All parents and teachers, not just those who work with gifted kids, are often concerned about how to make the best decisions for each unique child. All children need custom attention to help them grow up resilient, flexible, and compassionate. The challenge of working with gifted children is that it can feel isolating and lonely without proper support and resources. Sometimes just a little advice, validation, or encouragement, can go a long way towards working through the tough spots. Because of this 优蜜视频 offers complimentary Gifted Support Group (GSG) meetings during the school year.

GSG meetings invite leading professionals to share their knowledge and experience. These meetings provide support and community in a space specifically for shared discovery and exchanging resources and ideas. Someone else is going through or has gone through the same struggles. The GSG meetings offer a community eager to share what they have learned in their journey through not only gifted education, but also gifted living.

Talking about common struggles together is a great way to brainstorm solutions. Maybe something that didn鈥檛 work for one student is the fix another family is looking for. Sharing experiences with other parents and educators who interact with gifted children has proven to be enormously helpful in supporting gifted students strive towards reaching their full potential.

Sharing what we have learned may help someone else forego the struggles the community has encountered. But the right community of like-minded people can provide more than just new information, it allows you to be yourself. You can enter the space with no fear of judgment.

Join our community as we work together for continued success.

Here are some recording and resources from last year鈥檚 GSG meetings.

Linda Powers

Jill Stowell

Cynthia Molt

Susanna Pollack

Bethany Kwan

Maya Sissoko

Bonus

• with 优蜜视频 President, Betsy Jones sits down with Jill Stowell of The Stowell Learning Center.

It鈥檚 hard to believe, but we鈥檙e already well into the new year: 2019. Despite heavy rains 鈥� much-needed and welcomed throughout Los Angeles County 鈥� in 优蜜视频鈥檚 home city of Pasadena, CA, the future looks bright! With the rainfall comes the opportunity to recalibrate, reflect, and reenergize for an exciting year ahead. We have some incredible new initiatives and programs on the horizon and are looking forward to continuing to serve and support our amazing students, families, educators, and community partners.

We hope you鈥檙e as excited about this list as we are!

