By Adina Kotler, Psychologist, Lewis & Lewis

What is a Gifted Child?
Children are generally referred to as gifted if they possess prominence in one or more areas (for example, intellectual ability, creative ability or leadership ability). A child is said to be intellectually gifted if his/ her intellectual ability, as measured by a standardised IQ test (such as the Wechsler Scales) falls within the top 2% of the population (or 2 standard deviations above the mean). Thus, according to this definition, a child with an IQ of 130+ can be said to be ‘intellectually gifted’.
Methods of initial identification can include nominations from parents, teachers, peers and students themselves, in the form of checklists or questionnaires. An IQ test can then be performed with the child. This needs to be administered by a registered psychologist.
Signs and Characteristics of a Gifted Child
Every child is unique, with their individual personalities and personal strengths and weaknesses, and the same applies to children identified as ‘gifted’.
Intellectually gifted children, however, generally share some characteristics. These are not exclusive to gifted children, however such children possess them to a greater degree. Of course, children who are gifted will not display all of the following characteristics. Different patterns of abilities and characteristics are found in different children, and the following list is not definitive.
Intellectual Characteristics

• Advanced cognitive/ intellectual ability (including ability to think, reason, make sense of things, process information quickly, ability to generalise concepts between contexts and think abstractly);
• Superior learning ability;
• Rapid rate of learning;
• Advanced language/ verbal skills;
• Well-developed memory.

Gifted children are as diverse in terms of personality attributes as any other population. However, research seems to suggest that many gifted children are more likely to display at least some of the following characteristics:

• Ability to persist;
• Good ability to concentrate;
• Intellectual curiosity and need to understand (asks a lot of questions);
• Independent learner;
• Intrinsic motivation;
• Need for mental stimulation;
• Creativity and ability to generate original ideas;
• Concern with justice and mature moral reasoning/ judgement;
• Perfectionism;
• Keen sense of humour;
• Vivid imagination;
• High level of insight/ self-awareness;
• High level of sensitivity and empathy.

Gifted children may have shown the following characteristics as infants and very young children:

• Unusual alertness in infancy;
• Progression through developmental milestones at an advanced rate;
• A long attention span;
• Advanced vocabulary;
• Use of analogies and metaphors;
• Unusually well-developed memory;
• Will spontaneously make up stories and songs;
• Able to complete difficult puzzles;
• Sense of humour;
• Understanding of abstract or complex concepts;
• Ability to master a new skill, song or rhyme with unusual speed;
• Modification of language when talking to less mature children;
• Ability to take apart and reassemble things with skill;
• Ability to recall and make connections between things and experiences;
• High level of sensitivity towards others;
• Ability to carry out complex instructions;
• Preference for playing with older children.

Social Skills and Emotional Adjustment
There seem to be some ‘myths’ around gifted children. Many people seem to believe that gifted children are more likely to be socially and emotionally maladjusted. Like all children, there are a wide range of individual differences amongst gifted children. In general, gifted children are no more likely to have social or emotional difficulties than any other child. Research has shown that the incidence of emotional problems is likely to be the same amongst gifted students as those who are not gifted. Emotional and social difficulties however may arise from a ‘mismatch’ between a child’s intellectual ability, and their environment (i.e. – an environment that does not meet their specific needs).
Like all children, the social skills and level of social adjustment of gifted children vary. Some gifted children demonstrate difficulty mixing with their peers. This may be due to poor social skills, or difficulty finding things in common with children their own age (i.e. – they may socialise well with older children). Other gifted children socialise very well with their peers and adults alike. However, research has shown that the more highly gifted a student is, the more difficulty they have fitting in socially and emotionally. Moderately gifted children (with IQ’s of approximately 130-144) are more likely to find peers they connect with, but highly gifted students may find this more difficult.
Follow-up studies of gifted children to adulthood have shown good long-term outcomes (for example, in areas such as education, occupation, mental health and income).
Academic Achievement and Gifted Students
Intellectually gifted children generally demonstrate high academic achievement. They may excel across the curriculum, or in specific subject areas.
Some gifted children may struggle academically in one or more areas. This may be due to the presence of a specific learning disability, and/ or other factors (such as emotional and/ or behavioural difficulties). Some gifted children may under-perform academically because they don’t want to ‘stand out’ and appear different from their peers, or because their environment does not encourage academic achievement. Gifted children from non-English speaking, refugee, culturally diverse and low socio-economic backgrounds may also under-perform.
In Conclusion
Intellectually gifted children share some common characteristics, as outlined above. Just as children with intellectual and learning difficulties require a modified curriculum, gifted children require a differentiated educational program in order to meet their needs. Parenting a gifted child also comes with a unique set of challenges. These issues will be discussed in future posts.

