Child’s Pose

Bring your toes to touch, separate your knees, extend your fingertips forward as you relax your forehead to the floor.

 Added Benefits

Opens hips and spine

Forward Fold

Separate your feet about hips width apart, hinge your torso from your hips, allow your head and arms to hang heavy. Bring the weight forward to our toes and place a gentle bend in your knees.

 Added Benefits

Stretches the hamstrings and back line of the body

Downward Facing Dog

Keep feet hips width apart and hands shoulders width apart, press your hips toward the ceiling as you encourage your chest towards your thighs.

 Added Benefits:

Stretches the hamstrings and strengths the upper body

Yunasa campers have started their day off with yoga for 20 years. Senior Program Coordinator, Qiao Li, has seen the benefits of yoga firsthand on our gifted campers and how it sets them up for success for the rest of the day. Because gifted children tend to receive stimuli more intensely (Pyne, 2015) it is essential to find ways to connect the mind, body, and spirit to help ground them and give them tools to focus and relax. Li says that practicing yoga for half an hour settles the overactive mind typically found in gifted children and helps campers to welcome the day with a balanced mind and body. She says that sometimes they are so relaxed that they fall asleep in Savasana, corpse pose, the final resting posture of a yoga practice.

Yoga means to join, or to yoke, or to unite. Most yogis agree that through yoga, we can find a union of mind, body, and spirit through pranayama, breath, and the asanas, postures. Through this connection, we can calm the active mind and bring peace to the body. Controlled breathing techniques help signal the nervous system to calm down. The inhale is linked to the sympathetic nervous system or our fight-or-flight response, and the exhale is connected to the parasympathetic nervous system, our body’s relaxation system.

Consider practicing this simple breathing technique with your child the next time you like them to slow down.  While sitting in a comfortable position with eyes closed, inhale for 4 seconds and hold at the top for 2 seconds. Then exhale to a count of 6 and hold at the bottom for 2 seconds. Repeat several times and focus on expanding and emptying the belly with the breath. The circular nature of the technique gives the mind something to focus on, and the longer exhale gives the parasympathetic nervous system time to calm down.

Added benefits of breathing techniques are you are giving your body a chance to recuperate and heal. They promote less stress and better digestion. And deeper focused breathing helps to bring more awareness to the present moment.

We would love to hear in the comments how yoga and breathing techniques help support your child’s ability to focus and relax.

In today’s media and news, I feel like I hear more stories about the benefits of sharing emotions and discussing mental health than I ever did growing up. This is a wonderful thing and through popular media including television and movie portrayals and celebrity confessions, we are growing more accustomed to talking about historically taboo or just unknown topics surrounding emotions and mental health.

With great strides being made in these conversations, it seems important to discuss emotional intensity among our country’s brightest, and sometimes most vulnerable, youth.

The Davidson Institute has a great explanation for why gifted youth tend to experience more intense emotions, saying, “Intellectual complexity goes hand in hand with emotional depth. Just as gifted children’s thinking is more complex and has more depth than other children’s, so too are their emotions more complex and more intense.”

Gifted youth are often more aware of and affected by their surroundings. Children who feel things with great intensity experience the world in a different way than their non-gifted peers. Emotional or physical reactions to events can last longer for gifted children. These experiences of heightened stimulation observed in many gifted individuals are referred to as intensities or Overexcitabilities. Polish psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski identified five overexcitabilities and their associated behaviors:

1. Psychomotor: Characterized primarily by high levels of energy
2. Sensual: Characterized by a heightened awareness of all five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing
3. Emotional: Characterized by extreme emotional sensitivity
4. Intellectual: Characterized by deep curiosity and thought
5. Imaginational: Characterized by vivid imagination and visualization

The first step in managing intense emotions is identifying and understanding them. If you think your child exhibits overexcitabilities, talk to your child about how they feel and react to certain situations. Healthy discussions around expressing emotions make everyone feel safer and more understood. Starting these discussions at a young age enforces good habits for the future.

How exactly do these overexcitabilities manifest themselves? It varies from child to child, but there are common behaviors associated with all five overexcitabilities.

