We do a lot of laughing around the Learning By Grace offices. Laughing is the best medicine. Laughing puts the world in a better perspective. Here are a few funny videos from my favorite Christian comedian and homeschooling father of lots of kids, Tim Hawkins.
Tim Hawkins Biscuits and Gravy
Tim Hawkins Frap House
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By: Mimi Rothschild
Recently, the California judicial system has directed a two-part assault on Southern Baptist homeschoolers throughout their state. First, they have banned the words “mom and dad” and “husband and wife” from their schools – please read www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58130 – and are forcing teachers to promote a more alternative sexual lifestyle.
The second part of the assault came last week when three judges essentially banned homeschooling, deeming 166,000 children truants – www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=25469 – and their parents as criminals.
This absurd ruling needs to be reversed. Please visit: www.ReverseTheRuling.com, and learn more information about this alarming issue, and have your voice heard by signing the petition. Our goal is to gain enough signatures to present this petition to the courts and let them know that America is watching. And we know what happens in California can happen anywhere in the United States!
More so, we know that this ruling has long-term ramifications of indoctrination on our children, diminishing the Christian Values that we’ve worked so diligently to instill in them. This is not a one-off case that only pertains to an isolated incident! No, it is a Ruling that eliminates a freedom that dates back to our forefathers.
Stay informed. Spread the word. Sign the petition.
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By: Mimi Rothschild
After reading the academy blog posted last Friday, my son asked me if I ever heard the six foot spoons story of heaven. I hadn’t. So he informed me of it…
A person dies. His name is Mike. Mike is greeted by an angel that tells him that God has decided that the decision of afterlife is Mike’s and will be based on his decisions throughout his life on earth.
Two doors were presented to Mike. The angel told him that he needed to pick one of the two doors and look inside. He could only pick one, but if he didn’t like that door than he had to take whatever was behind the second door. He couldn’t open both and then decide.
Mike opened the first door and saw a table built for a king’s feast. It seated more people than Mike could count in a glance, and upon further investigation he saw the spirit of every person he has ever known and loved that had passed, and spots for all of those yet to be with him. On the table there was enough food for everyone to eat several meals. The finest cuisine, chalices filled with wine and everyone Mike wanted to be with all in the same place; this had to be heaven, he thought.
Before Mike walked inside and deemed this his forever-afterlife, he looked closer into the eyes of his loved ones. Something was hollow. His eyes followed theirs and he saw what they saw – each person was holding a six foot spoon.
Once noticing this, Mike saw the food going everywhere but where his loved-ones wanted. Each person tried feverously to flick food into their own mouth, but instead of enjoying even a morsel, each person was starving to get a single bite.
“No. Never. Give me the fire-pits and horn spikes, I’ll take whatever is behind the second door no matter how painful the punishment,” Mike said as he slammed the door shut. He couldn’t witness his loved-ones being punished, regardless of his desire to be with them all.
The angel looked on and presented the second door to Mike and waited as he reached for the handle. He grabbed the knob, closed his eyes and opened the door.
Much to Mike’s surprise, the room was identical to the first door he had opened. It held the same luxurious table holding the same feast, same spirits around the table sitting in front of the same chalices; but worst of all, each spirit was still holding the same six foot spoon.
Mike looked on with an open mind to try to find something different, a deeper solution, just as he did his entire life on earth. And this time upon further examination, he noticed something was missing from the first door he had opened. The hollowness was gone. These loved-ones weren’t hungry. There was no food flying across the room or anything missing its target by selfishly being flung from a spoon.
Instead, Mike’s friends and family weren’t trying to feed themselves. Instead, they were feeding each other. Each spoon was being used to help the person across from them without the fear of going hungry themselves. Each person thought of his or her neighbor first.
And, to Mike, this was his choice. He lived his life this way and now would spend his eternity sharing with his loved-ones the glorious gifts that the Lord has provided.
This was heaven.
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By: Karlie Margaret Houser
As a young girl of only ten years old, my grandfather sat beside me on the backyard swing-set and told me a story that I still hold close to my heart today. The story was about a young man, a Pastor, who moved from his parent’s home to the streets of the big city. The Pastor was homeschooled, raised under a roof of God and was very close to his family. He moved when he was 18 years old to help support his family and “see the world.”