1. Celebrating Heart, Fostering Hope: On February 9, 优蜜视频 will formally celebrate its 20^th anniversary with a gala fundraiser at the Annandale Golf Club in Pasadena. We鈥檙e so excited to share this incredible occasion with those that have helped shape 优蜜视频 for two decades. If you鈥檙e unable to join in person, please consider donating, sponsoring, or providing us with a silent auction item. All money raised will go towards continuing to help serve the nation鈥檚 brightest and most deserving students, who drive our mission on a daily basis. For more information, please click .
2. 18 years of Yunasa! Since 2002, and across 22 sessions, has been providing gifted youth with award-winning programming, embracing them for who they are and helping them understand and work with the unique joys and challenges they face. This summer, Camp Shady Brook in Colorado and Camp Copneconic in Michigan will host campers, counselors, Fellows, and 优蜜视频 staff for a unique, week-long experience like no other. Interested in applying? There鈥檚 still time!
3. Academy Additions: We鈥檙e introducing two new NAGC-award-winning Shelagh Gallagher curricula to our Academy offerings: Black Death and It鈥檚 Electrifying! 鈥� and that鈥檚 just in the spring session! Stay tuned for more additions in the summer and beyond, including a course for our youngest students, ages 6-9: The Penguin Predicament: A Problem about Animal Habitat and Survival.
4. Ready, set, make! On June 22, 优蜜视频 will host its first-ever Maker Faire. Details about this one-of-a-kind event with makers, tinkerers, and creative minds coming soon!
5. Community: Now entering its second year of providing an academic and social home for the gifted community, 优蜜视频鈥檚 Learning Center at 540 S. Marengo is excited to welcome 鈥� and welcome back 鈥� families, educators, Externs, Bradley scholars, and community partners through programming, free events, open houses, workshops, trainings, and tours. Check out our page to see what鈥檚 on the horizon!
6. Our third content guide: In June, 优蜜视频 will release its third content guide, which will focus on high schools throughout the United States that serve gifted students. We look forward to being able to provide our families with a well-researched, informative guide for their rising high schoolers. To view our two content guides released in 2018, please visit our .
7. Calling all volunteers! 优蜜视频 is launching its first-ever program! Volunteers are an integral part of 优蜜视频. We rely on our volunteers to help support a variety of services for our community. Whether you鈥檙e working with students, engaging with guests at events, or performing administrative tasks, our volunteers help our programs thrive! Join 优蜜视频鈥檚 mission to ensure that each gifted child鈥檚 specific needs are met so that they can reach their full potential.
8. Brilliant scientists, brilliant students: (Learning Among Brilliant Scientists) is in its second program year! Since its initial launch in March 2018, LABS has continued to build momentum with a great line-up of STEM professionals from Caltech, Cal State Los Angeles, and USC. They鈥檝e shared their innovative work and research on such topics as astrophysics, molecular biology, computer science, ecology and evolution, biology and mathematics! The new year kicks off with an exciting LABS on Cancer Cells in the Blood! There are still spots available for the February 16 LABS Series:
9. Streaming live, coast to coast! meetings have gone digital! 优蜜视频 is now livestreaming our meetings on Facebook and YouTube. We鈥檙e excited to be able to expand our outreach to non-local families and share gifted professionals鈥� amazing insight with our community. The next meeting, on January 31, will focus on social emotional imagination in gifted education.
10. EXPLORE-ing a new location: is launching a program in Northern California! The program continues to garner great interest from applicants in NorCal, so this summer we鈥檙e hoping to make the leap up north to host students at 1 or 2 mentor sites. We鈥檒l be able to expand our reach and serve more talented high schoolers!
11. Hot off the presses: 优蜜视频 now has a 3D printer! Thanks to a generous grant from the Ahmanson Foundation, which is providing us with funds to transform our Learning Center, our programs are now equipped to provide students with 3D printing technology, design, and coding. Check out our first test print from Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship Coordinator, Mallory Aldrich:
12. Speaking of hearts: Academy is hosting it鈥檚 first-ever Valentine鈥檚 Day card-making event the week of February 4. Stop by during business hours to make cards for family, friends, teachers, and other special people in your life. Free of charge! Details located .
13. Beakers and Bunsen burners and bacteria, oh my! Within a few weeks, construction will be complete on 优蜜视频 Learning Center鈥檚 new wet lab! With three working stations, sinks, and a flat screen monitor, Academy and LABS programs will be able to provide an authentic science lab experience for students and educators. We look forward to seeing this amazing space transform into a space of hands-on inquiry that has been years in the making.
14. Student-led workshops: 2018 was a fantastic year for student-led workshops and there are already two planned for February: the third workshop in CDB Scholar Luke Gialanella鈥檚 Votes and Voices series 鈥� A Presidential History of the U.S. Two-Party System 鈥� and The Wonderful World of Poems with Cassidy Kao. We鈥檙e so grateful that our students love sharing their knowledge and experiences with each other!
15. Family and fun: When not working with and serving our incredible students, 优蜜视频 staff enjoys cultivating their hobbies and pursuing their interests. Marketing and Communications Coordinator Nicole LaChance is looking forward to joining her family for some rock and roll excitement this summer: 鈥淚 am going to see Aerosmith in June at their residency in Las Vegas with my family. Aerosmith is a special band for us and I have probably seen them at least 8 times already. It will be awesome to spend time with my family and see a great show we are all super excited about. Maybe I鈥檒l even get lucky at the casino!鈥�

What 优蜜视频 programs or events are you most looking forward to in 2019

Thank you to all the parents and volunteers who devote their time and resources to support 优蜜视频鈥檚 programs and services. Whether it鈥檚 donating books to the library in our Learning Space, facilitating a Gifted Support Group meeting, working as an mentor or member, helping out around the 优蜜视频 office or assisting with one of our special events, our volunteers greatly help us to provide quality programming to gifted students all over the country. We cannot thank you enough for your generosity in giving your time to our organization.