• Psychomotor responses can include pacing, rapid talk or use of hand gestures
• Sensual responses can include sensitivities to clothing textures, food tastes or a need for physical displays of affection like cuddles or hugs
• Emotional responses can include intense feelings of empathy or compassion, depression, anxiety or loneliness
• Imaginational responses can include visualizations, use of metaphorical speech, dreaming or magical thinking
• Intellectual responses can include constant curiosity, deep thinking or a propensity towards solving puzzles and problems

Understanding what emotional intensities are and the behaviors associated with them can help with misdiagnosis or just plain misunderstanding. While some of the more extreme behaviors associated with overexcitabilities can be worrisome for a parent or educator, such as a child’s depression or anxiety, there can also be a wonderful bright side to overexcitabilities.

Some of the benefits of overexcitabilities can include:

• Empathy and compassion towards others
• A desire to solve major world problems
• Creativity
• A high sense of self-awareness
• Enthusiasm
• High energy

Intense emotions don’t always need to be feared or regulated. They are what make so many gifted children wonderfully unique. However, for the times that overintesities do need to be managed, here are some strategies:

• Meditation
• Yoga
• Outdoor physical activities such as going on walks, hikes or playing at a park
• Quiet reflection time
• Journaling or drawing
• Encourage discussions about how your child feels and why they feel the way they do

I hope this blog post helps with identifying and managing intense emotions in a gifted child. IEA’s Gifted Resource Center also hosts a list of books, articles, programs and professionals that can be used as additional sources of information about overexcitabilities.

Whenever I try to tell my friends back in California about the week I’ve spent in Colorado every summer for the past three years, words fall just short. I describe to them the intense friendship, the emotional growth, the tight-knit community and the sheer happiness that make up my experience at Yunasa. Then I say: however good this sounds, imagine it 10,000 times time better.

Yunasa is a truly special place. I have never felt more free to be myself than on the grounds of Camp Shady Brook. Almost everywhere else in my life, there are parts of me I feel the need to hide, fearing that I’ll come across as weird or condescending or attention-seeking or annoying. I worry that if I let out these suppressed parts of me, it’s all people will be able to see. My personality, my complex emotions and my varied interests will be reduced, made less than the sum of their parts. At Yunasa, I feel no such fear. I am so easily and fully myself, speaking up when I might have remained silent at home. The result of this is a wonderful kind of understanding between my fellow campers and I. It is culture of complete acceptance, and love, and I’ve never experienced anything else like it.

I wasn’t expecting any of this the first time I came to Yunasa. In fact, as my mother and I wove between the wide, graceful river and the tall pines that line the road to camp, I remember anticipating the exact opposite. There were a lot of qualities and ideas associated with the word “gifted” that I didn’t connect with at all, and so I worried that, even here, I wouldn’t fit in. I’d be stuck a thousand miles from everything I knew, unable to make friends, bored out of my mind without cell phone service and only a single book to read. After an excruciating, anxious hour, we arrived at Camp Shady Brook. I stared at the ground as we checked in and hauled my luggage up to the cabin. Before I could process any of it, my mom was hugging me goodbye as I begged through tears to go with her.

But once I wiped away those tears and entered the dance hall, where campers talked and played games while the last few arrivals trickled in, it took all of ten minutes for me to find a friend. My fears of a miserable week were gradually replaced with a thrilling excitement – I still had no idea what was coming, but based off the enthusiasm of the returning campers, it was something amazing. That first friend, Hannah, introduced me to her friends from the previous year, and we started talking, laughing, sharing stories and silly jokes. I realized I was opening myself up in a way I didn’t know was possible. As the blazing Colorado sun fell below the horizon to reveal the most beautiful view of the stars I’ve ever seen, I knew that I had stumbled upon something extraordinary.

After talking to many of the friends I’ve made at Yunasa, I realize that this is not a unique way to begin one’s first day. We’ve all struggled with feeling alienated and disconnected from our peers at one point or another, but on top of that most of us have also felt different from the stereotypical gifted kid, so we expect that same lonely disconnect to follow us to camp. Instead, we find a community that is incredibly diverse and welcoming, where everyone can feel valued and included. There is no singular gifted experience. At Yunasa, we connect over what we have in common – you’ll hear a lot of finger snaps and whispered agreements during group dialogues, when one person’s experience resonates with many – but it is understood that there is great variety in our experiences as well. People here are a lot like me, but not exactly like me. That would be boring. I think the relationships formed at Yunasa are so strong and deep in part because the experiences we do share allow us to receive the unique, unfamiliar qualities in each other with total acceptance and understanding.