It took him several hours to get to the city with plenty of stops along the way. When he finally stepped off the bus, he realized that he was much farther than merely a bus ride from his hometown.
What he saw scared him. Prostitutes and pimps, drugs and drug addicts, crime and criminals; he stood and stared at everything he saw until a young kid ran up to him and kicked him in the shin. The boy wasn’t more than ten years old or so, but had the city life engrained in his very being.
The Pastor looked down at the boy, dropped to his knee and said, “Aren’t you going to repent?”
“Repent? What’s that?” The boy asked.
“Repent. Save yourself. Say you are sorry,” the Pastor responded.
With that, the boy ran off kicking trashcans down and breaking bottles all along his way until he was out of sight and could only be heard.
Not sure how to respond, the Pastor chased the noises of the boy and screamed at the top of his lungs, “REPENT, REPENT AND SAVE YOURSELF! REPENT, REPENT AND SAVE YOURSELF!”
He never caught the child, but ran for a solid hour up and down the street screaming at the top of his lungs. He did not say anything but those words, and eventually drew the attention of the vagabonds that surrounded him.
The following day he decided to run up and down the same street screaming his message, “REPENT, REPENT AND SAVE YOURSELF! REPENT, REPENT AND SAVE YOURSELF!”
Every day. An hour a day. The Pastor’s screams became known throughout the area as that of a deranged man who lost his marbles. He was the neighborhood joke. Never a hello, merely the subject of their taunts. Those screams lasted twenty years, every day at the same time a day, for an hour a day.
Like clockwork, the Pastor left his quarters and ran to the streets to spread his message. He never took a day off. Never strayed from his path. Never let the sneers of others bother him – and sneers there were, but not just words, he was also the target of rotten fruit, trash, and spit.
One day, about twenty-five years from when he first stepped off of the bus, a man in his early thirties approached the Pastor after he was finishing his hour long running chant. The young man met the Pastor at his front door.
“Why? Why do you continue your rant?” The young man asked.
“Because,” he said with a smile.
“Because you like the abuse? You like the trash? You like the stains of fruit that have piled up for the past twenty-some years? Had I known that, I wouldn’t have kicked you in the shin, I would have handed you an umbrella.” The boy admitted with the look of bewilderment engrained on his face. “Don’t you know that you can’t change this city? These people are who they are. They ain’t changing no matter how loud or long you yell,” the young man said with conviction.
The Pastor smiled at the young man and waited until the two were eye to eye.
“What makes you think I’m trying to change them? As much as I wish and pray, I know that they can’t change until they allow God into their lives and help them change themselves. As for me and why I run, I promised myself many years ago that I will never allow this city to change me.”
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By: Mimi Rothschild
The civil war, also known as the War Between the States, is captured in our history books and our stories. Now your homeschoolers can get a little taste of it firsthand! Here’s a recipe that has been shared from generation to generation. It’s also a perfect early cooking lesson for your homeschooler!
Civil War Cookin’: Rumbled Eggs
RUMBLED EGGS
3 eggs
2 oz. butter
1 tsp. cream or milk
Buttered toast
Very convenient for a light dish for supper. Beat up three eggs with two ounces of fresh butter; add a teaspoonful of cream or new milk. Put all in a saucepan and keep stirring it over the fire for nearly five minutes, until it rises up like a soufflé; immediately dish it on some buttered toast and eat!
Adapted from Civil War Recipes: Receipts from the Pages of Godey’s Lady’s Book, Lily May Spaulding and John Spaulding, editors. Recipe from 1866.
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By: Mimi Rothschild
Oftentimes, I am asked if homeschooled children fare the same as their Public School counterparts.
“Honestly, the answer is no,” I’ll say, as I wait for the smile of conviction to spread from the person’s face to my eyes.
Then, almost mirroring their glee, I politely explain a few of the facts I’ll encountered over the many years of being involved with homeschooling.
“For instance,” I’ll say. “Homeschooled children consistently score well on standardized achievement tests. The most comprehensive study shows a 20-30% point gap in favor of homeschoolers. For example, if the public school average is the 50th percentile a homeschooler will on average be in the 70th or 80th percentile.”