Thank you to everyone who has made a financial contribution to 优蜜视频 this year. Your support is essential to ensuring every gifted child has the resources to reach their full potential. We couldn鈥檛 do the work we do without your generous support. Financial gifts of all sizes allow us to provide programming, materials and services to gifted students, as well as their parents and teachers. A special thanks to everyone who sponsored our last month:

Thomas & Tiffany Hempel
Mar & Matthew Hershenson
Ken & Michelle Hirschman
Richard Chin & Christina Hyun
Megan Johnson & Dy Tran
McDonell Family

Ann & Don Smith/Gifted Support Center Family

Thank you to everyone who has shared information about our programs and services, contributed a blog post and helped us advocate for gifted children. You are building a brighter future for gifted students across the country.

Finally, thank you to all the gifted children who inspire us daily with their passion, creativity, ingenuity and readiness to learn and be challenged. You are the reason we continue to work diligently to provide a space for intellectual, creative and personal growth.

Thank you to everyone who has supported 优蜜视频 this year!

Would you like to support 优蜜视频? ! Gifts of all sizes are welcome and appreciated.

Learning about the brain development of gifted children gave me a deeper understanding of their heightened experience and unique learning needs.

At 优蜜视频鈥檚 monthly , Dr. Nicole Tetreault, Dr. Joanna Haase, and Dr. Sharon Duncan from (GRO) gave a presentation on understanding the gifted brain. Their extensive literature review on existing neuroscience research supports the hypothesis that gifted individuals have increased intellectual, emotional, sensory and motor processing capacity. Specifically, their research shows:

Gifted individuals have increased brain volume

Gifted individuals have greater brain activation

Gifted individuals have greater white matter connectivity

Gifted individuals have increased sensory and auditory processing

Neuroanatomy shows individuals with higher IQ have increased grey matter volume in various regions of the brain 鈥� what the cerebral cortex is composed of. The regions with increased volume include the frontal lobes (complex decision making and hypothesis testing), temporal lobes (auditory processing and language interpretation), parietal lobes (taste, temperature, touch sensation), and occipital lobes (visual information) [1].

This could explain why gifted students can process a large amount of information and do calculations faster than their peers. As a child, I was always told that practice makes you better, but at times, too many repetitions can make you lose interest. Keeping a child interested, engaged, and challenged is a delicate balance; understating neurodiversity is the first step to differentiating individual鈥檚 learning pace and style.

With accelerated processing speed, comes the challenge of responsiveness. Some students can solve math problems quickly in their head, but they have a hard time articulating the process. When it comes to sensory and auditory processing, gifted students can be particularly sensitive and react strongly to sound, smell, taste, and visual stimuli.

While many gifted students can identify with these feelings, it is also important 鈥� albeit difficult 鈥� to try to express one鈥檚 logical process as coherent as possible. In learning environments where the needs of gifted students are often overlooked, the ability to communicate clearly and effectively is a good practice to foster mutual understanding and master proactive learning habits.

I left GRO鈥檚 lecture with a greater understanding of neurodiversity and the difference in learning needs for gifted students. Understanding that our students learn differently, not ostracizing them for who they are, and helping them work towards their personal best with their unique learning pace and style is a great recipe for a happy and healthy childhood.

Notes:

[1] 鈥淭he Gifted Brain.鈥� March 17, 2016

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Thank you to all the parents and volunteers who devote their time and resources to help 优蜜视频 run smoothly. From organizing files in the office to speaking at a meeting to assisting with one of , our volunteers are essential and their contributions are immeasurable. We cannot thank you enough for your generosity.

Thank you to everyone who has this year. Your support is essential to ensuring every gifted child has the chance to reach their full potential.听 Financial gifts, both big and small, allow us to provide programming, materials and services to gifted students, parents and teachers. A special thank you to those who sponsored our Let鈥檚 Connect Benefit Dinner and Silent Auction:

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听 听SCG Publishing

Thank you to everyone who has shared information about our work, passed on a blog post and/or helped us advocate for gifted children. You are helping us build a brighter future for gifted students across the country.

Finally, thank you to all the gifted children who inspire us with their creativity, perseverance, ingenuity and passion for learning. We hope we have enriched your lives as much as you have ours.

Thank you to everyone who has supported 优蜜视频 this year!

Like this post? to receive more stories, information, and resources about gifted youth straight to your inbox.