And the relationships I’ve formed are so meaningful! It’s strange to reflect upon the bonds I’ve formed with other campers and think that I’ve only spent three weeks total in their presence. I mean it when I say that my friends from camp are some of my best friends in the world. They make me laugh so uncontrollably hard that my jaw and stomach end up sore. They encourage me to step out of my comfort zone, to push myself just a little further, and once I take that terrifying first step off the edge of the cliff I’m rappelling down or stand up to perform my original song in front of everyone, they cheer me on so enthusiastically. They listen to me and care about me, simply checking in on how I’m feeling that day but also supporting me with whatever bigger problems are on my mind. And I do the same for them. These friendships are so intense, so equal, so beautifully intimate. I think back to a moment from last summer when I sat on the cabin steps with my friend Vince, again under those glorious stars. We talked for hours. At Yunasa, everything I’ve bottled up in the past year seems to find a way out, and so I told him things I thought I’d never feel comfortable telling anyone. It was exactly what I needed. I felt relieved and released and loved and full of love for others all at once. I am lucky to have amazing friends back home, but none of them understand me or really hear me the way my Yunasa friends do.

Emotional growth and healing occurs at Yunasa, in Heart of the Matter sessions and workshops led by our incredible fellows and long, late-night conversations. But there’s also no shortage of lighthearted fun. That aforementioned side-splitting laughter follows me everywhere, shaking me out of my early-morning daze in the dining hall, bouncing off the surface of the lake as our canoe spirals the exact opposite direction I want it to, escaping from behind my hand as Carissa and I try to stifle our giggling and not wake the entire cabin. I get the chance to rappel down a rock face, zipline, do yoga; I write slam poems and learn basic martial arts. We play Egyptian Rat-Slap and we take it very, very seriously (probably the proudest moment of my entire life was the one time I beat my friend and defending champion Mya). During our unstructured afternoons, Gwen plays her ukulele and we harmonize along to a song we both love. These are my simplest, most favorite joys.

I always end up crying on the last night of camp. It’s so bittersweet. For one wonderful week I can exist exactly as I am and be understood. Though I miss my family and my California friends, going back to them is hard: I’m leaving one home for another.

Still, I am not returning to the exact same situation I left. Each Yunasa changes me. I leave with new ideas and techniques for dealing with the difficult parts of my life. I leave having made new friends and having deepened the friendships I made in the summers before. I leave more certain of who I am. I could reminisce for hours about every amazing thing that makes Yunasa what it is, from the mundane to the truly profound (and I have, over FaceTime, to my Yunasa friends). I feel like the the luckiest person in the universe to have spent even a single day there, tucked away in the mountains in a perfect world.

IEA is currently taking applications for it’s 2019 summer camps. Apply today!

5 Kids Yoga Poses for Self-Regulation at Home or Classroom

Move with Me shared a routine aimed at helping kids keep calm and reset their mind-body state. Gifted children can sometimes get overwhelmed by their emotions easier than others. This sequence can be useful for squashing those out-of-control feelings before they turn into a full blown meltdown.

Bedtime Yoga for Kids for a Good Night’s Sleep

This bedtime routine from Gaiam helps calm the mind and let go of the day’s stress before sleep, leading to a more restful night. Restful sleep is key for maximizing concentration during the day and helping bright minds focus.

Managing Big Emotions Through Movement

Childhood 101 not only shared instructions for a routine aimed at helping children stay calm, they also provided a handy free downloadable poster to hang on your child’s wall. They suggest hanging the poster in a “calm zone” where it will be easily visible when they feel overwhelmed.

A Kids Yoga Sequence That Teaches Gratitude

This routine from Mind Body Green intends to teach children how to be grateful for things in everyday life. It begins with each participant sharing something they are grateful for and then moves through a series of poses that encourage reflective thinking.

5-Minute-a-Day Yoga Routine for Kids

Also from Gaiam, this simple routine can be done daily to incorporate the practice of yoga into your gifted child’s life. It is easy to adapt to any skill level and fit into whatever chunk of time you can dedicate.

What are your favorite kid-friendly yoga poses?

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Linnea is a Certified Mindfulness Facilitator and a Mindfulness coach, teacher, and facilitator. She often teaches Mindfulness at the IEA Academy.