I’ll then explain that homeschooling is the fastest growing education sector in America, growing at a rate of 7-15 % per year. As of today, there are an estimated two million homeschooled children in the U.S., which is almost 4% of the school age population.
The conversation typically ends with both sides understanding the other, although neither of us quite sees eye to eye on the issue. I’m ok with it now, although it took me several years to accept it. Believe it or not, not everyone shares my beliefs about homeschooling. I know, I know, it’s not shocking to you, me, or the people asking the questions. But it’s true.
I’ll mix up my responses too. Sometimes I’ll say, “Homeschool graduates are typically more involved in community activities than the average public school student.”
Or, “Homeschool graduates are significantly more politically active than the average public school student.”
“Is that so?” I’ll hear.
“Over 74 percent of homeschooled graduates aged 18-24 voted in an election in the past 5 years. Compare this to a token 29% of public schooled graduates who voted during that same time period.”
But, that line of reasoning hasn’t gone that well for me either.
“Well, my little Abigail or Elsie graduated from Public High School last year and she voted.”
“I mean not to offend. I’m sure your daughter is very patriotic,” I’ll say as I backtrack out of the conversation that I was originally baited into.
I’ll finish with, “Ok, did you know that homeschooled students consistently win national geographic and spelling bee contests?”
“That I did hear somewhere.” Politely, we finally can agree.
It seems like everyone knows, and is ok with the fact, that homeschoolers are great spellers.
Feel free to e-mail me at Mimi@LearningbyGrace.org.
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By Mimi Rothschild
Here’s part two of “Questions Before, During, and After Reading.” I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!
How Can You Stretch Students’ Thinking?
The best way to stretch students’ thinking about a text is to help them ask increasingly challenging questions. Some of the most challenging questions are “Why?” questions about the author’s intentions and the design of the text. For example:
“Why do you think the author chose this particular setting?”
“Why do you think the author ended the story in this way?”
“Why do you think the author chose to tell the story from the point of view of the daughter?”
“What does the author seem to be assuming about the reader’s political beliefs?”
Another way to challenge readers is to ask them open-ended question that require evidence from the text to answer. For example:
“What does Huck think about girls? What is your evidence?”
“Which character in the story is most unlike Anna? Explain your reasons, based on evidence from the novel?”
“What is the author’s opinion about affirmative action in higher education? How do you know?”
Be sure to explicitly model your own challenging questions while reading aloud a variety of texts, including novels, subject-area textbooks, articles, and nonfiction. Help students see that answering challenging questions can help them understand text at a deeper level, ultimately making reading a more enjoyable and valuable experience.
As students become proficient in generating challenging questions, have them group the questions the time they were asked (before, during or after reading). Students can determine their own categories, justify their reasons for placing questions into the categories, and determine how this can help their reading comprehension.
When Can You Use It?
Reading/English
Students who have similar interests can read the same text and meet to discuss their thoughts in a book club. Members can be given a set of sticky notes to mark questions they have before, during, and after reading the text. Members can then share their question with one another to clarify understanding within their group. Since students’ reading level may not necessarily determine which book club they choose to join, accommodations may need to be made, including buddy reading, audio recordings of the text, or the use of computer-aided reading systems.
Writing
Good writers anticipate their readers’ questions. Have students jot down the questions they will attempt to answer in an essay or short story before they write it, in the order that they plan to answer them. Stress that this should not be a mechanical process - as students write they probably will think of additional questions to ask and answer. The key point is to have students think of themselves as having a conversation with the reader - and a big part of this is knowing what questions the reader is likely to ask.
Math
Students can ask questions before, during, and after solving a math problem. Have students think aloud or write in groups to generate questions to complete performance tasks related to mathematics.
Social Studies
Use before, during, and after questions when beginning a new chapter or unit of study in any social studies topic. Select a piece of text, and have students generate questions related to the topic. At the end of the unit of study, refer back to the questions and discuss how the questions helped students to understand the content.
Science
Use before, during, and after questions to review an article or science text. You can discuss articles related to a recent scientific discovery with students and then generate questions that would help them to focus their attention on important information.
