optimism
• Spiritual connectedness

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Protective Factors

• Caring Relationships
• High Expectations
• Opportunities for Participation

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Caring Relationships

• At least one caring person who conveys a
  compassionate attitude?

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High Expectations

• Establish high expectations and provide necessary
  support for achievement

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Opportunities for Participation

• Meaningful involvement
• Responsibility within the school

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Risk Factors

• VISIBLE
• Racism
• Poverty
• Some types of physical abuse
• Substance abuse
• Physical disabilities
• Etc.

• INVISIBLE
• Gender issues
• Emotional abuse
• Family alcoholism or substance abuse
• Family member incarcerated
• Etc.

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Domestic Violence

• Children who witness domestic violence experience
  a type of child abuse
• Their responses vary considerably
• Exposure does have a detrimental effect
• Factors that mediate childrens reactions
  include gender, temperament, and intelligence
• Boys more aggressive, girls more passive

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Alcoholism

• Can be a precursor to domestic violence
• Over 6 million children live with an alcoholic
  parent
• Reactions to parents alcoholism are unique
  (rebellious, overly compliant, perfectionists,
  etc.)

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Incarceration

• In 1999 an estimated 721,500 State and Federal
  prisoners were parents to 1,498,800 children
  under age 18.
• 22 of all minor children with a parent in prison
  were under 5 years old.
• Prior to admission, less than half of the parents
  in State prison reported living with their
  children -- 44 of fathers, 64 of mothers.
• U.S. Dept. of Justice Bureau of Justice
  Statistics (2005)

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Paralysis

• 11,000 new cases of SCI occur in the United
  States every year
• Approximately 80 occur in men
• The number of people in the United States living
  with SCI is estimated at approximately 250,000 
• The average age at injury is 38 years
• Complete and incomplete paraplegia (loss of
  function in the legs) accounts for 50.7 of the
  injuries among young people.
• Complete and incomplete tetraplegia (loss of
  function in the arms and legs) accounts for 47.
• These childhood injuries are caused by accidents,
  sports, violence, falls, and other causes.

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These are every dayrealities for some children
parents in prison, paralysis, domestic violence
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Paralysis

• Bang, Molly. Tiger's Fall. Holt, 2001.     When
  Lupe falls out of a tree in her Mexican village,
  she is paralyzed from the waist down. Angry and
  feeling sorry for herself, Lupe goes to a center
  for disabled people, who help her realize that
  her life can still have a purpose. For grades 3
  to 6.

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Alcoholism and Domestic Violence

• Oliver, Cindy. Rachel Mason Hears the Sound. NL
  Assoc., 2005.     Fifth-grader Rachel Mason
  guards the family secret of domestic violence
  while finding refuge in her academic achievement.
  For intermediate and up.

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Homelessness, Racism, Child Abuse, and Poverty

• Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
  C. Webster, 1885.     An abused boy fakes his
  own murder to escape his cruel father and goes on
  to help a runaway slave.

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Types of Literature

• Fiction
• Autobiography
• Biography
• Journals/Memoirs
• Primary Documents
• Poetry

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Key Question again

• You have been teaching for several years and feel
  you really know your students. Many years
  later, you learn that one of your best students,
  unbeknownst to you at the time, was going through
  some extremely difficult times while she was in
  your class. What might you have done to foster
  resiliency in an at-risk student if NO KNOWN RISK
  FACTORS were evident to you?

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Objective 8

• KEY QUESTION An academically successful gifted
  student shares with you that she desperately
  wants to be removed from the gifted program and
  returned to the regular classroom because she is
  too stressed out in gifted. What do you do?

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What is Stress?

• The body's general response to any intense
  physical, emotional, or mental demand placed on
  it by oneself or others.

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What is a stressor?

• Anything can be a stressor if it lasts long
  enough, happens often enough, is strong enough,
  or is perceived as stress. Working diligently on
  a project, performing many simple but boring
  tasks, or earning an "A" grade when one expected
  an "A" may all be stressful.