Those who spend time with, raise, teach, and care for young gifted people agree that these individuals are different from their peers in both wonderful and challenging ways. The stories are anecdotal but the research is clear: The gifted person’s experience of the world is quantitatively and qualitatively different from those we might describe as more “neuro-typical” in their development. If we take a moment to empathetically step into the shoes of a gifted child or teen, it is not difficult to understand the vulnerability of these young people as they grow and develop.

Mindfulness is a powerful tool that can be used to address a variety of the needs of gifted children on several different levels and in different areas of development. I’ll go into this in a bit more detail but, first, what is Mindfulness, and how can it help a gifted child as they grow, learn, and move out into the world?

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the practice of being in the present moment with openness, curiosity, and a willingness to be with “what is.” It is learning to gently and non-judgmentally guide your attention to the natural unfolding of your own human experience as it occurs – sensory, emotional, and mental – which grounds you in a more direct, and often joyful, experience of life. So, right away, we see that the practice of Mindfulness offers a level of self-acceptance and self-compassion that the world around a gifted child may not.

As parents and educators, we can do our best to find the right environments for gifted children to thrive but, oftentimes, we end up having to accept that there is no “perfect” place for them to grow and learn. The public education system in the U.S. is not designed to meet their needs – socially, emotionally, or intellectually. In addition, each gifted child is different, and the more gifted the child, the more difficult this search can become. So some of the tools in the gifted student’s tool kit must serve to help them become self-aware enough to accept their differences, advocate for themselves, be resilient in the face of adversity, reach out to others for help and companionship, and have compassion for and acceptance of themselves and others.  Mindfulness is one such tool that can help in all these areas.

Let’s look at some of the well-documented challenges that some gifted, particularly highly and profoundly gifted, youth can face and how Mindfulness addresses these.

1) Stress/Anxiety

Since gifted children are often asked to adapt to a world, culturally speaking, that they are out of sync with, stress levels can be higher for them from the get go, especially in unfamiliar situations. In addition, the gifted child often has very high expectations both for themselves and others that can lead to self-induced stress. Some gifted children also have an additional layer of what could be called “existential stress” whereby they become chronically worried about, for instance, global concerns like world hunger, war, or global warming.

In clinical studies, Mindfulness has been shown to actually reverse the brain patterns that are activated during biological stress. Mindfulness also helps the child become aware when unnecessary worry is taking place. Mindfulness gives gifted children and teens a “jump start” to begin recognizing when their thinking is driven by unsubstantiated fear and a vocabulary to describe the experience grounded in their physical body. In addition, the practice of Mindfulness itself has no “goal.” There is no one “right” way to do it and no measurement of success, thereby allowing the gifted child freedom from the potential inner tyranny of being “right” or “perfect” or “not disappointing anyone.”

2) Overexcitabilities/Intensity

Research has shown that we learn best in a relaxed and open state of being. Ironically, it can often be hard for gifted children to find a relaxed, open, receptive state. They tend to receive the world’s stimulus more intensely and have trouble filtering that stimulus. It is vital the gifted child have some way to return to a mind-body connection to ground his or her experience in the “here and now.” Mindfulness provides just such an anchor. As children begin to strengthen their attention and awareness in the moment, they have a visceral experience of “space” around their intense experiences. They can slowly begin to trust in their ability to “choose” their response when confronting overstimulation, rather than simply reacting to it. Mindfulness empowers them to come “home” to themselves.

3) Asynchronous Development in Executive Functioning

Many gifted children struggle with executive functioning tasks such as organization, study skills, and switching attention. According to a 2006 article published by the NIH, this appears to be attributed to a slower development of the cortex of the brain in certain areas of high IQ kids. The cortical layer starts out thinner and develops more slowly, while other areas of the gifted brain appear to be operating far more efficiently and effectively than their same age peers. And, don’t you know, Mindfulness has been shown to actually thicken the brain’s cortex! It also helps train one’s awareness of their attention, eventually giving a child or teen an increased ability to place their attention where they choose as opposed to operating on autopilot. This may be, in part, why researchers believe Mindfulness helps with ADD and other issues related to attention regulation.