References
Chessman. A. (2007) Distinguishing levels of giftedness: What does it mean for our practice? NSW Department of Education and Training
February 2010. Department of Education and Early Childhood Development Learning and Teaching- Gifted Education
New South Wales Department of Education and Training Policy and implementation strategies for the education of gifted and talented students. Support Package- Identification. Revised 2004.
Porter, L. Twelve Myths of Gifted Education http://louiseporter.com.au/pdfs/twelve_myths_of_gifted_education_web.pdf
Sattler, J. M. (2001). Assessment of Children: Behavioural and Clinical Applications USA. Jerome.M.Sattler
Thanks also to Henri Malakunas (Specialist Teacher- gifted students) for information provided around giftedness.

Dr Nicole Carvill
BA (Hons), PhD,
Regional Coordinator and Cogmed Qualified Practice Manager, Lewis & Lewis Psychological Consultancy Services, Melbourne, Australia

There is a growing awareness of the importance of working memory on many areas of life including learning, attention and social skills. In fact new research suggests that working memory is a better predictor of academic attainment than IQ.

What is working memory?
Working memory is a function of the brain, which keeps information in the mind for a short time, typically for a few seconds, in order to use that information for thinking.
In daily life we use working memory for a number of tasks such as remembering instructions, solving problems (e.g., mental arithmetic), controlling impulses (stopping to think before acting)and focusing attention (not getting distracted by what is happening around you).
Typically working memory improves with age until peaking at about 25 years of age. Listed below are some common signs of working memory difficulties at various ages.

Common difficulties linked with poor working memory in preschool children:

• Learning the alphabet
• Learning numbers
• Following instructions

Common difficulties linked with poor working memory in school children:

• Inattentive (e.g., day dreams)
• Recognising high frequency words (e.g., remembers words one day and then forgets the next)
• Following instructions (e.g., often forgets what they were asked to do)
• Mental arithmetic and remembering math facts (e.g., times tables)
• Understanding and remembering what was read (e.g., reads words but can’t discuss after reading)
• Being organised (e.g., leaving books at home)
• Difficulty planning and starting assignments

Common difficulties linked with poor working memory in adults:

• Meeting deadlines
• Prioritising tasks
• Arriving on time
• Following a conversation in a group setting or meeting
• Forgetfulness (e.g., remembering names, where keys are etc)
• Distractibility

In the past researchers believed that working memory was fixed and could not be changed. This has changed. A growing body of research is now providing evidence that working memory and attention can be improved through participation in Cogmed Working Memory Training Program (see www.cogmed.com for further information about research).

Lewis & Lewis provide thorough working memory assessments and are the longest serving and most experienced Cogmed practice in Victoria.
Please contact Dr Nicole Carvill, Kate Thomas, Vicky Tsiakalakis or Lisa Palmisano of Lewis & Lewis on 93805742 for more information about working memory assessments and/or Cogmed Working Memory Training program.

By Adina Kotler, Psychologist, Lewis & Lewis
Steve Jobs has been described as a “genius”[1]  and a “visionary”[2] who “overturned the way the world worked”[3].  This is high praise for the co-founder of Apple who passed away in October 2011 at the age of 56.  I won’t go into Steve Jobs’ life and achievement here; that has been covered prodigiously elsewhere.  The impact of Steve Jobs and Apple products on our day to day lives is indeed remarkable. Does Steve Jobs, however, fit into our current conception of giftedness?

Gagne’s model[4], which has been highly influential in Australian education and driven schools’ policies on giftedness, is shown below.

Gagne makes the distinction between innate or natural abilities (giftedness) and the superior mastery of systematically developed abilities in at least one field of human endeavour (talents).

According to Gagne’s model, people can be ‘naturally’ gifted (within the top 10% of the population) in the following areas: intellectual (for example, reasoning, and sense of observation and judgement), creative (for example, problem solving and originality), socio-affective (for example, perceptiveness, communication including empathy and tact, and influence including leadership and persuasion), and sensorimotor (for example, strength and coordination).

Students may be gifted in one or more of these domains, and these abilities may combine in different ways to produce one or more specific talents via a number of catalysts.  The talents include business, technology, sports and academics.

The catalysts include environmental and intrapersonal characteristics, which impact upon the developmental process (i.e.- informal and formal learning and practise) necessary to transform these abilities into talents. Intrapersonal characteristics include motivation, persistence, ability to self-manage, personality factors such as temperament and self-esteem, and physical factors such as health. Environmental influences include significant others such as parents and teachers, and provisions such as programs and activities.

Lastly, chance also plays a part, by influencing the catalysts (intrapersonal and environmental) and the natural abilities (gifts).

According to Gagne’s definition of giftedness, it would appear that Steve Jobs was indeed gifted in a number of areas identified.