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Is a Gifted Student More Likely to Feel Stress
than Others?

• Heightened sensitivity to their surroundings, to
  events, to ideas, and to expectations
• Their own high expectations for achievement as a
  relentless pressure to excel.
• Constant striving to live up to
  self-expectations--or those of others-- to be
  first, best, or both
• With every new course, new teacher, or new school
  questions arise about achievement and performance
• Unrealistic or unclear expectations are imposed
  by adults or peers
• The pressure to excel, accompanied by other
  concerns such as feeling different, self-doubt
  (the "imposter" syndrome), and the need to prove
  their giftedness

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What Are Some Other Stressors on a Gifted
Student?

• Many gifted students accept responsibility for a
  variety of activities such as a demanding
  courseload leadership in school activities,
  clubs, or sports and part-time jobs. Even if it
  were humanly possible, doing everything well
  would be physically and emotionally stressful.

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Other Stressors

• Vacations may be stressful if students are
  comfortable only when achieving and succeeding.
  Taking time off may make them feel nervous and
  lacking control.

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Other Stressors

• Gifted students need intellectual challenge.
  Boring, monotonous busy-work is very stressful
  for individuals who prefer thinking and reasoning
  activities. Boredom may result in anger,
  resentment, or, in some cases, setting personal
  goals for achievement and success that
  significantly exceed those of parents or school.

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Other Stressors

• Some gifted students value independence and
  leadership, yet the separation they feel from
  their peers results in loneliness and fewer
  opportunities to relieve stress. Finding a peer
  group can be difficult, particularly for
  adolescents. Some experience a conflict between
  belonging to a group and using their
  extraordinary abilities.

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Other Stressors

• Gifted students are complex thinkers,
  persuasively able to argue both sides of any
  question. This ability, however, may complicate
  decisions. Students may lack information about
  and experience with resources, processes,
  outcomes, or priorities that help tip an argument
  toward a clear solution. Furthermore, not every
  problem has one obviously correct answer.
  Compromise and accommodation are realities in the
  adult world, but they are not easily perceived
  from a young person's viewpoint. Thus, decision
  making may be a very stressful process.

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How Can Gifted Students Cope with Stress?
(Healthy)

• Change the source of the stress. Do something
  else for a while. Put down those study notes and
  jog for an hour.
• Confront the source of the stress. If it is a
  person, persuade him or her to remove the stress.
  Ask the teacher for an extension on a project.
  Sit down with the person driving you crazy and
  talk about ways you might better work together.

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• Talk about the source of stress. Rid yourself of
  frustration. Find a good listener and complain.
  Talk through possible solutions.
• Shift your perspective. Tell yourself that each
  new situation or problem is a new challenge, and
  that there is something to be learned from every
  experience. Try to see the humorous side of the
  situation.

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• Learn skills and attitudes that make tasks easier
  and more successful. Practice effective
  organization and time-management skills. For
  example, large projects are easier and less
  overwhelming when broken down into manageable
  steps. Learn to type and revise assignments on a
  word processor. Learn about yourself and your
  priorities, and use the information to make
  decisions. Learn how to say "no" gracefully when
  someone offers you another attractive (or
  unpleasant) task about which you have a choice.
  Tell yourself that this unpleasantness will be
  over soon and that the whole process will bring
  you closer to reaching your goal. Mark the days
  that are left on the calendar, and enjoy crossing
  out each one as you near the finish.

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• Take time out for enjoyable activities. Everyone
  needs a support system. Find friends, teachers,
  or relatives with whom you have fun. Spend time
  with these people when you can be yourself and
  set aside the pressures of school, work, or
  difficult relationships. As a reward for your
  efforts, give yourself work breaks. Listen to
  your favorite music, shoot baskets, or
  participate in some other brief activity that is
  mentally restful or fun.