4) Social Development

It is natural for everyone to have some feelings of anxiety in social situations, particularly new ones. However, if a gifted child or teen repeatedly has the experience of being misunderstood, negated or even ostracized, his or her social anxiety may increase over time. We all have the need for connection, love, and acceptance. It is wired into our human DNA. So how can Mindfulness help? First, it helps individuals become more emotionally resilient. As they begin to neutrally observe their own feelings, thoughts, and sensations, they learn about themselves. This learning gives them more perspective about situations they encounter. For instance, they may begin to recognize the internal warning signs that tell them a social situation is not right for them and ask for help to change it. If they feel rejected, they may be able to see that that person was not able to act with compassion instead of feeling they themselves are “unlikeable.” It may give a gifted teen the self-awareness to honor his or her authentic self instead of using a great deal of energy to “be funny” or “be popular” or “be pretty.”

Mindfulness does not take away our pain, emotional or physical, but it teaches us how to navigate it and to notice when we are adding to our struggles with stories like, “I am weird,” “No one likes me,” or “I guess this is because I’m gifted. I wish I were normal.” We create these stories, quite naturally, to understand our world and feel some sense of identity in it. But sometimes they no longer serve us, and Mindfulness can help us see this and open a compassionate space where once there was none. And, interestingly, in my personal experience of working with gifted children, it is that open, compassionate space where gifted children find self-love and the ability to share their authentic selves openly and joyfully with others.

Next Steps

So where can your child learn the practice? If you can find a Mindfulness class for your gifted child or teen, that will provide the best initial experience and a place to practice with others. Since the practice stresses non-judgment and compassion, a seasoned teacher should be able make sure that your child feels safe and welcome even if it is not a class for the gifted per se. Most of these classes do follow a structure, however, with some level of behavioral expectation. So if you child is not ready for this, there are also coaches like myself who will work to tailor at-home classes for your child and/or your family. For very young children, a kid’s yoga class is a great place to start. Yoga offers them an introduction to the mind-body awareness skill set they will use in their Mindfulness practice later on. Finally, a wonderful gift to offer any child is to learn the practice together. As a parent or teacher, I encourage you to take a class yourself, for adults or educators, and then re-teach from your own experience once you have a regular practice yourself. Because the practice is very individual in nature, it is this authentic teaching from one’s own experience that truly brings the practice to life.

Linnea is a regular Mindfulness teacher for IEA’s Academy, leads various Mindfulness classes in the LA area and consults and teaches privately.  She can be reached through her company website, www.amindfullifela.com,  and followed on Twitter at @LinneaPyne.

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Summer is a busy time at IEA – all of our programs are in full swing, and many of our community members use the time off school to work on projects and participate in competitions. Take a look at what took place within the IEA community in June!

33 campers gathered in Colorado for Yunasa West, a week of balance, community, and fun. Campers participated in yoga, guided meditation, small group sessions with IEA Fellows, and traditional camp activities such as kayaking, swimming, ropes courses, horseback riding, and campfires.

22 students took classes like Chemistry Lab, Exploring French Culture, and Geology and the World around Us in Summer Academy Session I.

2011 CDB Scholar Anirudh was one of the at-large winners for the Biotechnology Institute’s BioGENEius Challenge for his research into a genetic technique for autoimmune diseases; he also participated in the national competition in Philadelphia. Great work, Anirudh!

Academy students who enrolled in Astronomy took a fun field trip to the Griffith Observatory.

Three Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship Selection Committees met to determine 2015 CDB Finalists. Then IEA staff members set out to begin interviewing Finalists, a process which will span two months and include travel to 14 cities across the country!

Yunasa camper and Academy student Xander starred as Lord Farquaad in his school’s production of Shrek.

2011 CDB Scholar Shiloh was a national winner in the DARPA Robots4Us Student Video Contest. Congratulations, Shiloh!

Several Academy classes ended the session with field trips to the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Caroline D. Bradley Scholars across the country graduated from middle school, high school, and college!

Have news to share? Please send the community member’s name and affiliation with IEA along with a photo or video to IEAgifted@educationaladvancement.org. We’d love to showcase your milestones, accomplishments, and interests with the rest of the IEA community!

Jennifer is IEA’s Marketing and Communications Coordinator. She has been working to spread the word about IEA and the needs of gifted children for the past three years and, in the process, has learned a great deal about herself and the gifted children in her life.

As many of you did, I spent Thanksgiving week thinking a great deal about gratitude. There are a multitude of things for which I am truly grateful – my family, friends, my wonderful job, and the comfort in which I am able to live – but they seem to fall into the category of Thanksgiving clichés. This, of course, does not render my objects of gratitude unimportant, but after decades of pondering thankfulness, my story hasn’t changed much. This year, though, I began thinking about gratitude a little differently.