Intellectual giftedness is identified using a standardised IQ test (such as the Wechsler Scales). A score of 130+ indicates that someone is functioning intellectually within the top 2% of the population and may be described as intellectually ‘gifted’ (incidentally, the criteria for membership to MENSA, a society for people with high IQ’s , is an IQ of 130+).  Although Steve Jobs’ IQ is not known, his achievements would lead one to believe that his sense of observation and judgement (see Gagne’s model) would have been exceptionally well developed, whether or not his IQ would have fallen within the ‘gifted’ range. Interestingly, I did find an article discussing Steve Jobs’ IQ in which the author certainly seems to believe that his IQ would have fallen within the intellectually gifted range[5] .

Steve Jobs certainly seems to fit the textbook definition of someone who is gifted within the “creative” domain.  A Google search under “Steve Jobs creative” yields more than 155 million results. His products have been described as “innovative” and “astonishing” (amongst countless other adjectives!) There are myriad examples of his creativity, from his ideas through to product design. The following quote exemplifies this:

“The fact is that for multiple businesses – computing, film, music, mobile telephony and most recently mobile computing – Jobs overturned the existing order. Again and again he refused to go along with the conventional wisdom, and introduced his own instead. He lived his life by the instruction he gave in a commencement address to Stanford graduates: “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice,” urging them to keep innocently seeking the new: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”[6]

Steve Jobs was also highly gifted within the area of socio-affective intelligence. By all accounts, he was a highly influential and brilliant leader with exceptional communication skills. He had a “notorious ability to talk people into things.”[7]

“He was often described as a tyrant able to throw a “reality distortion field” around his immediate area, to make people believe anything that he told them”.[8]

His products reflected a real understanding of people and what they wanted, as the following quotes illustrate.

“….what set him most apart from his peers was an exquisite sense of product design and the ability to intuit what people would want, and use. Combined with his leadership (and salesmanship) skills, he was the most formidable CEO of recent times.”[9]

“Jobs was a brilliant negotiator who had the rare ability to visualise exactly what other people – whether singly across a table or by the thousand in an auditorium or by the million in homes and businesses – wanted.”[10]

Steve Jobs is thus an example of someone who turned his innate abilities (or natural “giftedness”) into systematically developed skills or talents in the business and technology arena, becoming incredibly successful along the way.

REFERENCES
http://www.gigers.com/matthias/gifted/gagne_dmgt.html
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/programs/gifted/highpotential/modelgifted.htm
http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/06/tributes-to-steve-jobs-apple?intcmp=239
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/06/steve-jobs-world-pays-tribute
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/programs/gifted/highpotential/modelgifted.htm
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201111/was-steve-jobs-smart-heck-yes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/06/steve-jobs-obituary?intcmp=239
[1] http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/
[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/06/tributes-to-steve-jobs-apple?intcmp=239
[3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/06/steve-jobs-world-pays-tribute
[4] (Gagne, 1991, taken from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/programs/gifted/highpotential/modelgifted.htm )
[5] http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201111/was-steve-jobs-smart-heck-yes
[6] http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/06/steve-jobs-world-pays-tribute
[7] http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/06/steve-jobs-obituary?intcmp=239
[8] http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/06/steve-jobs-world-pays-tribute
[9] http://mynewsblog.info/steve-jobs-a-man-of-contradiction-and-genius/
[10] http://fgrruihiw.typepad.com/blog/2011/10/steve-jobs-the-world-pays-tribute.html

By Sarah Yeung, Lewis & Lewis.

My initial interest with THRASS (Teaching Handwriting Reading and Spelling Skills) started when I saw these large THRASS charts in classrooms. I began wondering about the approach we take towards teaching literacy, especially for those students who have literacy difficulties.

How do you explain that the letter ‘A’ does not always make the ‘a’ sound as in apple?

I recently went to the THRASS two-day workshop during the summer holidays. They definitely brought up some strong arguments that were backed up with research.

Traditional learning – graphophonic
Previous traditional teachings take a ‘graphophonic’ approach, which is the one letter (grapheme) makes one sound (phoneme) approach (e.g. ‘E’ = /e/ for Egg). This approach is depicted on the engaging and colourful alphabet charts.

However, when students enter primary school, we struggle to explain to students why these rules don’t apply anymore and that a sound is not always depicted by a specific letter. We often call them ‘irregular’ spelling words (which turns out to be an awful lot of words). We have even made up all these rules for irregular words (e.g. bossy magic, e (tote), which only works less than 50% of the time). Is it helpful for students to be memorising more and more rules when they cannot even spell simple words?

We often see errors in spelling choices such as ‘woz’ (was), where the letter-sound rule does not apply anymore. Many students are able to learn correct spelling through increased exposure, but for some this approach is ineffective.

THRASS learning – phonographic
THRASS on the other hand takes a ‘phonographic’ approach which says that a sound (phoneme) is represented by letters (graphemes) (e.g. /e/ sound can be represented by ‘e’ (bed), ‘ea’ (bread) etc.

