What’s Up With All the Dys’? And What You Can Do About It, by Dr. Dan Peters
There are many types of learning disorders that can affect our children. The good news is that learning differences and disabilities are getting more press and attention. However, it can get confusing when trying to understand what they mean and how they are similar and different from each other. Children may have one or more learning disorders, regardless of their strong thinking and problem-solving abilities. When your child is not “working to their potential” it may be because they have a legitimate learning issue. Here are a few of the most common learning issues or “Dys”orders...
Read MoreThe Twice-Exceptional Adult, by Dr. Dan Peters
This piece originally appeared on Psychology Today. Many gifted adults may find that they are still suffering from experiences and challenges that affected them as children. Others find they are experiencing new challenges related to finding their passion, identity, parenting, relationships, career, and more. Summit Center provides a broad range of services for gifted adults, including consultation, testing, counseling, and more. Although the word “gifted” has been used to describe people of higher levels of intelligence for decades, the term twice-exceptional, often abbreviated as 2e,...
Read MoreDifferentiated Educational Plans – Building on Student Strengths, One Child at a Time, by Dr. Susan Daniels
Do you hear from your child how bored they are in school? Do you feel your child is not being challenged appropriately? When a regular classroom curriculum is not meeting a gifted child’s intellectual and academic needs, that child may need a Differentiated Education Plan (DEP). The DEP may be initiated by a caring teacher, or requested by a parent, gifted program coordinator, or qualified educational consultant. Our professionals identify the child’s learning needs and appropriate differentiation for an individual gifted child by establishing an understanding of a student’s...
Read MoreEyes, Ears, and Learning – by Nancy Knop, Ph.D., ET/P
If you can’t see, or if you can’t hear, you will have trouble learning. As obvious as that seems, the fact is that problems with seeing and hearing are NOT obvious. Many children have seeing and hearing difficulty and we don’t know it. We aren’t born with mature seeing and hearing. Our brains develop for these – except when they don’t. Children are commonly farsighted, and the ability to focus and track across a line of text and jump efficiently to the beginning of the next line is a skill that has to be developed. But what if focus and tracking don’t develop in...
Read MoreA Strength-Based Approach Helps Children, by Dr. Dan Peters
Learn to ask “What’s Right” instead of “What’s Wrong” When it comes to helping our children learn and develop academically, socially, and emotionally, we want them to feel confident about who they are. At Summit Center, we use a strengths-based approach for assessments, counseling, and treatment versus a more traditional pathologizing model. If we look at the medical model of disease as a metaphor we can see that it is grounded in finding pathology, and getting rid of that pathogen to regain physical or mental health. This model is also used when learning problems...
Read MoreMy Child Won’t Go to School: School Avoidance and What to Do, by Dr. Dan Peters
This piece originally appeared on Huffington Post. “I am not sure what has changed. Things were fine last year and now he wakes up with a stomachache and says he doesn’t want to go to school. It takes me forever to get him out the door. We are often late. He ends up screaming at me and telling me I am the worst parent ever! I end up yelling at him and almost have to pull him out of the car. He leaves upset and I feel upset, worried, and angry. Why is this happening!?” If it sounds like I was in your car this morning, that is because this situation is very common with...
Read MoreA Parent’s Point of View: The 2e Journey, by Dr. Dan Peters
Even though I work with children and families as a professional psychologist, I am first and foremost a father to three children. My experiences in raising them has informed my work greatly. Some people may not know that and for this very reason, I decided to share an article about my own experience as not only a psychologist, but also a dad. This piece originally ran in the 2e Newsletter. I am sitting at my oldest child’s pre-school, attending the last teacher conference. Her kind and veteran teacher is telling my wife and me that our daughter is not picking up her numbers and letters...
Read MoreReflections, Insights, Confessions, and Inspiration on Dyslexia and Talent
This article first appeared on the Dyslexic Advantage website, a charitable organization founded by Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide, and dedicated to helping those with dyslexia thrive. By Dan Peters, PhD Sitting at the New York/Newark airport, I feel compelled to write. Something my mother and most of my teachers would have never thought I would feel “compelled” to do. Part of the reason is that I don’t need to “write” anymore – I can type or talk my words. But the main reason I feel compelled is to get my thoughts down, sort through them, and share them with...
Read MoreTwice-Exceptional (2e) Youth: An Endangered Species
This article originally appeared in the January 2013 issue of A Word from Gifted Homeschoolers Forum. By Dan Peters, Ph.D. Twice-exceptional individuals are both gifted (show advanced abilities) and also have significant learning or processing delays, as well as emotional and behavioral challenges. While our world has benefited greatly from the minds of 2e individuals such as Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Helen Keller, Steve Jobs, and others, our educational system does not seem to understand the complexities and needs of these kids. Many 2e kids face daily struggles in public and private...
Read MoreA Message from Dr. Dan Peters: Why Is My Child So Complex?
Why is my child so complex? This is a question I am often asked by parents of gifted children during a consultation appointment. The initial answer is simple – gifted children often have several different ability levels occurring at the same time. They may be chronologically 10 years old, have the reading abilities of 14 year old, the math abilities of a 12 year old, the social skills of an 8 year old, the handwriting of a 7 year old, and the emotional regulation and control of a 6 year old. Sound familiar? This variability of developmental levels, known as “developmental...
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