The day before Thanksgiving, I took a yoga class. When the session had ended, the teacher encouraged us to think about things we were grateful for within ourselves. My mind quickly began to reel. I am grateful for my determination and hard work, I thought. I am grateful for the love I show my family and friends. I am grateful for my mind. I am grateful for my commitment to causes I believe in.

This exercise helped me to think about gratitude more deeply. Not only am I grateful for my niece and nephew who bring endless joy and love into my life, but I am grateful for the way my niece clings to me when she is tired or scared or sick – she feels safe with me. I am grateful for the smile on my nephew’s face when I walk into his house, and I even cherish the tears that pool in his eyes when I must leave, because I know he loves me and does not want to watch me go.

And not only am I grateful for my amazing job at IEA, but I am grateful for all of the enlightening things I’ve learned and experienced since starting here:

• I am grateful to know that I am not weird; I don’t have a problem; I’m not alone.
• I am grateful to know that bursting into tears for “no reason” is not a sign of an emotional unbalance that needs to be “cured.”
• I am grateful to be intense; it is this intensity that makes up much of who I am.
• I am grateful for my mind, but I am also grateful to know that I am more than my mind.
• I am grateful to have found my tribe.
• I am grateful to be able to touch the lives of kids who are like I was as a child.
• I am grateful to be able to constantly learn more about myself as I learn about the kids we serve.
• I am grateful for the opportunity to learn more about how I can help my gifted nephew, who at first just seemed way too smart for his own good, and my niece, whose sensory processing issues made the world a very scary and overwhelming place for her for awhile.
• I am grateful to work for an organization that embraces my quirks and knows that many of these things are what make me good at what I do.
• I am grateful to work for an organization where my passions are encouraged and supported.
• I am grateful to be challenged each and every day.
• I am grateful for the daily variety and surprises that come with working at IEA.
• I am grateful for the amazing, talented, compassionate, supportive, and considerate colleagues with whom I work every day; we truly have an amazing team at IEA.
• I am grateful to have been encouraged to find balance in my life.
• I am grateful for the increased reach and impact of my work at IEA, and I am grateful that more families are able to find what I have found here.
• I am grateful for all of the parents who come to us because they know their children are different and require something more.
• I am grateful to be able to speak up on behalf of kids who are often misunderstood and don’t get the right attention.
• I am grateful to meet others who care about this population of neglected children as much as I do.
• I am grateful for the opportunity to have an impact on the world.
• I am grateful to be gifted.

At the Annual Bradley Seminar this year, IEA President Elizabeth Jones encouraged us to keep gratitude journals. I thought it was a great idea and began one, but I found I was always saying the same things. This Thanksgiving, I made a resolution to think deeply about gratitude over the coming year. Consider this the first entry in my new gratitude journal, and let this one reflect the empowerment that accompanies gratitude for elements of one’s self and life that are often overlooked. In addition to being grateful for my mom’s love and my niece’s smile, I will let myself be grateful for the things that make me who I am and for the circumstances I have worked hard to create for myself. I will also make gratitude a priority year-round, not just a Thanksgiving Day activity. I would encourage you to do the same.

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Jessica Houben is a Program Coordinator with IEA. She will be working most closely with the Yunasa camps this program season.

1. What are you most passionate about in working with the gifted community?

I am most passionate about working with gifted youth in a non-traditional educational setting because I get to see kids grow on a personal level as well as intellectually. Getting to know each individual student throughout the application process and then seeing them in person going through an IEA program is really rewarding because these kids are multi-faceted and complex in the most amazing ways. In a school setting, you don’t always get to see these kids for who they are, but at IEA, we get to see them blossom as individuals. It is such a pleasure to hear happy parents when they realize that they’ve finally found programs that will challenge their child.

2. What is the most interesting thing you have learned about gifted kids since you started at IEA?

I guess I always thought about gifted kids being really intelligent, which they are. However, one interesting thing I have learned is that they can also be very emotionally intense. They do not take injustices lightly, they are passionate about the world’s problems, and they can be overly worried about friends or loved ones. These kids care a lot about their environment, and if given the proper tools, can really make a difference as leaders of the next generation.