Lesson Plans
Lesson Plan: Questioning, The Mitten
This lesson is designed to introduce primary students to the importance of asking questions before, during, and after listening to a story. In this lesson, using the story The Mitten by Jan Brett, students learn how to become good readers by asking questions. This is the first lesson in a set of questioning lessons designed for primary grades.
Lesson Plan: Questioning, Grandfather’s Journey
This lesson is for intermediate students using the strategy with the book, Grandfather’s Journey, by Allen Say.
Lesson Plan: Questioning, Koko’s Kitten
This lesson is designed to establish primary students’ skills in asking questions before, during, and after they listen to a story. You can help students learn to become better readers by modeling how and when you ask questions while reading aloud the true story, Koko’s Kitten, by Dr. Francine Patterson. This is the second lesson in a set of questioning lessons designed for primary grades.
Lesson Plan: Asking Pre-Reading Questions
This is a language arts lesson for students in grades 3-5. Students will learn about asking questions before reading and will make predictions based on the discussion of the questions.
Lesson Plan: Asking Questions When Reading
In this lesson, the teacher will read The Wall by Eve Bunting with the purpose of focusing on asking important questions. The students and the teacher will then categorize the questions according to the criteria for each.
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By Mimi Rothschild
There’s the old saying “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” The same sort of philosophy can be applied to asking questions while reading. Homeschool students who ask questions before, during, and after reading will have a much higher level of comprehension than those students who don’t ask any questions at all. Learn about how asking questions will improve your homeschooler’s level of reading comprehension in this article below.
What Is It?
To aid their comprehension, skillful readers ask themselves questions before, during, and after they read. You can help students become more proficient by modeling this process for them and encouraging them to use it when they read independently.
Why Is It Important?
Dolores Durkin’s research in 1979 showed that most teachers asked students questions after they had read, as opposed to questioning to improve comprehension before or while they read. In the late 1990s, further research (Pressley, et al. 1998) revealed that despite the abundance of research supporting questioning before, during, and after reading to help comprehension, teachers still favored post-reading comprehension questions.
Researchers have also found that when adult readers are asked to “think aloud” as they read, they employ a wide variety of comprehension strategies, including asking and answering questions before, during, and after reading (Pressley and Afflerbach 1995). Proficient adult readers:
- Are aware of why they are reading the text
- Preview and make predictions
- Read selectively
- Make connections and associations with the text based on what they already know
- Refine predictions and expectations
- Use context to identify unfamiliar words
- Reread and make notes
- Evaluate the quality of the text
- Review important points in the text
- Consider how the information might be used in the future
Successful reading is not simply the mechanical process of “decoding” text. Rather, it is a process of active inquiry. Good readers approach a text with questions and develop new questions as they read, for example:
“What is this story about?”
“What does the main character want?”
“Will she get it?” “If so, how?”
Even after reading, engaged readers still ask questions:
“What is the meaning of what I have read?”
“Why did the author end the paragraph (or chapter, or book) in this way?”
“What was the author’s purpose in writing this?”
Good authors anticipate the reader’s questions and plant questions in the reader’s mind (think of a title such as, Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman). In this way, reading becomes a collaboration between the reader and the author. The author’s job is to raise questions and then answer them - or provide several possible answers. Readers cooperate by asking the right questions, paying careful attention to the author’s answers, and asking questions of their own.
How Can You Make It Happen?
To help readers learn to ask questions before, during, and after reading, think aloud the next time you are reading a book, article, or set of directions. Write each question on a post-it note and stick it on the text you have the question about. You may be surprised at how many typically unspoken questions you ponder, ask, and answer as you read. You may wonder as you read or after you read at the author’s choice of title, at a vocabulary word, or about how you will use this information in the future.
You should begin to model these kinds of questions in the primary grades during read-aloud times, when you can say out loud what you are thinking and asking. Read a book or text to the class, and model your thinking and questioning. Emphasize that even though you are an adult reader, questions before, during, and after reading continue to help you gain an understanding of the text you are reading. Ask questions such as:
“What clues does the title give me about the story?”
“Is this a real or imaginary story?”
“Why am I reading this?”
“What do I already know about___?”
