ARBOR HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
3701 S.W. 104th Street *
Seattle, WA 98146
http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts
Phone (206) 252-9250 / Fax (206) 252-9251
Parent Bulletin
April 25, 2002
Perceptions of giftedness vary even among gifted-education specialists. Today, giftedness generally includes a wide range of attributes, from traditional intellectual measures to interpersonal abilities. Giftedness can be found in children from all cultural, linguistic, and economic groups.
Children learn first from their parents and families. Parents who spend time with their gifted child are more able to tune into their child’s interests and can respond by offering appropriate enrichment opportunities. If you are the parent of a gifted child, you should:
· Read aloud to your child. It is important that parents read to their gifted child often, even if the child is already capable of reading.
· Help your child discover personal interests. Stimulation and support of interests are vital to the development of talents. Parents should expose their child to their own interests and encourage the child to learn about a wide variety of subjects, such as art, nature, music, and sports, in addition to traditional academic subjects such as math, reading, and science.
· Encourage the support of extended family and friends. As an infant, a gifted child can exhaust new parents because he or she often sleeps less than other babies and requires extra stimulation when awake. It can be helpful to have extended family in the home, grandparents who live nearby, or close friends in the neighborhood who can spend some time with the child so the primary caretakers can get some rest and to give the infant added – or different – stimulation.
· Speak and listen to your child with consideration and respect. From the time he or she can talk, a gifted child is constantly asking questions and will often challenge authority. “Do it because I said so” doesn’t work. Generally, a gifted child will cooperate more with parents who take the time to explain requests than with more authoritarian parents.
Some early signs of giftedness include:
If a child exhibits several of these characteristics, parents may wish to have the child assessed by a child development professional with experience in evaluating young gifted children. Firstborn children tend to be recognized more often than their siblings: however, when one child in the family is gifted, there is an increased possibility that others may also be. Early identification of gifted children (ages 3 years through 8 years) permits early intervention, which is as important for gifted children as for any other children with special needs.
Gifted children develop cognitively at a much faster rate than that which is considered normal for their age. They require modifications in parenting, teaching, and counseling to develop optimally. At the same time, their physical and emotional development may occur at an average rate, posing some interesting problems. For example, ideas forged by 8-year-old minds may be difficult to produce with 5-year-old hands. Gifted children typically tend to experience all aspects of life with greater intensity, making them emotionally complex. The brighter the child is, the greater is his or her emotional complexity and potential vulnerability. Parents should prepare themselves to act as their child’s advocates.
The American Association for Gifted Children
1121 West Main Street, Suite 100
Durham, N.C. 27701
Phone: 919-683-1400
Or
Highly Capable Assessment Office
Seattle Public Schools
A & S Center
206-252-0130
DATES
TO REMEMBER:
April
22-May 10 WASL Testing for all 4th,
7th & 10th graders
April
25 Take Your Daughter
to Work Day
April
26 Last Day for the
Arbor Heights Used Book Drive
May
1 Last Day to turn
in Kiwanis Raffle Ticket Books
May
4 Arbor Heights
Pancake Breakfast and Spring
Clean-Up
May
17 No School – Staff
Development Day
June
1 Arbor Heights School
Carnival
Note
to all Kindergarten Parents:
Rooms
3 & 4 are in desperate need of more snacks for the classrooms. They also need additional glue sticks for
the classrooms as well.
Each year a Golden Acorn
Award is presented by the AHPTSA to a volunteer in recognition of his/her
dedication and service to the children of our school. A contribution in the name of the recipient(s) is made by the
AHPTSA to the Washington State PTA Financial Grant Foundation. From these contributions, the foundation is
able to provide approximately $55,000 in scholarships to freshman students
entering post-secondary education. We
would like you to participate in the selection of this year’s award
recipient(s) through your recommendations.
Our PTA awards committee will make the final selection. Please fill out the form below and place it
in the Golden Acorn Award box in the school’s lobby. The recipient(s) of this award will receive a Golden Acorn pin
and their name engraved on the plaque in the school lobby.
I recommend that _________________________________(name) be considered for a Golden Acorn Award for the following reasons:
Signed:
______________________________________________________
Phone:
__________________________-