3. What are you looking forward to about coordinating Yunasa this year?

I have coordinated Academy classes as well as our Apprenticeship Program for the past two program seasons and had the opportunity to attend and be in a supportive role at Yunasa in 2011. I love that Academy and Apprenticeship are academic programs that provide challenging intellectual content to gifted learners that they may not otherwise have access to, but I’m really excited to facilitate personal and intellectual growth within a camp environment. I really enjoy camping, the outdoors, and carrying on traditions. I’m hopeful that I can continue the Yunasa tradition and that even more students are able to benefit from the camp.

4. What’s your favorite activity from an IEA program?

It is really hard to choose because there are so many things that I love that we do in each program! I like that we do Olympics at Apprenticeship, because the Apprentices support and encourage their team members and compete in a positive way. I also enjoy Psychosynthesis at Yunasa because it allows campers the opportunity to focus and relax. However, I think my favorite activity from an IEA program is launching rockets with our Academy students. During spring, I assisted in the Rocket to Calculus class and had the chance to build and launch a rocket with students, which was so much fun because I got to see the students’ faces light up as the math and science they learned came to life!

5. What is your educational philosophy?

I believe that education should be meaningful, holistic, and child-centered. In today’s society, a lot of emphasis is placed on test scores and results rather than focusing on the process of learning. Children need to learn by exploring their world, solving problems that are relevant to them, and having positive experiences in content areas that are interesting. Of course, everyone needs to learn the basics, but that is just one part of education. The other part is finding out what each child enjoys and wants to learn more about and then providing the opportunities to learn about that topic in a way that keeps them interested in becoming lifelong learners.

6. What’s your favorite snack food?

My favorite snack food is chocolate. Whenever I’m feeling tired, or stressed, or I just need something a little sweet, chocolate is the answer. It can be in any form; I don’t discriminate.

7. What’s one activity you enjoy doing in your free time?

I really enjoy doing yoga in my free time. I have practiced yoga on and off for about 9 years, taking different classes in college, at yoga studios, at the gym, or with a video in my living room. It’s an activity that uses my mind and body, and every time I do it I feel like I’m doing a good thing for myself.

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There are many strategies to help your children manage their intensities. Most importantly, it is crucial to help your children achieve balance. Balance does not mean equal time spent. Gifted children do not need to spend equal time on each school subject or on sports and art, but they do need to be able to achieve balance among these activities. Balance can be achieved through exposure to and participation in a wide variety of school subjects, physical activities, and creative endeavors. Whatever helps them achieve balance among their complex intellectual, social, emotional, spiritual, and physical needs is beneficial.

Here are a few ways to help your child achieve balance and manage intensities:

1. Encourage a mind-body connection. Yoga is excellent for this.
2. Implement quiet reflection time for the whole family. Whatever name you need to give it for it to have a positive connotation, a “time-out” is a good thing for everyone in the family to be able to have.
3. Encourage non-competitive physical activity.
4. Always remember your child’s answer to the question: “What brings you joy?” Let that guide how you handle situations.
5. Help your child practice visualizations. Spinning Inward by Maureen Murdock provides good visualization exercises, especially for young children.
6. Teach and model meditation and relaxation techniques.
7. Encourage a connection to nature.
8. Seek opportunities for growth for your child in all areas of Self: intellectual, social, emotional, spiritual, and physical.
9. Encourage your child to develop a range of interests outside of the academic sphere.
10. Praise your child, but make sure it is specific and sincere. Gifted children can tell meaningless platitudes from sincere compliments, so make the praise as specific as possible. For example, when praising artwork, say things like, “I like the colors you used in that painting.”
11. Talk about emotions with your child early to develop a common vocabulary. This will help communication when intensities become a problem.
12. Help your child understand his or her own escalation scale. Know what pushes their buttons and what pushes yours. Gifted children often know very well how to frustrate you. Knowing what pushes your buttons will help you see it coming and be ready for it. Practicing and modeling such self-awareness helps your children, as well.
13. Keep calm during emotional outbursts. I know this is easier said than done, but it is very important.
14. When things get out of control, keep it about your child’s emotions, not yours. When the situation is over, you can walk away and reflect on your emotions.
15. Plan ways for your family to relax, reflect, redirect, and retire.

Every child is different, so some of these strategies may work better than others for your child. These are just a starting place as you begin to understand what helps and what doesn’t.

Implementing some of these strategies to achieve balance and increase communication will help your child manage his or her intensities.

What strategies have best helped your children manage their intensities? Please share with us in the comment section below!

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