“What predictions can I make?”
Pre-select several stopping points within the text to ask and answer reading questions. Stopping points should not be so frequent that they hinder comprehension or fluid reading of a text. This is also an excellent time to model “repair strategies” to correct miscomprehension. Start reading the text, and ask yourself questions while reading:
“What do I understand from what I just read?”
“What is the main idea?”
“What picture is the author painting in my head?”
“Do I need to reread so that I understand?”
Then reread the text, asking the following questions when you are finished:
“Which of my predictions were right? What information from the text tells me that I am correct?”
“What were the main ideas?”
“What connections can I make to the text? How do I feel about it?”
Encourage students to ask their own questions after you have modeled this strategy, and write all their questions on chart paper. Students can be grouped to answer one another’s questions and generate new ones based on discussions. Be sure the focus is not on finding the correct answers, because many questions may be subjective, but on curiosity, wondering, and asking thoughtful questions.
After students become aware of the best times to ask questions during the reading process, be sure to ask them a variety of questions that:
- Can be used to gain a deeper understanding of the text
- Have answers that might be different for everyone
- Have answers that can be found in the text
- Clarify the author’s intent
- Can help clarify meaning
- Help them make inferences
- Help them make predictions
- Help them make connections to other texts or prior knowledge
As students begin to read text independently, you should continue to model the questioning process and encourage students to use it often. In the upper elementary and middle school grades, a framework for questions to ask before, during, and after reading can serve as a guide as students work with more challenging texts and begin to internalize comprehension strategies. You can use an overhead projector to jot notes on the framework as you “think aloud” while reading a text. As students become comfortable with the questioning strategy, they may use the guide independently while reading, with the goal of generating questions before, during, and after reading to increase comprehension.
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By Mimi Rothschild
Homeschooling parents know that learning comes in a variety of ways. One way students can increase their knowledge of a subject is through journaling. Journaling is a learning tool that can be used in any class; it allows students to improve their writing skills, process information, and better understand a subject. Read more in this helpful article I found online.
Use these journaling strategies in your classroom to expand the learning capabilities of your students. Included are articles to teach you about each concept and lesson plans with which you can implement the strategies.
Learn how to incorporate journaling in your classroom. Teachers can use journaling as a kind of window into how students are thinking about what they are learning.
Use a double-entry journal, a graphic organizer included with this article, to encourage students to organize their thoughts on a specific subject in a new way.
This lesson, to be completed after reading The Sun, the Wind, and the Rain, has students practice their journaling skills.
Learn how to incorporate journaling in while teaching Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Teachers can use journaling as a window into how students are thinking about what they are learning.
Reflective journals are notebooks that students use when writing about their own thoughts. This encourages the development of metacognitive skills by helping students sort what they know from what they don’t know.
A dialogue journal is an informal written conversation between two or more people (student-student or student-teacher) about topics of mutual interest.
Students will demonstrate a beginning understanding of how to use dialogue journals or written conversations to express themselves in a written format by identifying previous experiences and relating them to the story.
Writing about mathematics helps students articulate their thinking, and provides useful information for teachers about learning difficulties, incorrect assumptions, and student’s progress in communicating about mathematics.
This lesson is an introduction to comparing fractions with like denominators and unlike numerators, for students with a basic understanding of fractions as part of a whole, numerators, and denominators. Students use math journals to complete the lesson.
This is an introduction to comparing fractions with unlike denominators. Students will compare fractions represented by drawings or models with unlike denominators.
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By Mimi Rothschild
Have you ever wondered if your child has ADHD? Have you ever considered the idea that he is just extremely gifted? Learn more about children with ADHD and children who are gifted in this thorough article I read this past weekend. Let me know what you think, I appreciate your thoughts! Thanks!
Howard’s teachers say he just isn’t working up to his ability. He doesn’t finish his assignments, or just puts down answers without showing his work; his handwriting and spelling are poor. He sits and fidgets in class, talks to others, and often disrupts class by interrupting others. He used to shout out the answers to the teachers’ questions (they were usually right), but now he daydreams a lot and seems distracted. Does Howard have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), is he gifted, or both?