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• Ignore the source of the stress. Practice a
  little healthy procrastination and put a pleasant
  activity ahead of the stressful one. This, is, of
  course, only a short-term solution.

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• Get regular physical exercise and practice sound
  nutrition. Physical activity not only provides
  time out, but also changes your body chemistry as
  you burn off muscle tension built up from
  accommodating stress. Exercise also increases
  resistance to illness. Nutritious food and
  regular meals help regulate your body chemistry
  and keep you functioning at your sharpest. Eating
  healthy and attractively prepared food can be an
  enjoyable activity on its own.

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Unhealthy Coping Devices

• Escaping through alcohol, drugs, frequent
  illness, sleep, overeating, or starving
  themselves. These strategies suggest a permanent
  withdrawal or avoidance rather than a time out.

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Unhealthy (cont.)

• Selecting strategies to avoid failure. Gifted
  students closely link their identities to
  excellence and achievement. Failure, or even the
  perception of failure, seriously threatens their
  self-esteem. By not trying, or by selecting
  impossible goals, students can escape having
  their giftedness questioned. Only their lack of
  effort will be questioned.

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Unhealthy (cont.)

• Aiming too low. This reduces stress by
  eliminating intense pressure or possible feelings
  of failure. Dogged procrastination in starting
  projects, selecting less competitive colleges or
  less rigorous courses, or dropping out of school
  rather than bringing home poor grades allows
  students to avoid feelings of failure in the
  short run. Sadly, this sets the stage for
  long-term disappointment caused by a destructive
  coping style.

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Unhealthy (cont.)

• Overscheduling daily life with schoolwork and
  extracurricular activities, selecting impossibly
  demanding courseloads, or fussing endlessly over
  assignments in vain attempts to make them
  perfect. With this strategy, it is possible to
  succeed only through superhuman effort thus the
  student can save face by setting goals too high
  for anyone to achieve.

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How Can Teachers (and Parents) Help?

• Help each gifted student understand and cope with
  his or her intellectual, social, and emotional
  needs during each stage of development.
• Help each gifted student develop a realistic and
  accurate self-concept.
• Help each gifted student be a whole person.

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• Show patience.
• Show acceptance and encouragement.
• Encourage flexibility and appropriate behavior.
• Understanding and following rules does not mean
  conforming to every situation.
• Let students live their own lives.
• Be available for guidance and advice.

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Key Question Again

• An academically successful gifted student shares
  with you that she desperately wants to be removed
  from the gifted program and returned to the
  regular classroom because she is too stressed
  out in gifted. What do you do?

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Objective 9

• KEY QUESTION How might group dynamics be used to
  teach gifted students about interaction with
  their peers?

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• Use Topic 9 Handouts to explore in your classroom
  this week

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Objective 10

• KEY QUESTION How can teachers, parents, and
  gifted students advocate for all the needs of the
  gifted student?
• Presentation by Lynn Albinson (available online)

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Objective 11

• KEY QUESTION Does a gifted child solve problems
  and make decisions automatically, or do
  strategies have to be taught?

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Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale
(PHCSCS-2) Second Edition Ellen V. Piers Dale
B. Harris David S. Herzberg

• The Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale,
  one of the most widely used measures of
  psychological health in children and teens, is
  now available in a new second edition. Like the
  original scale, the PHCSCS-2 quickly identifies
  youngsters who need further testing or treatment.
  And now it offers and expanded age range, reduced
  length, improved interpretive guidelines, a
  larger, more diverse standardization sample, and
  updated computer assessment.

