From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

FIGHT OVER GT, LD SERVICES. A mom and a school district in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, have been locked in a struggle for over a decade over services for her two sons, one of whom is evidently both gifted and LD. Services for both exceptionalities are part of the dispute. The mom wanted services and requested a number of due process hearings. According to an account of the dispute, the school district called the mom's behavior "vexatious." Read the account and form your own opinions...

FANTASY MOVIES FOSTER CREATIVITY? Researchers at Lancaster University in the UK say that watching fantasy movies such as Harry Potter films may improve their imagination and creativity. The subjects, aged four to six, reportedly performed "significantly better" on creativity tests after watching 15-minute clips from a Potter film. Read more.Separately, The New York Times reports that fiction can "stimulate the brain and even change how we act in life" -- this according to research involving brain scans. Read the article.

GIFTED TESTING IN THE UK. Gifted eleven-year-olds in the UK will be administered special "SATs," or national curriculum assessments, the results of which will be part of a school's performance. The rationale for the testing: to "encourage teachers to devote more time to high ability children," according to the Telegraph. NAGC in the UK supports the move. Read more.

DSM-V AND AUTISM. If you're following the debate over autism diagnosis in the upcoming DSM-V, you might be interested in an opinion piece/debate in New Scientist. Find it.

JACK KENT COOKE SCHOLARSHIPS. The application for 2012 scholarships through the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is April 15. Eligible candidates come from low- to medium-income families and will start 8th grade this fall. Find out more. 

AD/HD AND FISH OIL An ADDitude online feature covers fish oil and other supplements as possible treatments for AD/HD. Find the feature.

WRIGHTSLAW. Special Ed Advocate takes on the issue of what to do when services specified in an IEP are not provided. Read more.

OCD WORKSHOP IN MANHATTAN. The Child Mind Institute has scheduled a family workshop on OCD on April 3 in the evening. Find out more.

ANXIETY IN DC. On April 17, Dr. Daniel Pine is scheduled to present "Current Thinking about Anxiety: The State of the Science." Read more.

EDUCATION WEEK is currently offering free downloads of some of its "Spotlight" sponsored white papers. They cover topics such as bullying, STEM, and personalized learning. Find them.

MORE AD/HD -- 66 percent more diagnosis in the past 10 years, as a matter of fact. An article at ScienceDaily attributes the change to increased awareness of the condition. Read it.

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

CALL FOR IMPROVED GIFTED ED. The president of the North Carolina Association for the Gifted and Talented and the president of NAGC jointly call for more opportunities for gifted students to excel. From the plea: "Contrary to the belief of some, high-ability students do not materialize out of thin air, and they certainly do not retain their capabilities absent ongoing support provided by appropriately trained teachers. They must be identified at the earliest stages possible and developed throughout their academic careers." Find out what they recommend.

E-LEARNING FOR GIFTED STUDENTS. One opportunity gifted students do have is that of e-learning. An article in Education Week describes some of the available opportunities.

ASPIE CHALLENGES. "He had all the state capitals memorized as a toddler, shortly before he read the entire dictionary." Now 23, Spencer, who has Asperger's, faces challenges at college, for example professors who don't understand how the seemingly brilliant young man can have trouble with logistics and procedure. An article in the Sacramento Bee tells more about Spencer and also about a support group, Asperger's Support for Adolescents Plus (ASAP), teens and young adults. Read more.

GIFTED AND DYSLEXIC. A young man with dyslexia who made it through the Stanford JD/MBA program tells how he did it, why he invented the Intel Reader, and why he's passionate about advocating for those with disabilities. Read the blog on CNN, and see a segment from "The Human Factor," which profiles Ben Foss.

SPEAKING OF ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY, Education Week describes how the the acceptance of universal design for learning -- with its emphasis on accessibility to content by all -- has affected assistive technology. The article provides examples along with guidelines for how schools can acquire such technology. Read the article.

CONFESSIONS OF AN ADDIVA is the title of a book reviewed at About.com. The book is written by a woman with AD/HD. From the review: "In Confessions of an ADDiva, Roggli shares about her journey living with undiagnosed ADHD for more than 40 years and the changes that took place in her life following diagnosis" Read more.  

GIFTED EDUCATION PRESS QUARTERLY. The Fall edition of this newsletter is out. You may find it here. 

IEP PROCESS. Autism Speaks has released a 26-page guide for parents about IEPs. Visit Autism Speaks to find out more or download the guide.

AD/HD AND WRITING. A recent study from the Mayo Clinic indicates that kids with AD/HD are much more likely to show writing problems -- 66 percent of boys with AD/HD and 57 percent of girls exhibited problems. Read about the study.