Frequently, bright children have been referred to psychologists or pediatricians because they exhibited certain behaviors (e.g., restlessness, inattention, impulsivity, high activity level, daydreaming) commonly associated with a diagnosis of ADHD. Formally, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association) lists 14 characteristics that may be found in children diagnosed as having ADHD. At least eight of these characteristics must be present, the onset must be before age seven, and they must be present for at least six months.
DSM-III-R Diagnostic Criteria for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder*
Often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat (in adolescents may be limited to subjective feelings of restlessness).
Has difficulty remaining seated when required to.
Is easily distracted by extraneous stimuli.
Has difficulty awaiting turns in games or group situations.
Often blurts out answers to questions before they have been completed.
Has difficulty following through on instructions from others (not due to oppositional behavior or failure of comprehension).
Has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities.
Often shifts from one uncompleted activity to another.
Has difficulty playing quietly.
Often talks excessively.
Often interrupts or intrudes on others (e.g., butts into other people’s games).
Often does not seem to listen to what is being said to him or her.
Often loses things necessary for tasks or activities at school or at home (e.g., toys, pencils, books).
Often engages in physically dangerous activities without considering possible consequences (not for the purpose of thrill-seeking); e.g., runs into street without looking.
Almost all of these behaviors, however, might be found in bright, talented, creative, gifted children. Until now, little attention has been given to the similarities and differences between the two groups, thus raising the potential for misidentification in both areas - giftedness and ADHD.
Sometimes, professionals have diagnosed ADHD by simply listening to parent or teacher descriptions of the child’s behaviors along with a brief observation of the child. Other times, brief screening questionnaires are used, although these questionnaires only quantify the parents’ or teachers’ descriptions of the behaviors (Parker, 1992). Children who are fortunate enough to have a thorough physical evaluation (which includes screening for allergies and other metabolic disorders) and extensive psychological evaluations, which include assessment of intelligence, achievement, and emotional status, have a better chance of being accurately identified. A child may be gifted and have ADHD. Without a thorough professional evaluation, it is difficult to tell.
How Can Parents or Teachers Distinguish Between ADHD and Giftedness?
Seeing the difference between behaviors that are sometimes associated with giftedness but also characteristic of ADHD is not easy, as the following parallel lists show.
Behaviors Associated with ADHD (Barkley, 1990)
Poorly sustained attention in almost all situations.
Diminished persistence on tasks not having immediate consequences.
Impulsivity, poor delay of gratification.
Impaired adherence to commands to regulate or inhibit behavior in social contexts.
More active and restless than normal children.
Difficulty adhering to rules and regulations.
Behaviors Associated with Giftedness (Webb, 1993)
Poor attention, boredom, daydreaming in specific situations.
Low tolerance for persistence on tasks that seem irrelevant.
Judgment lags behind development of intellect.
Intensity may lead to power struggles with authorities.
High activity level; may need less sleep.
Questions rules, customs, and traditions.
Consider the Situation and Setting
It is important to examine the situations in which a child’s behaviors are problematic. Gifted children typically do not exhibit problems in all situations. For example, they may be seen as ADHD-like by one classroom teacher, but not by another; or they may be seen as ADHD at school, but not by the scout leader or music teacher. Close examination of the troublesome situation generally reveals other factors that are prompting the problem behaviors. By contrast, children with ADHD typically exhibit the problem behaviors in virtually all settings including at home and at school, though the extent of their problem behaviors may fluctuate significantly from setting to setting (Barkley, 1990), depending largely on the structure of that situation. That is, the behaviors exist in all settings, but are more of a problem in some settings than in others.
In the classroom, a gifted child’s perceived inability to stay on task is likely to be related to boredom, curriculum, mismatched learning style, or other environmental factors. Gifted children may spend from one-fourth to one-half of their regular classroom time waiting for others to catch up - even more if they are in a heterogeneously grouped class. Their specific level of academic achievement is often two to four grade levels above their actual grade placement. Such children often respond to nonchallenging or slow-moving classroom situations by “off-task” behavior, disruptions, or other attempts at self-amusement. This use of extra time is often the cause of the referral for an ADHD evaluation.
