February Parent Forum

February 23

7-9 p.m.

North Star High School

Eye to Eye: Connecting with Gifted Visual-Spatial Learners

Gifted visual-spatial learners present a confusing scenario to parents and educators. While adept at puzzles, mazes, three-dimensional representations, finding their way in unfamiliar territory, and creative problem solving, they may struggle in an academic environment. They appear to wrestle with easy concepts but thrive on complexity. This presentation discusses the characteristics of gifted students with spatial strengths and provides suggestions for effective instructional techniques.

Speaker:

Becky Mann is currently a doctoral student at the University of Connecticut completing a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with emphases on Gifted and Talented and Special Education. She has worked as a gifted and talented coordinator/resource teacher and an elementary classroom teacher in Colorado and New Hampshire. She was named the New Hampshire Educator of the Gifted for 2001. Her interest in gifted children with spatial strengths and sequential weaknesses was sparked by raising a son who fit the profile. Becky's articles, "Eye to Eye: Connecting with Gifted Visual-Spatial Learners" was published in the Fall 2001 issue of Gifted Child Today and ≥Gifted students with spatial strengths and sequential weaknesses: Overlooked and under-identified≤ will be published in the winter 2005 issue of Roeper Review.