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

COLLEGES WITH GOOD LD PROGRAMS. A 2010 article from the Huffington Post, newly discovered on our computer, profiles 11 universities that go out of their way to support students with LDs. Find the profiles.

THE CAUSES OF AUTISM aren't simple, says an article by a pediatrician who covers the relative roles of genetics and environment. Find out more about inquiries involving twin studies and find out what kind of environmental influences might play a part.

GOT AN IEP? Or, rather, a kid with an IEP? Wrightslaw, in its most recent edition of Special Ed Advocate, covers the importance of writing follow-up letters after IEP meetings. Why? Because a well-written letter can be of great use in a due process hearing, should your situation ever devolve into such a thing. Find Special Ed Advocate.

THE BRAIN SCIENCE OF ATTENTION is part of the lengthy title of a book to be released this month: Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn. The author, an academic, is dyslexic. Her premise: kids are wired differently. (You knew that.) A quote  from the book: "If you are a successful entrepreneur in the United States, you are three times more likely to be than the general public to have been diagnosed with a learning or attention deficit disorder." Find out more at a Huffington Post blog.

FILE UNDER "C" FOR "CYNICAL." Or maybe "P" for "practical." Kids are now planning experiences that will give them fodder for a "standout" college application essay. From an article on this: “Students are planning their summer experiences to augment who they are and discover who they are, and that absolutely helps the college process.” Read the article to find out what kinds of experiences kids are cultivating.

AND FINALLY, THIS. The words "back to school" figured prominently in many of the press releases and articles we read as we prepared this posting, but the best back-to-school story was in an article in the Chicago Tribune about dropping off kids on the college campus. A college counselor related an incident where, as the parents were driving off, the father "rolled down the window of his car and shouted out to his son, 'By the way, you have a learning disability and Asperger's syndrome.'" Cool move, dad, to wait until such a moment to bring up those issues. Read more about how to act (and not act) during the big moment.

From the Publishers of 2e Newsletter

THE DANA FOUNDATION, purveyors of much information of interest to readers concerned with issues of giftedness, neuroscience, and mental heath, has posted two new items:

•  An opinion piece on what the new DSM-5 should look like, especially in terms of perceived weaknesses in the current classification scheme. The author, for example, points to problems with the "not otherwise specified" category, and suggests that "dimensional" diagnosis (as opposed to finding x number of symptoms for two weeks) might be useful. He also wants a way for the DSM to take into account the single genetic underpinnings of multiple conditions. Find the article. 
• A report on a symposium on memory, which included some presentations on working memory and AD/HD. Find the article.

ATTENTION RESEARCH UPDATE has posted its April study review, this one on diet and AD/HD. From Rabiner's review: "...nearly two-thirds of a representative sample of young children with ADHD showed a substantial reduction in ADHD symptoms when placed on the 'few foods' diet.  In fact, the authors conclude their study by suggesting that "...dietary intervention should be considered in all children with ADHD, provided parents are willing to follow a diagnostic restricted elimination diet for a 5-week period, and provided expert supervision is available." Find the review.

WRIGHTSLAW's current edition of Special Ed Advocate offers advice to parents on participating as a member of a child's IEP team. Read more.

KIDS WITH AD/HD might use drugs and alcohol more often, according to a couple of recent studies. Find more at Time.com.

BRAINWAVE "FINGERPRINTS." A researcher recorded brainwaves during two nights for a group of children, then repeated the study two years later. A computer analysis was able to match the kids with their brainwaves. The research hopes the work will lead to biomarkers for depression and schizophrenia. Read more.

BEACON COLLEGE, bills itself as "the nation's only four-year accredited institution that offers highly specialized and proven educational programs for students diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, gifted but learning disabled, aspergers and other language-based learning disabilities." The college has received a grant to hire a life transition coach to help students enter the workplace. Find out more.

GREAT POTENTIAL PRESS, publishers of materials for the gifted, was mentioned in a Wall Street Journal advice column recently. The columnist recommended GPP's A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children as well as Living with Intensity. Find the column. Separately, Jim Webb and Janet Gore were honored in February for their continued commitment to gifted children, their families, and educators. Read more.

RESOURCES. We just discovered two troves of resources that might be of interest to those in the 2e community. One is from the Australian Gifted Support Center; it offers a database of research on gifted education; from that same page you may also choose "Useful references" and "Internet links." The second site is at the Neag Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development at the University of Connecticut; find the resources there.

AND FINALLY, THIS. It could be that even when we're awake, parts of our brains are really asleep, leading to poor performance. Read more.