“Hyperactive” is a word often used to describe gifted children as well as children with ADHD. As with attention span, children with ADHD have a high activity level, but this activity level is often found across situations (Barkley, 1990). A large proportion of gifted children are highly active, too. As many as one-fourth may require less sleep; however, their activity is generally focused and directed (Clark, 1992; Webb, Meckstroth, & Tolan, 1982), in contrast to the behavior of children with ADHD. The intensity of gifted children’s concentration often permits them to spend long periods of time and much energy focusing on whatever truly interests them. Their specific interests may not coincide, however, with the desires and expectations of teachers or parents.
While the child who is hyperactive has a very brief attention span in virtually every situation (usually except for television or computer games), children who are gifted can concentrate comfortably for long periods on tasks that interest them, and do not require immediate completion of those tasks or immediate consequences. The activities of children with ADHD tend to be both continual and random; the gifted child’s activity usually is episodic and directed to specific goals.
While difficulty with adherence to rules and regulations has only begun to be accepted as a sign of ADHD (Barkley, 1990), gifted children may actively question rules, customs, and traditions, sometimes creating complex rules that they expect others to respect or obey. Some engage in power struggles. These behaviors can cause discomfort for parents, teachers, and peers.
One characteristic of ADHD that does not have a counterpart in children who are gifted is variability of task performance. In almost every setting, children with ADHD tend to be highly inconsistent in the quality of their performance (i.e., grades, chores) and the amount of time used to accomplish tasks (Barkley, 1990). Children who are gifted routinely maintain consistent efforts and high grades in classes when they like the teacher and are intellectually challenged, although they may resist some aspects of the work, particularly repetition of tasks perceived as dull. Some gifted children may become intensely focused and determined (an aspect of their intensity) to produce a product that meets their self-imposed standards.
What Teachers and Parents Can Do
Determining whether a child has ADHD can be particularly difficult when that child is also gifted. The use of many instruments, including intelligence tests administered by qualified professionals, achievement and personality tests, and parent and teacher rating scales, can help the professional determine the subtle differences between ADHD and giftedness. Individual evaluation allows the professional to establish maximum rapport with the child to get the best effort on the tests. Since the test situation is constant, it is possible to make better comparisons among children. Portions of the intellectual and achievement tests will reveal attention problems or learning disabilities, whereas personality tests are designed to show whether emotional problems (e.g., depression or anxiety) could be causing the problem behaviors. Evaluation should be followed by appropriate curricular and instructional modifications that account for advanced knowledge, diverse learning styles, and various types of intelligence.
Careful consideration and appropriate professional evaluation are necessary before concluding that bright, creative, intense youngsters like Howard have ADHD. Consider the characteristics of the gifted/talented child and the child’s situation. Do not hesitate to raise the possibility of giftedness with any professional who is evaluating the child for ADHD; however, do not be surprised if the professional has had little training in recognizing the characteristics of gifted/talented children (Webb, 1993). It is important to make the correct diagnosis, and parents and teachers may need to provide information to others since giftedness is often neglected in professional development programs.
*Note: “DSM-III-R Diagnostic Criteria for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” is reprinted with permission from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised, Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Association, 1987.
References
American Psychiatric Association (1987). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third edition, revised. Washington, DC: Author.
Barkley, R. A. (1990). Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Handbook for Diagnosis and Treatment. Guilford Press: New York.
Clark, B. (1992). Growing up Gifted. New York: Macmillan.
Parker, H. C. (1992). The ADD Hyperactivity Handbook for Schools. Plantation, FL: Impact Publications.
Webb, J. T. (1993). “Nurturing social-emotional development of gifted children.” In K. A. Heller, F. J. Monks, and A. H. Passow (Eds.), International Handbook for Research on Giftedness and Talent, pp. 525-538. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Webb, J. T.; Meckstroth, E. A.; and Tolan, S. S. (1982). Guiding the Gifted Child: A Practical Source for Parents and Teachers. Dayton: Ohio Psychology Press.
This ERIC Digest was developed in 1993 by James T. Webb, Ph.D., Professor and Associate Dean, and Diane Latimer, M.A., School of Professional Psychology, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.
Copyright ©1996-1998
ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/go/http/www.eric.ed.gov/
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