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• Based on the child's perceptions rather than on
  the observations of parents or teachers, the
  PHCSCS-2 assesses self-concept in individuals 7
  to 18 years of age. It is now composed of 60
  (rather than 80) items covering six subscales
• Physical Appearance and Attributes
• Freedom from Anxiety
• Intellectual and School Status
• Behavioral Adjustment
• Happiness and Satisfaction
• Popularity

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Gifted Children tend to be Better Thinkers

• Quickly sense patterns in information
• Are motivated and have positive dispositions to
  ask themselves relevant questions about these
  patterns in order to understand them.
• Are good at constructing clear mental maps or
  schemas that summarize and compare new patterns
  with related ones already stored in memory.
• Form connections with stored concepts to related
  concepts or bits of information also in memory.
• Think flexibly about new possibilities.
• Thrive on questions and problems and have a range
  of possible answers rather than one correct one.

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Gifted Children

• are better at encoding some information while
  ignoring other information.
• are better at suppressing irrelevant
  associations.
• are better at automatization.
• may skip strategies within usual sequences.
  (Mental math?)
• may invent strategies to enable themselves to
  learn a new skill.
• can discern that it is important to put more time
  into global planning in order to facilitate and
  thereby speed up local planning.

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A curriculum approach to gifted reasoning

• should focus on and be organized to include more
  elaborate, complex and in-depth study of major
  ideas, problems and themes that integrate
  knowledge with and across systems of thought.
• should allow students to re-conceptualize
  existing knowledge and generate new knowledge.
• should explore constantly-changing knowledge and
  information.
• should encourage exposure to selection and use of
  appropriate and specialized resources.
• should promote self-initiated and self-directed
  learning and growth.
• should provide for the development of
  self-understandings.
• should be evaluated in accordance with prior
  stated principles stressing higher level thinking
  skills, creativity and excellence in performance
  and products.
• may encompass enrichment, counseling and
  acceleration.

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Self-questioning during problem-solving

• What is the problem?
• What is it all about?
• What can I do?
• What steps am I taking?
• How did I go?
• What did I learn from this?

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The social community must value thinking and
independent judgments

• Gifted children reason differently from other
  children and are able to manage their learning to
  an advanced degree. The teacher plays an
  important role in encouraging gifted children to
  manage their own learning most effectively. It
  should not be assumed that if the gifted child is
  presented with advanced concepts they will pick
  them up and organize their own learning. Gifted
  reasoning and advanced intelligence will not be
  realized if an appropriate disposition is not
  cultivated.

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Key Question revisited

• Does a gifted child solve problems and make
  decisions automatically, or do strategies have to
  be taught?

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References

• Benard, B. (1995). Fostering resilience in
  children. ERIC Digest EDO-PS-95-9.
• Bureau of Justice Statistics (2005).
  http//www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/iptc.htm
  retrieved Oct. 1, 2005
• Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents
  (2005). http//www.e-ccip.org/ retrieved Oct. 1,
  2005
• Community Health Promotion (2005). University of
  West Virginia. http//www.hsc.wvu.edu/som/cmed/alc
  ohol/eff-soc.htm retrieved Oct. 1, 2005
• Delisle, J. R. (1988). Stress and the gifted
  child. Understanding Our Gifted, 1 (1), 1, 12,
  15-16.

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• James, M. (1994). Domestic violence as a form of
  child abuse Identification and prevention. Child
  Abuse Prevention, 2.
• Miami Project (2005). http//www.miamiproject.miam
  i.edu/ retrieved Oct. 1, 2005
• Oliver, C.L. (2005). Rachel Mason hears the
  sound. NL Assoc., Inc.
• SCI Illinois (2005). http//www.sci-illinois.org/P
  ages/factsheets/literature/pedresources.htm
  retrieved Oct. 1, 2005
• Twain, M. (1885). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
  Charles Webster Co.
• Van Deur, P. Retrieved Feb. 3, 2006 Gifted
  reasoning and advanced intelligence.
  http//www.nexus.edu.au/TeachStud/gat/vandeur.htm
• VanTassel-Baska, J. (1989). Counseling the
  gifted. In J. Feldhusen, J. VanTassel-Baska, K.
  Seeley, Excellence in Educating the Gifted (pp.
  299-314). Denver, CO Love Publishing.