Bang!Zoom! Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 (edited) Spent some time studying and learning Dabrowski; thanks for the suggestion. I wish you could have been sitting here at the table with me tonight working with her on creating her schedule; you'd of laughed and giggled right with me. She has this "place" she floats off to when she is "organizing"-lol. Colors must be in this exact order; the schedule must be made with scented markers..(it's a symphony dontcha know)...the accompanying illustrations to the side are drawn two ways. It *looks* like a picture of such and such if you hold it this way, but if you turn it upsidedown, it's a totally different picture..and she'll explain it. The upside down picture is actually spot on and carries intense details that always make me laugh. I know she's a little on the OCD end, but it's not so bad. I just say to myself.."it's the hydrocephalus"- she has pressure issues on the left side of the brain and has been recently diagnosed with an arachnoid cyst which is rather large. In a couple of weeks we are going to Seattle Childrens to have her films examined. So I don't know with her if she has quarks & quirks, if she stands out in any one way that would relate to the scale of differences that Dabrowski recognized & researched. Out of the five qualifying fields, I'd probably slide her into two of them easily; but to what degree/percent or effect...I'm not really feeling any reason to alarm right now. If her cyst is fenestrated (skull plug opened / removed)- then I may see changes for the better or worse. There's no calling it. If they choose to "leave it alone" (the cyst) - the most common difficulty that occurs (just due to sheer size/location/pressure) is a condition of ADHD. While reading Deabrowski and the clinical diagnosing mistakes folks make (Sensory Overload vs. true ADHD in DSMV style)- that's a bit concerning. I really feel for the kids & families out there that may be living under misdiagnosis and are drugged for an error in "condition". A nice video intro (short) presentation for those unfamiliar is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d99mNzmv51A Another one on overcoming SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) is here (aimed at kids, also very short): I have marked for her exposure to a learning unit on Dabrowski here: http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/living_with_oes.htm I'm sliding that one into the "health" units. It has printables and step by step instructions & is a full lesson plan. Children of any age can handle this, right up to adulthood. I think the concept of Dabrowski & Sensory Overload is the "it" I was trying to describe in an earlier post about closed populations/behavior in g/t school settings. It's just all over the place, and always extreme...never anything in the middle or mainstream. Edited July 19, 2011 by one*mom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenbrdsly Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Dabrowski is really something isn't it? http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/gifted/ I didn't find out about this theory until last year, and it was like a light bulb went on and I suddenly understood so many people in my life, so much better! The misdiagnosis and mislabeling of gifted children is especially concerning. Good luck to you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Check out the Misdiagnosis of Gifted Children book... oh, what's the real name... but it's about this, the overlap of gifted/ADHD/OCD/anxiety/ODD, etc. Here! http://www.amazon.com/Misdiagnosis-Diagnoses-Gifted-Children-Adults/dp/0910707677/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311094527&sr=8-1 It's amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenbrdsly Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Check out the Misdiagnosis of Gifted Children book... oh, what's the real name... but it's about this, the overlap of gifted/ADHD/OCD/anxiety/ODD, etc. Here! http://www.amazon.com/Misdiagnosis-Diagnoses-Gifted-Children-Adults/dp/0910707677/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311094527&sr=8-1It's amazing. I read that one too! It gave me chills, especially thinking about my sister in law. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted July 19, 2011 Author Share Posted July 19, 2011 (edited) Another thing I thought was very interesting was the overlap between Dabrowski & Howard Gardner. Dabrowski's classifications and Gardner's are very similar in scope. Dabrowski just zeros in on above and beyond a "norm". I can see in this kid a very mature sense of existential thoughts, she is definitely a square peg in a round world there. Some of her conversations with me, late at night, are things you'd expect to hear out of a seminary student or a Berkeley post-grad. I ask her "where do you get this stuff?" "I just know it Mom." Gardner has just started publishing in the last few years this 9th arena, and I try to follow it. His classifications are: 1 Spatial 1.2 Linguistic 1.3 Logical-mathematical 1.4 Bodily-kinesthetic 1.5 Musical 1.6 Interpersonal 1.7 Intrapersonal 1.8 Naturalistic 1.9 Existential There is one other child in our immediate family like this, my sisters son. We talk on the phone about it, she's a bit of a guide for me on it, her son is 17 now. It did and did not affect him in a career choice, it's hard to explain. He is going to MIT next year to study computer science. But he looks at the logic of the science almost as a religion; and I mean a living being with a spirit. Those are the descriptors he uses when explaining programming science. Very odd indeed. In my immediate family, there is a theme of this running though it. The whole bit with acceleration pressures. I've seen it done well and seem it cause problems. You know what the one common element is between all the kids? They burn out and do not graduate "early" nor do they graduate at all sometimes. They tend to wander off in their early twenties to (stereotypically speaking) "go find themselves." Graduation at 30 is not uncommon (even though if they'd stuck with acceleration they'd be 4 year degree'd by age 20.) The other difficulty I've seen first hand is the struggle of depression. For my oldest daughter, she has lost 3 friends now from her tight knit group from school to suicide. And we've seen the struggle with drugs and alcohol whatnot also. Those conditions were not the result of factors like poverty, divorce or other general pyscho/situational causation; but they are directly tied to the educational expectation mis-fits they encountered away from home for the first time in a huge population of peers. It's a really dangerous time for these types of children when they get out into the larger world if they've never been exposed to it or had too much protection. I guess this is one of the reasons underneath my resistance to having anything to do with a setting-apart path anymore. It is a life skill issue. Edited July 19, 2011 by one*mom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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