The THRASS chart has a consonant and a vowel chart. It separates each phoneme (sound) into sections and has a visual representation for each sound and it’s spelling choice. For instance the ‘j’ sound as in jam can be depicted by the graphemes (spelling choice) j, g (giant), ge (cage), dge (bridge). With training and exposure to these spelling choices, students can become more independent with spelling.

THRASS is easily implemented in teaching literacy
I found that the approach THRASS takes to be effective in teaching literacy. It can be easily implemented into the school’s literacy program. It is a program that requires time and commitment. It is really important for the student’s family and school to be on board to allow continuity and success in this program.

The THRASS chart is much more complex than stated above. I have just expressed my opinion on the program and provided a brief overview of the graphophonic versus the phonographic approaches.

My advice is that if you are interested in adapting THRASS to your child’s/student’s literacy program, training can be provided through the THRASS organisation.

Other interventions to assist students with literacy difficulties include MultiLit (Making up lost time in literacy) and MiniLit (early literacy intervention program) developed at Macquarie University in Sydney can also be discussed with Lewis & Lewis.

Further information and training details are available on the THRASS website.

If you have any other queries regarding teaching literacy, feel free to contact Lewis & Lewis.

When I co-authored ‘Change Your Career’ (CAE, 1997) with Kevin O’Neill over a decade ago it was considered to be an excellent, practical guide in career counselling for those considering career change.

Looking at it now, most of the areas covered in the book remain relevant, although it’s due for an overhaul and a chapter or two could be added.

In my view, most of the important changes in the way we work in recent times, have been driven by two things:

• The rise in the availability and use of technology; and
• The desire for more flexibility in work, both from an employer and an employee

It’s easy to see that these two things complement and drive each other.

It seems an eternity ago that John Brack’s famous 1955 painting ‘Collins St., 5 pm.’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collins_St.,_5_pm) was an accurate depiction of what the workforce looked like. That era has gone the way of workers who formed the Candle, Soap and Starch workers’ union and the Bedsted and Fender Makers’ association.

So many industries that employed workers have not stood the test of time and simply don’t exist any more. Visit the beautiful Trades Hall building in Melbourne to see for your self a list of occupations in the main hall that no longer exist.

Become the architect of your own future. – I Ching

How can career counselling can help?
Sometimes career change is forced upon us and sometimes we choose to make a change. It’s not always a huge and sudden change but is more often the result of a number of small decisions leading to moves eventually resulting in substantial change.

Often people need some career counselling to help them on their way. A new formal qualification is often a good idea these days in order to gain entry to an associated or desired occupational field.

A recent article in one of the weekend newspapers about Google and the work practices there indicated that they are so far removed from John Brack’s 1955 painting as to bear little or no resemblance.

As long as you get the job done that you’ve set yourself to do Google doesn’t care about how you go about it. They intend to move from an information gathering organisation to an organisation providing knowledge, providing a précis of the huge amount of information available on a particular subject or request and tailoring it to suit.

Then I think it will be only a matter of time before a chip will be available to implant into the brain.

Here at Lewis & Lewis, I think we’re more at the Google end of the spectrum, but there are some activities that certainly require a degree of preparation and structure.

I’m thinking of updating ‘Change Your Career’.

If you have any thoughts about the future of work – or career change which would benefit from some career counselling, please let me know.

mailto:marklewis@lewisandlewis.com.au

Why personal counselling?
At different stages of life and even at different times of the year; in response to expected or unexpected events; or as a result of conflict with family or friends, we can all feel a need to talk to others and often benefit from this.

If you choose the ‘right’ person to talk to it can really begin to help take a weight off your shoulders and they can support you to come to grips with or even overcome what is, for you, a difficult time in your life.

Most people will confirm that they have found a need to do this at some point in their life, so it’s not unusual at all.

Professionals such as psychologists with experience in personal counselling can be a good and sensible choice because they are objective and have completed training in order to help people – whether they be children, adolescents or adults – experiencing some difficulties.

I recently had lunch with a long-standing friend of mine who is quite worried about his middle son’s apparent lack of progress, underlined by what seems to be a lack of initiative or possibly a need for some direction.

He is in his early twenties and his older brother and younger sister are both high achievers. So are his parents. It seems to me that this young man would most likely benefit from some personal counselling with an experienced professional, whether it be a one-off extended session with later follow-up, or ongoing meetings over a period of time.

As we all know, families and family relationships can be difficult at times. The following brief video is one I often think of, although the actual situation depicted isn’t one I’ve really experienced personally. It just makes you think…

If you feel a need to talk to someone, or you’ve been holding off seeing a professional for some personal counselling, contact us at Lewis & Lewis to see if we’re able to help you.